Africa Prudential Plc has launched Sabivest, a digital shareholder and investment management application, as part of efforts to deepen access to investment opportunities and enhance transparency in Nigeria’s capital market.

Unveiled in Lagos, the platform is designed to provide investors with a centralised system for managing shareholdings and tracking portfolio performance across multiple investment products.

At the launch, the Chairperson of Africa Prudential Plc, Christabel Onyejekwe, said the initiative reflects the company’s commitment to leveraging innovation to improve investor experience and participation.

“Sabivest provides a unified ecosystem that enables individuals and institutions to seamlessly access, monitor and grow diversified financial assets through a single interface,” she said, describing the platform as a significant step in advancing digital transformation within the capital market.

The Managing Director, Catherine Nwosu, noted that the application, which is available for download on both iOS and Android platforms, was developed to address structural challenges that have continued to limit investor efficiency, including fragmented investment accounts, restricted access to diverse financial instruments, and inadequate visibility into portfolio performance.

According to her, the platform aggregates multiple investment services, offering users real-time insights and control through a centralised dashboard.

She added that Sabivest features consolidated portfolio views, performance tracking, asset allocation insights, and electronic dividend management, alongside tools for monitoring, documenting, and recovering unclaimed dividends.

The launch also featured a roundtable session themed, “Building Trust and Driving Innovation in Nigeria’s Capital Market,” where stakeholders emphasised the importance of technology-driven solutions in strengthening investor confidence and expanding market participation.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) is significantly increasing the danger of cyberattacks on the global financial system.

Pic credit… saturnpartners

According to a blog post from the IMF, these AI-driven threats could turn isolated security breaches into severe economic disruptions, potentially freezing payments, shaking markets, and undermining public trust in banks worldwide.

In its analysis, the fund highlighted a specific example involving the controlled release of an advanced AI model called Claude Mythos Preview by Anthropic.

The IMF noted that this model demonstrated the ability to identify and exploit weaknesses in all major operating systems and web browsers, even when used by individuals without specialized expertise.

The IMF cautioned that AI could heighten risk concentration within the financial system.

A single exploited vulnerability might cascade across numerous institutions simultaneously due to heavy reliance on a limited number of cloud providers, software platforms, and AI models.

Such events could escalate from operational issues to macro-financial shocks, triggering confidence crises, liquidity problems, and fire-sale dynamics in markets. The organization also acknowledged that AI forms part of the solution.

As attackers operate at machine speed, financial institutions are deploying their own AI-assisted tools for threat detection, fraud prevention, and faster incident response.

The IMF highlighted a geopolitical dimension to the threat, noting that cyber risk crosses national borders and that inconsistent oversight among countries could weaken the globally interconnected financial system.

Emerging economies, often with limited resources, may face disproportionate exposure.

The fund urged policymakers to treat cybersecurity as a core financial stability concern rather than a technical or operational matter.

It called for prioritization of resilience standards, systemic supervision, and international coordination to contain breaches before they spread.

MasterCard and BMONI, an artificial intelligence-powered financial platform, are working to launch a new generation of virtual and physical payment cards that will enable Nigerian customers to conduct fluid local and worldwide transactions.

According to the partners earlier this week, the solution is powered by MasterCard’s global payment network, enabling users to instantly create multiple Naira and US dollar-denominated virtual and physical cards that are globally accepted and ready for use, with card management handled entirely within the BMONI app.

The collaboration is one of the first locally issued international card programmes in the West African country, made possible by MasterCard’s new card issuance models, which aim to promote digital payments uptake among fintech companies in the sector, the two companies said.

With Nigeria’s e-commerce market projected to exceed $26 billion by 2030, the demand for globally accepted, instantly issued digital payment solutions continues to grow.

BMONI’s card offering, built on MasterCard’s network, responds to this shift by enabling users to operate more seamlessly across currencies and everyday spending, noted Mastercard.

Dr Folasade Femi-Lawal, country manager for West Africa, MasterCard, said: “Nigeria’s digital economy is growing rapidly; consumers need payment solutions that keep pace.

“Our collaboration with BMONI brings together Mastercard’s global network with an innovative platform like BMONI to deliver real value to consumers: instant card access, multi-currency flexibility, and seamless transactions across borders.”

Ashwin Ravichandran, head of product, BMONI, added: “At BMONI, our focus has always been simple, which is to remove the friction between people and their money. This collaboration with Mastercard allows us to deliver global access and a level of control that simply has not existed before.”