From politics to high profile deaths, sports personalities, blockbuster movies and TV series, Nollywood actors to musicians and songs that became very popular in the first half of the year, Nigerians turned to Google to find out more.
Peter obi, Vladmir Putin, and Bianca Ojukwu took the top three spots for ‘trending people’ in Nigeria in the first half of the year, according to data collated by Google.
Peter Obi is a Nigerian businessman and politician who served as the Governor of Anambra State three separate times from 2006 to 2014. He is currently the Labour Party presidential candidate for the coming election in 2023.
Putin, Russia’s President also caught the attention of Nigerians as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine became topical across the globe. Bianca Ojukwu, the widow of late Biafran warlord, Chukuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu also led search interest by Nigerians following here public brush with Ebelechukwu, the wife of immediate past Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano.
A famous slap comes in at number five on the list of top trending people, after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars in March.
Read also: Fashola: Why Nigerians will vote APC in 2023
AFCON (African Cup of Nations) 2022 topped the list of most searched moments between January and June. Senegal beat Egypt in the final match of the football competition to emerge as the winner.
The ongoing strike by ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) that has seen the majority of Nigerian students in public tertiary institutions stay out of classes for five months is also a top moment that captured the interest of Nigerians online.
Top of the list of notable deaths is Osinachi Nwachukwu, popular Nigerian Gospel singer. She was allegedly killed by her husband in a case of domestic violence. The death of Chinedu Nwadike, another gospel singer, was the second most searched death for Nigerians.
In the entertainment industry, the song, Buga, by Kizz Daniel and Tekno is the number one trending song in the period under review. Blood sisters, a Nigerian series on Netflix starring Nancy Isime and Ini Dima-Okojie topped the list of top trending movies and TV Series by Nigerians from January to June 2022.
Olu Jacobs, the veteran Nollywood actor who recently celebrated his 80th birthday leads the list of top trending actors in Nigeria while Raheem Sterling’s journey from Manchester City to Chelsea FC led him to be the number one trending sports personality in Nigeria.
Other trending moments include Winter paralympics, Chrisland school girl, APC Presidential primaries, Russia-Ukraine conflict, Kuje prison attack, PDP Presidential primaries 2022, Owo church attack, and Blasphemy Sokoto.
Mavins, Crayon, Ayra Starr, LADIPO, Magixx and Boy Spyce– Overdose, Girlfriend by Ruger, Calm down by Rema, Finesse featuring Buju’s Pheelz, Ruger’s Dior, Zazu Zeh by Portable featuring Olamide and Poco Lee, Kizz Daniel’s pour me water, Baddest boy by Skiibii, and Asake’s Peace be unto you, also made up top trending songs searched by Nigeria in the period under review.
Apart from Olu Jacobs, other trending actors include Kemi Afolabi, Yul Edochie, Judy Austin, Joke Silva, and Ini Dima-Okojie.
Sophos, a cybersecurity company, has launched Sophos X-Ops, a new cross-operational unit linking SophosLabs, Sophos SecOps and Sophos artificial intelligence (AI), three established teams of cybersecurity experts at Sophos, to help organizations better defend against constantly changing and increasingly complex cyberattacks.
Sophos X-Ops leverages the predictive, real-time, real-world, and researched threat intelligence from each group, which, in turn, collaborate to deliver stronger, innovative protection, detection and response capabilities.
“Modern cybersecurity is becoming a highly interactive team sport, and as the industry has matured, necessary analysis, engineering and investigative specializations have emerged.
“Scalable end-to-end operations now need to include software developers, automation engineers, malware analysts, reverse engineers, cloud infrastructure engineers, incident responders, data engineers and scientists, and numerous other experts, and they need an organizational structure that avoids silos,” Joe Levy, chief technology and product officer, Sophos, said.
Sophos has also issued “OODA: Sophos X-Ops Takes on Burgeoning SQL Server Attacks,” research about increased attacks against unpatched Microsoft SQL servers and how attackers used a fake downloading site and grey-market remote access tools to distribute multiple ransomware families.
Sophos X-Ops identified and thwarted the attacks because the Sophos X-Ops teams combined their respective knowledge of the incidents, jointly analyzed them, and took action to quickly contain and neutralize the adversaries.
