General News
Prices Fixing Scandal: NCAA to Install Info Portal @ Airports
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Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has concluded plans to install a Consumer Protection at the nation’s airports. This is coming on the heels of accusations of the British Airways and the Virgin Atlantic Airways of collusion in prices fixing on routes including Lagos to London. Dr. Harold Demuren, the director general of NCAA disclosed this during his presentation at the House probe into the alleged fare fixing scandal involving the two airlines. He said the platform that serve as enforcement initiative aid for NCAA Consumer Protection Directorate, will be installed for the purpose of providing significant information capable of assisting consumer decision making in the selection of their service provider. He said that a committee set up in 2011 to investigate the matter, apparently discovered a wide disparity in fares for similar point of departure and destination in distances from Nigeria and Ghana, among others. Demuren went memory lane on efforts made by NCAA to address the problem, incidentally, the two airlines failed to comply during the investigations “I would like start with the Regional Imbalance as it relates to BA and VAA. Starting sometime in 2010, the NCAA after following events arising in other jurisdictions, particularly the U.S and U.K, and conducting internal assessments with respect to operations of BA and VAA regarding whether they were colluding to exploit consumers, began a comprehensive evaluation of the conduct, our laws, culpability and potential remedies. “Sequel to this, on May 4th, 2011, NCAA opened an important and comprehensive investigation into the conduct of exploitation of Nigerian Consumers by BA and VAA, with respect to collusion in prices fixing on routes including Lagos to London. “Of great concern, NCAA was aware that BA and VAA had been subjected to similar investigations in other foreign jurisdictions, and admissions of culpability or findings of violations had occurred or been established; penalties were awarded and compensation set aside and or paid to consumers in those jurisdictions. “Since neither of the two airlines voluntarily provided information to NCAA about their conduct, admissions or culpability, the NCAA committed its resources to a comprehensive investigation. The NCAA boss further revealed that this investigation saw more than one dozen witnesses testifying before the investigating panel, mostly made up of employees of both BA and VAA and the critical examination and analysis of over 10,000 pages of documents in over 24 volumes and information gathered from 3 continents including courts and other regulatory authorities in the U.K and U.S. He added that the airlines equally connived to fix the passenger fuel surcharges which eliminated competition in the sector. “On November 14, 2011 after this long painstaking investigation, NCAA made its findings, which included the fact that, both BA and VA violated Nigerian law and Regulations and exploited Nigerian consumers. “Specifically, both airlines colluded to fix the Passenger Fuel Surcharge in a manner that eliminated or suppressed choice and competition and the Nigerian public were the victims of this conduct while both airlines reaped huge profits from their misconduct. “In addition, both airlines deceived Nigerians and used unfair methods in procuring these huge revenues in their businesses. Demuren solidified that NCAA was left with no option than to impose monetary sanctions on the airlines, “And a decision that passengers who were exploited must be compensated. “Both airlines being dissatisfied with the NCAA Findings from its investigation appealed under NCAA Regulations. The NCAA set up an independent Administrative Appeals Panel chaired by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.” He maintained that Nigeria is to be briefed on the outcome of a study which the U.K Department of Transport commissioned its Civil Aviation Authority to conduct to determine whether there is evidence of abuse in the UK-Nigeria aviation market. “In order for the engagement and evaluation to fair, balanced and mutually respectful, The Honurable Minister of Aviation has mandated the NCAA to conduct a similar comprehensive survey/study from the Nigerian standpoint with its consultants. He promised that NCAA will remain fervent and work assiduously to prevent exploitation or unscrupulous practices that allow imposition of unusually and inexplicably high or disparate ticket fares on Nigerians. Part of its strategy is the imposition of stiff penalties on violators through appropriate laws of the land. NCAA has also urged the travelling public to be vigilant and remain impermissive of exploitation, while being circumspect in making their travel plans and choice of airlines, while the authority ventures into alternative means to educate the public further. “NCAA has also advanced in its efforts to develop a Consumer Protection Portal that will be installed at the nation’s airports for the purpose of providing significant information that will assist consumer decision making in the selection of their service provider. This will also serve as enforcement initiative aid for NCAA Consumer Protection Directorate. “This Portal and the incoming Regulations will provide both the basis and the process of gathering multi-dimensional data, analysis of the data and distribution of compliance trends and or information developed based on the use of the data. These are critical areas of consumer protection and economic regulation of the industry. Demuren reiterated NCAA’s decision to evolve more enforcement laws to protect consumers across the board.
