News
Revving Up Service Delivery with NQR Feature on ALAT

The onboarding of the New Quick Response (NQR) feature unto ALAT, Wema Bank’s digital banking platform, underscores how technology innovations continue to impact service delivery and contributions of banks in Nigeria to the National Financial Inclusion Strategy.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in continuation of implementation of National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS), and other macroeconomic initiatives of the Federal Government geared towards accelerating national economic growth, approved the Framework for Quick Response (QR) Code payments in Nigeria, in January 2021.
Principal objective of the framework was to promote the use and adoption of electronic payments, foster innovation in payments system, and strengthen institutional framework for economic and financial industry stability in the country.
In addition to detailing the regulatory guidance, the aims of the framework include ensuring the adoption of appropriate QR Code standards for safe and efficient payments services in Nigeria. Participants approved for the implementation of QR Code payments include merchants, customers, issuers including banks, money market operators and other financial institutions, as well as payment service providers.
For banks, the guidelines also permit them the use of any other QR Code Standard provided, it meets the prescribed security requirements, demonstrate interoperability with other existing implementation in the industry and/or offer cost benefits to end users (merchants and customers).
By increasing their investment in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and capacity building for digital teams, banks in Nigeria are among the leading positive change agents that are widening access to financial services for the unbanked and underserved to be onboarded unto the financial inclusion bucket.
In Nigeria, QR payments system in particular is increasingly becoming more popular, because they offer wide range applicability. QR codes help businesses create customer engagements and sustain relationships. They are simple and easy to set up at no cost. QR codes enable users to receive payments from more than one customer at once.
Transactions can be initiated from start to finish without you having to be there so, users can free up their time to do other things. QR codes help bridge the gap between face-to-face and digital by allowing customers to pay with their preferred digital wallets.
Also, QR payments help merchants or businesses to work with brands to streamline their payments offerings across all channels – online, in-app and in-store and to scale their operations domestically and cross-border. They also drive smartphone penetration, financial inclusion and cashless economy.
In further demonstration of its commitment to consistently stay at the forefront of deploying digital technology to make service delivery more convenient, faster and better for the customers, ALAT, Nigeria’s leading digital banking platform, recently increased its offerings with the inclusion of the new quick response (NQR) code-based payments and collections solution to boost convenient and safe financial transactions.
With the NQR feature on ALAT, existing customers and non-customers can now enjoy code-based payment and collections solution that provides fast, easy, secure, reliable, contactless and account-based options to receive and pay for goods and services.
Merchants, business owners and individuals by displaying the QR Codes generated on ALAT, can henceforth receive payments at their locations for goods and services.
All that a customer needs to do is to select the NQR option on their bank’s mobile application and scan the displayed NQR Codes to make payment to the merchant. The merchants/business owners and payers get instant notification of payment made.
The benefits of the NQR on ALAT include simplicity of use, easy setup, zero cost of acquisition, and a seamless merchant onboarding process. Other benefits are super-fast deployment, instant payment and settlement, and fast and secured payment.
On the level of transaction that can be done using the new feature, transaction limits are determined by the payer’s bank. However, transactions below N250 would attract 50 kobo, while those between N25 and N999.99 would be charged N1.
NQR on ALAT also offers the lowest service fees unavailable anywhere in the industry today. Transactions ranging between N1000 and N4,999.99 will attract N5, just as those between N5000 and above would pay the applicable fee of N25.
Another uniqueness of the NQR on ALAT is that it is a safe platform, as the exchange of information via the QR code ensures that any transmitted data on the technology is encrypted, thus making the payment secure.
“Also, NQR is built around the universal EMVCO Security Standards. In addition, customers are protected by a secret 4-digit PIN used to consummate transactions and known to only the payer,” Wema Bank stated.
To enjoy the new service, customers will need to set up NQR on ALAT by first updating the ALAT app to the latest version before login into the ALAT app as a payer. Then select payment, QR payment to scan a code directly or from their galleries.
Merchants and receivers are also to log in to the ALAT app and select payments, QR payment and then create merchant and sub-merchant display the QR code to receive payment.
QR code payment methods have become one of the fastest-growing payment methods in the world. They are also one of the most efficient and simple ways to share information and complete online payments.
According to Juniper Research, 1.5bn people worldwide used QR codes to make payments in 2020 as usage soared during the Covid-19 pandemic, while forecasting that by 2025, as many as 30% of all mobile users will pay with QR codes.
Juniper Research further said that QR usage is bigger in China where it had become popular as far back as 2010 and account for one-third of all payments today, amounting to $1.65trillion in QR code sales.
QR Code is a machine-scannable image that can instantly be read using a smartphone camera. Every QR consists of black squares and dots which represent certain pieces of information. When your smartphone scans this code, it translates such information into something that can be easily understood by humans.
News
Elon Musk to Become First World’s Trillionaire with SpaceX Historic IPO

Elon Musk is poised to become the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX, his company, confirmed plans to go public.