“We’ve unified three globally recognized and mature teams within Sophos to provide this breadth of critical, subject matter and process expertise. Joined together as Sophos X-Ops, they can leverage the strengths of each other, including analysis of worldwide telemetry from more than 500,000 customers, industry-leading threat hunting, response and remediation capabilities, and rigorous artificial intelligence to measurably improve threat detection and response,” Levy said.
Speaking in March 2022 to the Detroit Economic Club about the FBI partnering with the private sector to counter the cyber threat, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “What partnership lets us do is hit our adversaries at every point, from the victims’ networks back all the way to the hackers’ own computers, because when it comes to the FBI’s cyber strategy, we know trying to stand in the goal and block shots isn’t going to get the job done.
“We’re disrupting three things: the threat actors, their infrastructure and their money. And we have the most durable impact when we work with all of our partners to disrupt all three together.”
Read also: Why fintechs are shutting down virtual dollar cards in Nigeria
Sophos X-Ops is taking a similar approach, gathering and operating on threat intelligence from its own multidisciplinary groups to help stop attackers earlier, preventing or minimizing the harms of ransomware, espionage or other cybercrimes that can befall organizations of all types and sizes, and working with law enforcement to neutralize attacker infrastructure.
While Sophos’ internal teams already share information as a matter of course, the formal creation of Sophos X-Ops drives forward a faster, more streamlined process necessary to counter equally fast-moving adversaries.
“Effective cybersecurity requires robust collaboration at all levels, both internally and externally; it is the only way to discover, analyze and counter malicious cyber actors at speed at scale. Combining these separate teams into Sophos X-Ops shows that Sophos understands this principle and is acting on it,” Michael Daniel, president and CEO, Cyber Threat Alliance, said.
Sophos X-Ops also provides a cross-operational foundation for innovation, an essential component of cybersecurity due to the aggressive advancements in organized cybercrime.
By intertwining the expertise of each group, Sophos is pioneering the concept of AI, assisted Security Operations Center (SOC), which anticipates the intentions of security analysts and provides relevant defensive actions.
“Attackers are often too organized and too advanced to combat without the unique combined expertise and operational efficiency of a joint task force like Sophos X-Ops,” Levy said.
In the SOC of the future, Sophos believes this approach will dramatically accelerate security workflows and the ability to more quickly detect and respond to novel and priority indicators of compromise.
“The adversary community has figured out how to work together to commoditize certain parts of attacks while simultaneously creating new ways to evade detection and taking advantage of weaknesses in any software to mass exploit it. The Sophos X-Ops umbrella is a noted example of stealing a page from the cyber miscreants’ tactics by allowing cross-collaboration amongst different internal threat intelligence groups,” Craig Robinson, IDC research vice president, Security Services, said.
According to Robinson, combining the ability to cut across a wide breadth of threat intelligence expertise with AI assisted features in the SOC allows organizations to better predict and prepare for imminent and future attacks.
Over time many individuals, businesses, and organisations have relied on Barter by Flutterwave for their virtual dollar card services in Nigeria, with shut down of the virtual card they have are left with no choice but to seek for alternatives.
Several Nigerian users who depend on these platforms to pay for services on global sites like Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and Facebook, are facing a challenging time, especially with the $20 daily limit on international transactions by Nigerian banks.
Here are five alternative fintech companies that still operate virtual card service in Nigeria.
ALAT Virtual Dollar Card
ALAT by Wema Bank, was launched in May, 2017, it is known as Nigeria’s first fully digital bank, where customers can do their banking transactions without ever entering any physical branch. ALAT was designed to cater for the needs of today’s digital customers who are in dire need of a bank.
Known for its complete banking package, ALAT provides the best offering for a virtual dollar card in Nigeria, the platform is diversified for carrying out instant short loans, a virtual dollar converter card, bills and payment scheduling services, and a lifestyle shop where customers can buy entertainment such as movies and event tickets through its app.
Once your account is set up and funded, it allows you to fund your card straight from your naira balance for up to $20,000 and change the dollars back into naira, However, you can’t use it on money transfer websites, and it is not compatible with 3D Secure.
