General News
Mobile Banking will Create Opportunities- Akinware

Femi Akinware is the Chief Executive Officer of Tagattitude Nigeria, a subsidiary of Tagattitude France; a technology development company. Akinware has a background in technology markets Tagattitude’s NSDT (Near Sound Data Transfer) technology in Nigeria. He spoke to funmi ilesanmi.
Preparedness for Mobile Money
We are very prepared. We provide technology for mobile payments and mobile banking. We are very prepared because our technology is ready and what we hope to do is to provide mobile money technology and mobile payment technology to people who are licensed, banks, independent providers and telcos.
Possibility of Cards extinction with Mobile Money
I think there are spaces for both. The technologies will reside side by side. Most people who are looking at mobile banking are looking to provide for the unbanked, people who do not have cards today. There are people who are already banked who will continue to use their cards and there are people who do not have accounts now that mobile banking and mobile payments would allow to enter the banking space. Both are channels that will continue to exist.
Mobile Money
What we do at Tagattitude is that we replace the card with the phone so your mobile phone will do all the things a card does today. You will be able to make ATM withdrawals, you will be able to do POS transactions, web transactions, face to face and peer to peer transactions. What we have done is that we have moved all the functionalities of the card to the phone and our technology allows any phone on any network to work the same way a debit car works.
About Tagattitude
Tagattitude is originally a French company that provides mobile banking technology. Tagattitude Nigeria is the partner of Tagattitude France which markets that technology in Nigeria. Our technology is called NSDT- Near Sound Data Transfer. It allows any phone on any network to be used the same way a debit card is used. We use the sound channel of the phone to authenticate transactions, we do audio cryptograms to authenticate transactions and we work on multiple channels- ATMs, PoS terminals and we also have add-ons for existing PoS terminals.
Nigeria’s Setback in e-Payment
In other countries apart from Kenya, you don’t see a lot of countries that are significantly ahead of us in e- Payment. Every bank in Nigeria now has a mobile banking strategy. All of them are going to come on stream sooner than later.
Possibility of Fraud with Mobile Money
It would be attacked just like every other technology would be attacked but I think the banks know that and most people are going to put in place the required security and put in checks and balances into the system. I think ATM fraud gets more bad news than it deserves. The truth about it is that out of the millions of transactions that happen everyday, less than 0.01 per cent of them are prone to this fraud. It is just that if you go to the ATM and you made a successful transaction, you do not tell the public but if you go to the ATM and somebody deducts your money, everybody shout and shout. But I think the ATM fraud rate is a lot less than what people talk about and it has not killed the technology. I am not making excuses for it but I think people realize what the security challenge is and they are going to take that into consideration.
Service Availability
Everyday people make calls successfully. Today I have made like 50 calls and once or twice, it did not go through and I tried again and it went through; so it is not a bad failure rate. There are infrastructural challenges everywhere, when people say it is dependent on the networks and the networks are not reliable but you make calls everyday and the calls are reliable. Those calls go through, once in a while it doesn’t go through but you try again. This is not enough to kill the technology.
Regulating the e-Payment Space
I think there should be a collaboration between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over it. However, I think for both of them the extent in which they want to regulate should not go beyond ensuring security and reliability. We should allow free market to determine price, to determine skill, to determine acceptance. I am a firm believer in free market and capitalism and I think that ultimately the market space, the consumer and competition would determine who wins at the end of the day. I do not think the regulator knows what every customer wants, customer will determine what they want but it should not be open such that any Tom, Dick and Harry would come in but as long as there is a stable minimum requirements of reliability, security and fraud issues, people should be allowed to play in the market and the market place would determine who the winner would be.
Outlook of the e-Payment Space
There is a big opportunity for mobile banking in Nigeria. According to the CBN, only 25 per cent of the money in circulation goes through the banking system with most part outside the banking system. If you are able to bring in a significantly higher percentage into the banking system, we would see a lot more activities in our economy. We would see a lot more lending, a lot more business support, a lot more formal economy and our GDP will bring the country hope and achieve its promises.
Acceptability of Mobile Money
When it starts initially, people will test it to see whether it works. When they see that it works, the confidence level would increase gradually until it gets to a point where people begin to use it for their everyday transactions. If it fulfills their needs and help tem do what they were unable to do before, then they would be happy top adopt it. There are security challenges and all of that but it is up to the providers to9 ensure that there is security, there is reliability and once they do that, it is just a matter of being one step ahead of the fraudsters. Our technology for example has a security in place that makes it extremely difficult and expensive to defraud with. If somebody wants to defraud on a Tagattitude technology, the person has to spend a whole loot of money and have a whole lot of penetration into the telcos, the banks and the platform itself. I do not think anybody can successfully hack into our system because he wants to steal N10,000 or N20,000.
Identity Issues
There would be, because how many people in Nigeria have an identity card?
The CBN has set a certain threshold and people will play into that threshold. As time goes on, I think the threshold should increase because where it is now is very low, people do more transactions. If we can use the mobile phone to positively identify people and to authenticate transactions, then your mobile number is a unique identity.
General News
NIMC Disowns Fake NIN Portal