Elon Musk
Because Musk owns the majority of the shares, it could push his net worth over the trillion dollar mark.
The entrepreneur is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and xAI.
Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025; as of May 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth to be $788 billion.
SpaceX has filed for a blockbuster public listing in the United States, paving the way for what could become the largest stock market debut in Wall Street history.
The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, announced plans to begin trading under the ticker symbol “SPCX” as early as next month.
The listing values SpaceX at about $1.25 trillion, with Musk’s majority ownership potentially worth more than $600 billion alone.
Combined with his existing holdings in companies including Tesla, the IPO could push Musk’s personal wealth above the $1 trillion mark.
The long-awaited filing also offered investors a rare look into SpaceX’s finances.
The company reported $18.6 billion in revenue last year but recorded a net loss of $4.9 billion. In the first quarter of this year, SpaceX generated $4.7 billion in sales while posting a $4.3 billion net loss.
Financial disclosures showed the company holds $102 billion in assets, including rockets, launch infrastructure and satellite systems, while carrying debts totalling $60.5 billion.
Despite the losses, analysts suggested investors were unlikely to be deterred given SpaceX’s dominance in commercial space launches and satellite internet services.
Ruth Foxe-Blader, managing partner at Citrine Venture Partners, described the planned flotation as “extremely exciting.”
“SpaceX is just an absolutely sprawling, enormous project with so many different selling points, and so many points that really point to the future,” she said.
SpaceX operates the Starlink satellite internet network and also owns Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI.
The IPO filing revealed that xAI recently reached a major commercial agreement with rival AI company Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot.
Under the arrangement, Anthropic will reportedly pay $15 billion annually to access data centre infrastructure linked to xAI operations in the American South.
The filing also disclosed that SpaceX expects to incur more than half a billion dollars in legal costs from multiple ongoing lawsuits and regulatory disputes.
Among the cases listed were claims alleging that xAI’s chatbot Grok had been used to create sexualised deepfakes of women and girls, alongside patent infringement disputes, music copyright claims, data breach allegations and investigations into compliance with European Union content moderation rules.
Musk has previously said he plans to dissolve xAI as a standalone company and pursue his AI ambitions directly under SpaceX.
The filing came shortly after Musk lost a high-profile legal battle against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman.
Musk had accused OpenAI of abandoning its non-profit mission after shifting towards a commercial model, but a jury dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that he had waited too long to bring the claims.
News
Moniepoint Boosts UK Payments Security

African financial services platform Moniepoint has partnered with open banking software-as-a-service provider tell.money to deploy a transaction security system in the UK market.

The companies said the partnership will allow Moniepoint to implement Confirmation of Payee, an account name-checking service designed to verify recipient details before payments are processed.
The integration will be rolled out through Monieworld, Moniepoint’s UK remittance subsidiary, as part of the company’s broader European expansion strategy.
Tell.money will provide the underlying verification technology, which the companies said is intended to reduce misdirected payments and help protect users against cross-border fraud.
Ravi Jakhodia, CEO of Monieworld, said: “Our goal with Monieworld is to build financial services for Africans in the diaspora.”
He added that tell.money was selected because it manages compliance and accreditation requirements, allowing the fintech company to focus on customer service.
Moniepoint is entering a competitive UK-to-Africa remittance market that includes established providers such as Wise, WorldRemit and Remitly, as well as African fintech firms including Flutterwave’s Send App.
According to data from the World Bank’s KNOMAD programme, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are estimated at about $620 billion annually, with digital -first platforms capturing increasing market share through open banking integrations and automated compliance systems.
The rollout reflects a broader trend of African fintech firms expanding into developed markets by adopting local regulatory and open banking standards.
Industry analysts expect diaspora-focused platforms to evolve beyond money transfers into services such as multi-currency banking, credit and investment products.
News
Meet the 39-Year-Old Genius Replacing Oloyede at JAMB

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed 39‑year‑old Professor Segun Aina as the new Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), succeeding Professor Is‑haq Oloyede whose two‑term tenure expires on July 31, 2026.

Professor Segun Aina
Aina, who will turn 40 in July, will become the youngest registrar in JAMB’s history, marking a generational shift in the leadership of Nigeria’s premier tertiary‑admissions body.
In a statement issued in Abuja by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the new registrar was described as a distinguished academic and systems expert with extensive experience in national examination systems, digital infrastructure and public‑sector institutional reform.
A professor of Computer Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile‑Ife, Aina holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Kent, an MSc in Internet Computing and Network Security and a PhD in Digital Signal Processing, both from Loughborough University, United Kingdom. He also completed the Senior Management Programme at Lagos Business School.
His early career with JAMB began during his National Youth Service Corps scheme, where he gained foundational experience in national admissions and data‑driven institutional processes; those insights have since shaped his contributions to examination reform and systems optimisation.
At 39, Aina became one of Nigeria’s youngest professors of Computer Engineering and has advised federal and state governments on system design, digital transition and operational reform, while also consulting major examination bodies such as NECO and NABTEB on ICT systems and examination integrity.
He is a member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
President Tinubu expects Aina to leverage his experience, knowledge and practical insight to further strengthen JAMB’s operations and to build on the achievements recorded under Professor Oloyede’s leadership.
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