Changera virtual dollar card
Changera is owned by Bitmama, a highly-secured and fast-growing crypto platform. The platform can send and receive money internationally, buy airtime or data,and pay utility bills from anywhere in the world.
This platform is being funded through crypto wallet or bank transfers, depending on the customers choice, also changera virtual dollar card service providers permits you to create multiple virtual cards for different transactions; while it supports limitless transactions.
Customers will be able to spend between $20 to $50 in a month for international transactions depending on their bank spending limit on naira debit cards, and can spend over $10,000 with its virtual card for international transactions without any exchange limit.
Read also: Why fintechs are shutting down virtual dollar cards in Nigeria
Cashbuddy virtual dollar card
Founded by Mike Rosanje, CashBuddy virtual dollar cards in Nigeria works on global platforms like Skrill, Amazon, Apple Music, Stripe, Binance, Facebook, Instagram, PayPal, Netteller, etc. With the CashBuddy virtual card, you can receive payment for services rendered or pay for online services you purchase from any African country.
However, you must have at least $3 in your CashBuddy account to create a CashBuddy virtual dollar card, thereafter, you can use the card without any visible or hidden charges, the platform can only load a maximum amount of $10,000 on your virtual card per month.
Fundall virtual dollar card
Fundall is a Nigerian digital bank providing a wide array of financial services to private and business customers. Issued by mastercard the fundall Virtual US Dollar Card is a prepaid dollar-denominated card that allows you to make payments and shop online anywhere in the world without restrictions and without the need to input your ATM card numbers.
The platform offers the first virtual dollar card free, with a minimum of $5 and no single transaction limit.
Chipper cash visa virtual card
Chipper Cash recently launched its virtual USD visa card, and works the same way as your local bank card works online. This card allows you to pay for your online shopping and subscriptions on international platforms, it can be used to book flights, subscribe to Netflix, Amazon, Shopify, Apple Music, Alibaba, Fashion Nova, Shein from your chipper cash wallet.
However, the dollar card comes with a limited offer that makes you earn 5 percent cashback on all qualifying purchases. Also, you don’t get to pay for charges when you use the card for international transactions and it is supported on all websites that support Visa.
In addition, you can’t withdraw more than $1k daily; nor deposit more than $1000 into your virtual card daily.
With increasing smartphone penetration and a focused regulatory drive to accelerate financial inclusion and cashless payments in Africa’s most populous, Opay – the fastest African startup to cross a $1 billion valuation mark, has continued to create the perfect recipe for a thriving fintech sector in the country.
Africa’s largest economy with a population of over 200 million with 35 percent of the population is financially excluded. This offers significant opportunities for fintech across the consumer spectrum, notably within the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Other affluent segments and, increasingly, the mass-market segment are not also left out.
To proffer solutions to digitally savvy, middle-aged and young affluent individuals who face poor user experience on products and find the value-add from using financial products underwhelming, OPay launched its OPay app three years ago and has recorded a huge success with over 17 million customers in Nigeria.
The OPay App competes in the mass and urban youth market where key competitors are banks and new digital MFBs.
What’s more, in less than three years, OPay has gone from a popular startup with commercial motorcycles in Lagos, Nigeria, to a financial services company worth $2 billion.
In the second half of 2021, OPay’s valuation came after it raised $400 million from a round led by SoftBank, the Japanese investment firm, with Sequoia Capital China, and five other large firms. No startup situated in Africa has raised as much in one round except Flutterwave which achieved a value of $1 billion in the first quarter of 2021, after raising $170 million.
Read also: Nigerian fintechs grapple with KYC amid rapid growth
The Nigerian government’s latest policy has significantly impacted many fintech companies such as Kuda MFB and Carbon. Following the new policy directive which states that a charge of N50 will be applied to all deposits of N10, 000 and above Opay’s campaign is focused on communicating the massive benefits of the platform and as the platform of choice for consumers given the current realities with policies that might impact competitors. To drive the in
To drive the initiative, OPay intends to promote the campaign with the following products, including OPay Wallet, a secure wallet that allows users to carry out transactions, make bill payments, and save and invest from their comfort zones; OWealth, a savings product that gives customers at least 15percent annual interest rate per annum on savings.