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has warned Nigerians to disregard a viral online flyer claiming that a free portal has been opened for the correction of National Identification Number (NIN) data.

In a statement posted on its official X (formerly Twitter) handle, the commission described the flyer as fake and cautioned the public against using any links associated with it.
“The public is hereby advised not to use the above for modifying their NIN data. All modifications should only be done via the official channel,” NIMC stated, directing users to its authorised self-service portal.
The misleading flyer, which has circulated widely on social media, carries the logos of NIMC and the federal government, falsely claiming that authorities had launched a special correction portal in response to a “high level of complain.”
It lists services such as name, gender, and date of birth corrections, and provides links redirecting users to a suspicious “gvly.xyz” domain—an address the commission says is not affiliated with any government platform.
NIMC noted that the flyer has since been marked “FAKE” in red, indicating it is being recirculated as part of efforts to debunk the misinformation.
The Commission reiterated that all NIN data modifications can only be carried out through its official self-service platform, urging Nigerians to remain vigilant and avoid falling victim to online scams.
General News
Moniepoint Acquires Orda Africa to Transform Africa’s $50Bn Restaurant Sector

Moniepoint Inc. (“Moniepoint” or the “Company”), Africa’s all-in-one financial ecosystem platform for individuals, businesses and their customers, today announced the acquisition of Orda Africa (“Orda”), a leading cloud-based restaurant management platform operating in Nigeria.

Moniepoint
Under the terms of this acquisition, Orda will become part of the Moniebook platform, Moniepoint’s all-in-one Point-of-Sale (POS) and business management platform. Since launching its business management tools product in 2025, Moniebook has rapidly become the go-to platform for thousands of African businesses seeking integrated financial and operational tools, seamlessly unifying payments and bookkeeping in one platform.
With Orda, restaurant owners can now gain access to this proven ecosystem that creates unprecedented opportunities to scale operations, optimize performance, and access credit, as well as the extensive reach of Moniepoint which has powered growth for millions of African businesses.
The acquisition comes as Africa’s food service industry experiences unprecedented growth, with the sector valued at $50 billion and Nigeria’s market alone projected to reach $19.31 billion by 2030, growing at 11.73% annually. With Orda’s restaurant-focused capabilities now part of the Moniepoint ecosystem, the platform is well-positioned to capture this opportunity.
Founded in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike, today Moniepoint has grown into one of Nigeria’s leading distributors of financial services as well as a trusted platform for many of the country’s MSMEs especially in the informal sector.
The company has considerably expanded its offerings to include digital payments, business and personal banking, credit, cross-border payments, and business management tools with a customer base exceeding 20 million active businesses and personal banking customers and processes over US$250 billion in digital payments transaction value annually.
Tosin Eniolorunda, Co-Founder and Group CEO of Moniepoint Inc., said: “The food industry isn’t just about feeding people, it’s a major source of jobs and daily survival for many Africans. It highlights how vital the informal sector is, not just for the economy, but for everyday life across the continent.
Data has shown us that Africa’s restaurant sector is one of the continent’s most dynamic economic engines, yet the majority of food businesses still operate with manual processes and fragmented tools. By bringing Orda into Moniepoint, we are giving restaurant owners what they deserve: one simple platform that handles everything from managing their kitchen to growing their business. Our goal remains to create financial happiness for Africans, giving them the tools to reach their full potential and that’s exactly what we’ve built here.”
Founded in 2020, Orda was built to give Africa’s small and independent restaurants the tools they need to run more efficiently, providing a purpose-built software to businesses that had long operated without it.
Guy Futi, CEO of Orda, reassured existing customers: “Orda has found the perfect home in Moniepoint. We have spent years building deep expertise in restaurant operations, but we have always known that to truly transform the industry, we needed to connect that expertise with comprehensive financial infrastructure.
“That’s exactly what this integration delivers. For our customers, we are assuring a smooth transition with no disruption to the platform and retained access to the support you are used to. What changes is your access to opportunities.
“Over the coming weeks, being part of Moniepoint means you’ll have more tools, more reach, and more ways to grow your business than ever before”
Combining their respective strengths, Moniepoint and Orda deliver a purpose-built solution that empowers food businesses at every scale to manage orders, track inventory, pay suppliers, and access working capital, all in one seamless experience.
This move represents a demonstrated commitment to building a dedicated financial infrastructure designed around the unique complexity of Africa’s food economy.
For the millions of food entrepreneurs across the continent, from the everyday buka owner to the high-end restaurateur, this acquisition means less time managing multiple tools or carrying out arduous manual work and more time doing what they do best – feeding Africa.
General News
Tech Firms Sack over 45,000 so Far in 2026