Anambra State Government says it is exploring partnerships with the Federal Government and other stakeholders to extend digital connectivity to underserved rural communities across the state.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Anambra State ICT Agency, Mr Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata, disclosed this during a virtual media engagement with journalists on Thursday.
Agbata said rural connectivity remained a major challenge because telecommunications operators were often reluctant to invest heavily in communities where network deployment might not be commercially viable.
He said the state was willing to explore opportunities to leverage Federal Government infrastructure and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) to extend connectivity to underserved communities.
“We understand what digital inclusion means because we are dealing directly with these communities,” Agbata said.
According to him, the objective is to ensure that rural residents are not excluded from the benefits of digital government and the wider digital economy simply because of where they live.
Agbata said the effort formed part of the state’s broader digital transformation agenda, which is targeting deeper digitalisation of government services and a more digitally enabled business environment by 2030.
He said the second phase of the agency’s digital transformation agenda would focus on e-governance, digital infrastructure, smart government and the use of emerging technologies to drive development.
“My core vision is that we would have digitised every single government entity in Anambra State,” he said.
The ICT boss said the digital transformation agenda would extend beyond government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to businesses and residents across the state.
He said the agency was already developing websites for government MDAs and transforming them from mere information platforms into channels for delivering government services.
“We are building websites for all the MDAs. We are also automating them to be able to carry out services and give government support and government services through their websites,” he said.
Agbata said the initiative would reduce the need for citizens to physically visit government offices to access basic services.
He said the Smart Anambra platform had already demonstrated growing demand for remote access to government services.
According to him, the platform recorded about 14,000 visits between July 9 and July 29, averaging approximately 700 visits daily, despite limited publicity.
He said the data indicated that residents were interested in accessing government services online, including applications, permits and identification-related processes.
“What the data is already showing us is that we really need to build a system that allows people to actually get government services remotely,” Agbata said.
He explained that the objective was to allow residents to initiate processes online, complete forms remotely and only visit government offices where physical presence was eventually required.
This, he said, would reduce the time and cost citizens spend travelling to Awka or other government offices to access services.
Agbata said services in areas including hospitals, schools and other government processes were being connected to Smart Anambra.
Anambra Targets 2030 for Digital Government
Agbata said the state’s 2030 target was to deepen the digitalisation of government services and create an environment where businesses could increasingly operate within the formal digital economy.
He said the agency was working with the Ministry of Commerce to promote the formalisation of businesses, particularly SMEs and businesses operating in major markets.
“One of the biggest challenges that we have is that SMEs are not formalised enough,” he said, adding that the agency was exploring partnerships to address the challenge.
The ICT agency boss said the transformation would be gradual because major government initiatives required the necessary approvals and resources.
On the possibility of making Anambra completely paperless, Agbata disclosed that the State Executive Council was already operating a paperless system.
He, however, said the entire civil service might continue to operate a combination of digital and paper-based processes for some time because of the complexity of government operations.
“What might happen is a dual situation,” he said, adding that selected MDAs could be used as pilots for deeper digital transformation.
Agbata also disclosed that the Anambra State ICT Agency had commenced the deployment of a locally trained artificial intelligence (AI) system to automate its operations and explore applications in governance, revenue management and public-sector productivity.
He explained that the agency did not develop a frontier large language model from scratch because of the huge computing and financial resources required.
Instead, he said, it adopted an open-source model, modified it and was training it for specific local use cases.
“We have started doing our own local AI system. It is an open-source system, so we didn’t build our own frontier model. We basically looked at open source and modified it, and we are training it,” Agbata said.
He said the system had already been deployed to automate the agency’s operations end-to-end.
“We have used it to automate our agency end-to-end. Everything that we do now is currently automated,” he said.
Agbata said the agency was exploring how the model could be applied across other areas of government to improve productivity, address revenue leakages and strengthen governance.
He said the AI initiative formed a major part of what he described as the agency’s “2.0” phase following his reappointment by Gov. Chukwuma Soludo.
According to him, the second phase would build on achievements in infrastructure, capacity development, e-governance and smart government while placing greater emphasis on AI and emerging technologies.
Agbata also said the state’s free public Wi-Fi initiative remained operational, stressing that the programme was introduced before the electioneering period.
“The free Wi-Fi didn’t start as a political thing, a campaign thing. It started way before the campaigns,” he said.
He explained that the strategy was adjusted during the campaigns to enable residents to follow the governor’s activities and participate in live engagements while on the move.