The product allows customer withdrawals at any time without any penalty fee or withdrawal charges. As part of the benefit, OWealth promises a 15 percent per annum interest rate on savings with an additional 2 percent as an OPay debit card holder. It is imperative to note that all OPay products are powered by Blueridge microfinance bank.
In addition, customers get 30 free transfers monthly and OPay customers can deposit funds above 10,000 for free. Customers can also use the OPay without a data subscription, earn cash back on all transactions, an additional 2 percent interest and a cashback reward on card activation.
According to the brand owners, a mechanism has been put in place to amplify the security of funds with OPay, licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and insured by the NDIC as well as quick customer complaints resolution.
Harnessing new cutting-edge technologies to provide services, OPay’s reliable, safe, and secure app is built to give users value for money, especially the youth. It is also friendly, fun, and easy to use by digitally savvy consumers and upwardly mobile professionals who are driven by the latest trends and other lifestyle elements. It is designed to be accessible, aspirational, inclusive, positive, and ambitious.
As the financial services industry continues to experience the emergence of new technology innovations and process disruptions, OPay will continue to create new pathways for successful business models and enhanced customer experience.
The OPay App is designed to achieve digital services transformation in the fintech space and improve efficiency. Known as a customer-centric brand, OPay App offers a new fintech innovation that enables changes and transformations in the financial technology services landscape.
It is a technological innovation that helps users to leverage the execution and customer value associated with payments, lending and deposit services, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, social media use, and other services influenced by fintech innovations.
Amazon Web Services is making what can be described as the first announcement of its presence in Nigeria with the launch of ‘AWS Outposts’, an infrastructure service that enables users to locally host, run, manage their workload and connect with Amazon’s cloud service offerings.
Amazon in a statement shared with BusinessDay described the infrastructure as fully-managed and configurable computing and storage racks built with AWS-designed hardware. These it says, allows its customers to run AWS services on-premises, including computing, storage, and databases, while seamlessly connecting to AWS’s broad array of services in the cloud.
“Customers in Nigeria who have workloads that require low latency, data processing, or data storage on premises can benefit from AWS Outposts,” said Amrote Abdella, general manager, AWS Sub-Saharan Africa. “We are excited to bring AWS Outposts rack to Nigeria as we continue to deliver advanced cloud services to meet AWS customers’ business needs.”
Abdella also said these workloads include applications that might need to generate near real-time responses, communicate with other on-premises systems, or control on-site equipment, such as factory floor equipment, health management systems, and retail point-of-sale systems. Customers can also use AWS Outposts rack to securely store and use customer data in Nigeria, which is important for organizations in highly regulated industries and data sovereignty requirements.
AWS Outposts rack according to the statement, brings AWS infrastructure and operating models to datacenters, co-location spaces, and on-premises facilities. With AWS Outposts rack, customers can use the same APIs, control panel, tools, and hardware on premises as in the AWS Regions to deliver a consistent experience.
Read also: Amazon puts Jumia, Konga on notice as it sets April 2023 launch in Nigeria
It identifies Paystack, a Nigerian fintech as one of the indigenous businesses already using AWS services to build what it describes as powerful B2B payments and growth tools for thousands of Africa’s most ambitious businesses. “AWS’ reliability has enabled us to seamlessly scale our operations, and exponentially grow transaction volumes. We are excited by the launch of AWS Outposts rack in Nigeria which brings cloud-scale innovations and services to Nigeria’s tech ecosystem,” said Ezra Olubi, Paystack co-founder and CTO.
54Gene, a health technology company is also identified as another local firm using the service, and has built its Genomics Infrastructure & Insights Ecosystem (GENIISYSTM) platform on AWS, enabling them to collect and analyze diverse datasets to unlock scientific discoveries. “Using AWS, we have been able to deploy new digital services faster than it would have taken us previously. Continuous innovation is part of 54Gene’s DNA. The launch of AWS Outposts rack in Nigeria allows us to extend and run AWS services on premises. We are thrilled with this, said Francis Osifo, vice president of 54Gene.”