More than 45,000 jobs have been cut across the global technology sector in the first few months of 2026, according to data from RationalFX, signalling that the industry is still adjusting after a period of aggressive hiring rather than returning to a full growth phase.

“In 2025, automation, artificial intelligence, and sustained cost-discipline measures drove much of the downsizing, with entire departments restructured or eliminated in favour of leaner, AI-assisted workflows. This trend has continued full steam into 2026,” said Alan Cohen, analyst at RationalFX.
According to the report, if the current rate of redundancies is sustained, total layoffs in 2026 could surpass the 245,000 recorded in 2025.
The majority of these layoffs have been concentrated in the United States, with major companies continuing to trim their workforce despite stable core operations.
Amazon has announced approximately 16,000 job cuts this year, while Block has also reduced thousands of roles as it tightens operations and shifts focus towards artificial intelligence.
There are indications that further reductions may follow.
Meta is reportedly considering additional layoffs as it increases investment in AI infrastructure, while PayPal and Klarna are reassessing spending and hiring strategies amid ongoing uncertainty.
Established technology firms are also undergoing restructuring. Dell has reduced its workforce by around 11,000 over the past year as part of a broader reorganisation, while Salesforce has cut approximately 1,000 roles in 2026 while aligning its teams more closely with AI-driven products.
Outside the United States, layoffs have been smaller in scale but more geographically dispersed.
Australia has reported around 2,650 job cuts so far this year, followed by Sweden with roughly 1,923 and Netherlands with about 1,700.
Other markets have also been affected. Israel and India have recorded approximately 1,539 and 1,520 layoffs respectively, with Israel’s startup ecosystem particularly sensitive to tighter funding conditions, while in India, both startups and larger IT firms have reduced headcount as global client spending slows.
In Singapore, around 1,016 layoffs have been reported, reflecting a softer hiring environment across Asia’s major technology hubs, where companies are adopting a more cautious approach amid uneven demand.
Across Europe, job cuts have been comparatively limited but still noticeable.
The United Kingdom has recorded around 1,000 layoffs, while Czech Republic and Germany have seen smaller reductions.
The broader trend suggests that technology companies are shifting towards leaner operations and more defined priorities following years of expansion. Increasing investment in automation and artificial intelligence is also reshaping the types of roles in demand.
For employees, the impact is becoming increasingly visible, with hiring slowing and becoming more selective. While opportunities remain, companies are taking a more measured approach to recruitment compared to the rapid expansion seen in previous years.
Further credit… .storyboard18.com
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