According to him, existing Wi-Fi locations, including facilities at the state Secretariat, remain operational, although occasional downtime occurs, particularly during periods of adverse weather.
“There are downtimes now and then because with the rains and all of that, these things have their uptime and their downtimes, but it is still very much available,” he said.
He disclosed that there were currently no plans to establish additional Wi-Fi locations, noting that existing sites were still providing services.
Agbata said the state would continue to develop digital skills and education programmes, including Smart Schools and other capacity-development initiatives.
He also called for stronger collaboration among government, technology companies, telecommunications operators, local technology manufacturers and other stakeholders to accelerate the state’s digital transformation.
He cited the procurement of about 2,000 computers supplied by indigenous technology company, Zinox, as an example of the state’s engagement with local technology providers.
Agbata said the agency would remain open to partnerships capable of supporting Anambra’s technology agenda.
He said the ultimate objective was to build an Anambra where residents and businesses could increasingly interact with government digitally, while technology becomes a central driver of economic development across the state.
United States Government has said that Nigeria is not making significant progress in fiscal transparency, referencing gaps in the country’s budget disclosure, expenditure reporting, public procurement transparency and audit processes.
The assessment is contained in a report by the United States Department of State, which reviewed Nigeria’s fiscal transparency practices in its 2026 fiscal transparency report for countries published on Tuesday.
The report noted that the US government stated that Nigeria made some key fiscal documents available to the public, significant shortcomings remained in the disclosure of budgetary information and the management of public finances.
The report noted that “the government made its enacted budget and end-of-year report widely and easily accessible to the public, including online, but did not publish its executive budget proposal within a reasonable period.”
It also stated that while the Nigerian government had made information concerning the country’s debt obligations publicly available, its budget documents failed to provide a comprehensive picture of government revenues and expenditures.
“The government made information on debt obligations, including major state-owned enterprise debt, publicly available, but budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government’s revenues and expenditures, or break down expenditures to support executive offices in the budget,” the report stated.
The US government further raised concerns about discrepancies between Nigeria’s approved budget and the actual revenues and expenditures recorded during implementation.
It said, “Actual revenues and expenditures did not reasonably correspond to those in the enacted budget.”
The report also criticised the country’s supreme audit institution, stating that it did not meet international standards of independence and did not publish substantive reports, although it had access to the entire executed budget.
“The supreme audit institution did not meet international standards of independence or publish substantive reports but did have access to the entire executed budget,” it stated.
The assessment, however, acknowledged that Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund had an adequate legal framework and disclosed information about its funding and the general approach to withdrawals.History
“The sovereign wealth fund had a sound legal framework and disclosed its source of funding and general approach to withdrawals,” the US government said.
The World Bank Group is supporting the expansion of Africa’s digital commerce infrastructure to help small businesses reach new markets, create jobs, and strengthen economic opportunities across the continent.
Through Jumia, Africa’s leading e-commerce platform, the investment is expected to enable approximately 60,000 local annual active sellers to participate more fully in the digital economy, support around 1,800 direct jobs, and create income-generating opportunities for more than 100,000 independent sales agents.
As digital commerce continues to grow across Africa, reliable access to online marketplaces, logistics networks, and digital payments are becoming increasingly important for entrepreneurs and small businesses seeking to expand beyond local markets. Strengthening this infrastructure can help firms increase sales, improve productivity, and connect consumers with a wider range of affordable goods and services.
To support this effort, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, is investing US$25 million in equity in Jumia Technologies AG (Jumia), Africa’s largest public e-commerce platform. The investment will support Jumia’s next phase of growth across its core African markets, strengthening its integrated marketplace and logistics network.
By expanding access to digital commerce tools and services, the investment will help businesses grow, improve price transparency, and contribute to more inclusive and resilient private sector development across Africa.
“The support of the World Bank Group is a milestone for Jumia and for African e-commerce more broadly. It validates both the discipline we have brought to our business in recent years and the tangible impact our platform has on small businesses, jobs, and consumers across our eight markets. With partners like the IFC, we can accelerate the digital commerce infrastructure Africa needs” said Francis Dufay, CEO of Jumia.
“Jumia demonstrates how pan-African e-commerce platforms can expand economic opportunity at scale. Our investment supports the company’s next phase of growth while contributing to create jobs, digitizing supply chains and distributions channels and mobilizing private investment” said Farid Fezoua, Director for Equity, Funds, and Venture Capital at the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group.
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