AWS Outposts rack enables customers to build and run applications on premises using the same programming interfaces as in AWS Regions. With AWS Outposts, customers can choose from a range of general, compute, memory, storage, and graphics-optimized Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances, both with and without local storage options.
Other possibilities are Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volume options, and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) on Outposts. Customers can then run a broad range of AWS services locally, including Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), and Amazon EMR, and they can connect directly to regional services like Amazon CloudWatch and Amazon DynamoDB through public or private connections.
While Amazon is known more for its eCommerce offering, the company says for over 15 years, its AWS service has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud offering. AWS says it has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any cloud workload, and now has more than 200 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management.
Operating in different regions across the world, AWS is used by businesses and governments alike to as it says “power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs”.
Nigerian tech companies are grappling with the aftermath of a Kenyan court account freeze order and a decision by a Texas court to jail the founders of Ping Express over money laundering.
The charges on the four tech companies are the most money laundering allegations the tech ecosystem in Nigeria has seen in a month and could have ramifications for the image of startups in the country looking for investors abroad.
Experts say that henceforth many startups will be compelled to focus on strengthening lax Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) practices.
KYC refers to due diligence that banks and other financial institutions must perform on their customers before doing business with them to prevent corruption, identity theft, financial fraud, money laundering and terrorism financing, according to Fraud.net.
“AML and KYC requirements are more or less the same globally. I however opine that with the many finance and technology innovations, they should be reviewed and scope broadened to include all emerging, and continuously emerging innovations,” said Evalyn Gachoki, a fintech law practitioner.
While Anslem Oshionebo and Opeyemi Odeyale, Nigerian founders of Ping Express, a Texas-based fintech company, pleaded guilty on Saturday to failing to adequately guard against money laundering in a court in the Northern District of Texas, Flutterwave, Korapay, and Kandor are battling for access to their accounts frozen by the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) of Kenya.
Flutterwave is the most affected, with 56 accounts it has with Guaranty Trust Bank (29 accounts), Equity Bank (17), and Ecobank (six) all frozen. The 56 accounts held about $56 million.
Korapay Technologies had one of its accounts with $249,565 frozen, while two accounts worth a combined $126,841 belonging to Kandor Technologies also suffered the same fate.
Although the tech companies insist that they followed due process and every KYC practice, experts say cases of money laundering usually happen because someone may have ignored KYC.
“I’d argue poor KYC exposes them to fraud and non-compliance on AML,” said Victoria Crandal, a tech PR expert and founder of No Filter PR. “Fintechs prioritise growth and user experience and KYC becomes an after-thought. This partly explains the fraud within MTN’s PSB and possibly FW (Flutterwave) alleged AML problems in Kenya.”
Victor Asemota, chairman of Edo Innovates, has a slightly different opinion. According to him, KYC is not a fintech problem because the government owns identification. Since fintechs do not control identification, they have to prioritise KYC.
“We have helped MTN do AML on their mobile payments platforms for a decade. They take it extremely seriously; same with Flutterwave. Misunderstanding by regulators of settlement occurs. Tech glitches are a reality,” Asemota said.
Other experts say anti-money laundering issues arise when tech startups try to outsmart the regulator. For example, merchant transactions are facilitated through merchant category codes (MCC).
An MCC is a four-digit number used by credit card companies to classify businesses. A business that sells both services and products will typically reflect the business type that makes up the dominant amount of sales. Businesses can request additional MCC for a different part of a business. For example, a pharmaceutical store that has a grocery store in one location would likely have different MCCs within the same building.
Every merchant has a unique ID and every transaction has a code. There are codes that when merchants are initiating transactions, they raise a red flag, like gambling, and pornography. Usually, the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) is supposed to know when a merchant is making a particular transaction.
However, there are cases of abuse. Merchants that want to help people move funds would simply change the code from which the transaction is originating and use another code that diverts attention. While some companies often get away with it, others do not.
The anti-money laundering policy is usually strong in many countries including Nigeria where the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit is in charge of Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism; however, there are jurisdictions where the enforcement is stricter.
Kenya happens to be one of them, according to several people knowledgeable about the issue. Patrick Ngugi Njoroge, governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, said at a conference organised by Visa in April that the country was intensifying compliance as part of measures to strengthen the financial system of the country.
The country, in September 2021, gazetted the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-money Laundering Bill, which seeks to amend the current Proceeds of Crime and Anti-money Laundering Act, 2009.
The bill expands the definition of “reporting persons” under the Act. This will now include advocates, notaries, and other independent legal professionals who are sole practitioners, partners, or employees within professional firms so that the obligations to monitor complex unusual, suspicious, large, or other transactions and to report any transactions that constitute or may be related to money laundering as provided under Part IV of the Act apply to them.
The bill also seeks to give the centre the authority to interrupt a transaction for not more than five working days where there is evidence of suspicious activity taking place. This will allow the centre adequate time to investigate the transaction.
The bill also seeks to introduce provisions that will limit the right to privacy enshrined in the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 in relation to the prevention, detection, and investigation of money laundering and financing of terrorism.
According to a legal compliance professional who spoke to BusinessDay on condition of anonymity, the existing Kenyan anti-money laundering law allows ARA to hold on to the funds in the frozen accounts pending when it has concluded investigations. This could mean 45 days at the lower court and 90 days at the higher court.
“This whole area is confusing, to be honest. The startups are not entirely guilt-free. But it’s not as simple as Nigerian founders doing fraud. They are not that stupid. The reality is there are a lot of loopholes in corridors outside of their control. KYC is set by the government mostly.
BVN, NIN, and ID cards all come from the government. If the government doesn’t tighten up its process, people will take advantage and the result will reflect on the fintechs processing value,” said Henry Ojuor, founder in residence with Startupbootcamp, a global startup and innovation accelerator for startups, corporates, and governments.
Read also: How to Leverage Happy Customers to Promote Your Brand
Kaliba Bilala, a tech expert, told BusinessDay that enforcement often depends on the regulatory focus of the jurisdiction in cross-border payments.
“Despite the strides achieved by Nigerian fintech firms, you can hardly get public data on their activities from the CBN or NIBSS.
The incentives driving Nigerian fintechs, and possible lax domestic regulations, may not be tolerated in jurisdictions that are strict. The allegation against the affected firms is not unique to Nigerian fintech, and dare I say, not borne out of envy,” said Bilala.
While the companies continue to proclaim their innocence, a bigger challenge they face is how to access the funds in those accounts.
For companies like Flutterwave, the more days the funds spend in ARA’s custody, the worse the anger of merchants they have to deal with.
“These funds do not belong to these companies. They are given to them by merchants, and there is a limit to how long a patient can be patient with you,” the compliance officer said.
Kandon Technologies, in its statement, described itself as a liquidity management startup offering treasury solutions, alternative trading, and related financial services. The company said it has facilitated transactions for a host of its partners doing legitimate businesses and it has records of these transactions, which are available and can be verified.
“As a company, we have always adhered to applicable regulatory requirements in our transactions and engaged with regulatory bodies to stay compliant,” the company said. “We pledge to continue working with regulatory bodies and all relevant stakeholders to prove our innocence and straighten the records.”
Korapay, on its part, said it deposited the funds in its freshly opened bank account as a capital requirement from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) for obtaining a payment service provider and remittance operator licence. In line with the CBK requirements, this amount was left untouched pending the granting of the licence. The company claimed that the $250,000 deposit is the only transaction carried out on that account to date.
One of the options being explored by the companies includes filing a legal action asking the court to compel ARA to put the funds in accounts or assets that yield interest and allow them access to the interest to enable them to fulfill their obligations to their merchants.
Evalyn Gachoki said government agencies like ARA need to engage fintech experts, regulators, and stakeholders towards identifying gaps, if any.
“Anti-money laundering laws were created way before fintech was birthed. The laws should be reviewed to incorporate the many solutions technology has introduced into finance,” Gachoki said.
Social media platform, Twitter’s lawsuit to hold Elon Musk to his $44 billion takeover of the microblogging site will go to trial in October after a Delaware judge said yesterday that the social media company deserved a quick resolution of the deal’s uncertainty.
The ruling is a blow to Musk, who pushed for a trial in February, which his lawyer told the court would allow for an extensive investigation into the true number of spam accounts on the platform. Twitter had requested a September trial.
Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Court of Chancery in Delaware said the parties were capable of handling an expedited trial.
“The reality is delay threatens irreparable harm to the sellers,” she said, referring to Twitter. She asked the parties to work out the schedule for the trial, which she set at five days.
According to Reuters, the Twitter stock rose throughout yesterday morning and was up 3.6 per cent at $39.81 in the early afternoon.
Twitter wants McCormick to declare that Musk breached the merger agreement and to order him to complete the merger at the agreed price of $54.20 per share. It said it needed the earliest possible trial date in case Musk was ordered to close and additional litigation was then needed to address financing.
Twitter’s lawyer, William Savitt, argued during the hearing that the number of the bot and spam accounts on its service had no bearing on its deal with Musk. He said Musk seized on the issue because he was seeking to “conjure an exit ramp for a deal that doesn’t have one.”
Musk had argued an expedited trial would prevent the truth about spam from coming to light.
A lawyer for Musk at yesterday’s hearing accused Twitter of dragging its feet in responding to Musk’s requests for information regarding methods for calculating the number of spam accounts.
“When Mr. Musk started asking questions, the answers he got were alarming,” said Andrew Rossman, Musk’s lawyer. He said it will take months to analyze massive amounts of data to resolve Musk’s questions about Twitter’s spam accounts.
Rossman also pushed back on the notion that Musk was trying to harm Twitter, pointing out the billionaire held a larger stake than the combined holdings of the directors of Twitter.
Report has it that even with this scheduling dispute, the stakes were high for Twitter. The company was already struggling to grow its user base and advertising business before Musk’s involvement, and now it and many other tech companies are pulling back on costs amid rampant inflation and fears of a recession.
Twitter needs a swift resolution to the battle with Musk in order to limit the uncertainty for its shareholders, employees and customers, and any fallout for its business that could be exacerbated by costly, prolonged litigation.
Although yesterday’s hearing was largely a procedural one, it offered a look at how each side may approach what is likely to be a messy litigation process. It may also provide a glimpse of how the judge overseeing the case is approaching the dispute.
“There may be hints from what she asks and what she says, and what they say, during the hearing that may tell us something,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.
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. Renewable power to become a major energy source by 2050 . Telcos facing several challenges in their roadmap to net-zero
Renewable power is expected to become a major energy source by 2050, a report by Huawei has stated.
Renewable energy is derived from natural sources that are replenished at a higher rate than they are consumed. Sunlight and wind, for example, are sources that are constantly being replenished. Renewable energy sources are plentiful and all around us.
The report, “Huawei Digital Power Introduction,” which noted that in South Africa, carbon neutral would be realised by 2050, estimated a peak value of 2025 with 16 per cent renewable energy. It said that in Nigeria, carbon neutrality would be realised by 2060 but GHG emissions would be reduced by 2050, while there is a 43 per cent renewable energy target by 2030. In Kenya, Huawei said carbon neutral will be realized in 2050, while there is currently 90 per cent renewable in the country.
Huawei noted in the report that there is huge interest in solar power utilities in Africa. It stressed that the continent’s solar energy resource is almost 40 per cent of the global total, but has only one per cent installed capacity of the globe.
The report claimed that Africa’s solar energy is estimated at 60, 000,000 TWh/year. In the African solar power market, Huawei claimed only two per cent of PV-related funds had been invested in the African market in the past 20 years.
While the world’s investment in solar power rose to $2.25 trillion and cumulatively $2.84 trillion as of 2020, the report said Africa has $55 billion and cumulatively $60 billion investment in the period under review. The breakdown put North Africa’s investment at $17.5 billion; West Africa at $3.9 billion; East Africa’s $9.7 billion; Central Africa at $1.3 billion and Souther Africa at $22.4 billion.
MEANWHILE, TelecomTv analysis has revealed that the biggest challenge on operators’ pathway to a net-zero future is the lack of clear methodology for their suppliers to report carbon emissions. This is according to analysts from telecoms consultant, STL Partners, who have stressed the need for telcos to collaborate much more if they are to tackle value chain hurdles.
During a webinar presentation, the company shared findings based on discussions it held with 40 telecom operators worldwide regarding their sustainability efforts. It discovered the main challenge to improved environmental sustainability is around data capture and methodology for Scope 3 emissions (indirect, produced within the value chain).
Principal Analyst at STL Partners, Amy Cameron, said: “That’s difficult because you’re depending on all of your partners and suppliers across your entire value chain to report – and many companies are not reporting this very well yet.”
“In fact, Scope 1 emissions (direct, made by the company’s facilities, fleet, etc) and Scope 2 emissions (indirect, covering the purchase of electricity for the company’s own use) were found to constitute around 20 per cent of telecoms operators’ carbon footprint, while emissions produced in the supply chain (Scope 3) serve as the biggest contributor to environmental pollution.”
According to the company, there is a need for telcos to express their sustainability demands when working with suppliers. “One key thing is having really strict stipulations on suppliers, making that part of the decision-making process and framework when it comes to selecting partners you would work with, instead of it just being around cost,” recommended Grace Donnelly, senior consultant and sustainability practice lead at STL Partners. Another option is for telcos to stipulate that 20 per cent to 30 per cent of a contract be based on whether the supplier can provide transparent reporting on their own emissions.
Cameron concurred, adding that there is a need for industry and regulatory collaboration on standardisation, otherwise the ability to capture and reduce Scope 3 emissions wouldn’t be possible.
The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN Alliance) and Rakuten Symphony have recently shared ideas for a methodology to assess the quality of sustainability of telco equipment and third-party activities.
Another significant challenge outlined by telcos who were surveyed by STL Partners relates to the acceleration of the circular economy, which is closely linked to Scope 3 and finding ways to reuse or recycle elements in the value chain.
Interestingly, operators were also found to lack clarity around how 5G and virtualisation will affect carbon emissions, despite numerous claims by analyst bodies and telco players that the next-generation mobile network is much more energy efficient than earlier generations.
Some telcos, STL stated, encounter difficulties with securing buy-in from key stakeholders when it comes to enhancing their sustainability credentials. Here, Cameron argued that environmental sustainability cannot be the responsibility solely of teams focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) but needs involvement from every person and level within an organisation. On that note, she suggested that the bonus structure for employees should not just be about hitting financial, operational or customer engagement targets, but “should also be about hitting some sustainability targets.”
To ensure Nigeria taps into the digital economy, CreditRegistry has partnered with Readmanna to eradicate computer illiteracy among teachers.
Speaking at the Inaugural Readmanna Invitational Charity Golf Tournament 2022, held at Ikoyi Club, Lagos, Board Chairman, CreditRegistry, Fatumata Coker, emphasised the importance of equipping people with knowledge before empowering them with tools for premium maximisation of opportunities.
“The best way is to train people first on the knowledge of what it is about and give them the tools to practice. This project is important as computers donated to schools often end up not being used because teachers and students don’t know how to use them,” she said.
She added that with the initiative, students who are learning on their own can now get certified by Microsoft and the like.
Coker noted that the firm looks to partner with such initiatives, which focus on changing lives and bringing wealth and worth to people.
Other companies that participated in the competition included Edutech, Zenith Bank, Lotus Bank, Investment One, Firsthand, Agusto&Co, Julius Berger, Oxygen holdings, Stanton Chase, Sparkle, Holmes Consulting, Medplus, Banwo & Ighodalo and Consultants Collaborative Partnership.
Investment One came in the second position, while Edutech came 3rd in the golf tournament.
“This initiative affords us the opportunity to be a part of the cause where Readmanna offers digital literacy to teachers and students, especially from less privileged settings,” she said.
She noted that CreditRegistry is a credit bureau continuously looking for ways to impact and is willing to support knowledge acquisition in ICT, financial education or others.
Founder, Readmanna Empowerment Initiative, Edna Agusto said the initiative was birthed due to the dearth of employment opportunities even after education and certifications have been acquired.
She noted that the initiative encourages individuals to learn digital skills by using a curriculum that is current, practical and relevant.
According to her, teachers have been left out in the digital skill acquisition, which poses a challenge to the knowledge they pass to the students.
“Teachers have refused to embrace technology and it is a big problem as they are far behind,” she added. She noted that through their programmes, 10,000 students in Nigeria have been certified.
