E-Business
B2B e-commerce Platforms and the Consumer Goods Distribution Value Chain

By Lere Ojedokun
International rating agency eMarketer estimated that the global e-commerce sector would be worth USD27 trillion in 2020. This may not be anything near what the world’s e-commerce market expected when Phil Brandenberger of Philadelphia, the man famed to be the initiator of the e-commerce revolution, made his first purchase on August 11, 1994.

Prior to 2012 when this revolution extended to the country, most Nigerians used to hear of people who shop at the comfort of their homes and have their orders delivered to them. This used to be one of those foreign stories, told by the privileged few who have lived overseas.
Today, e-commerce has grown to become a big part of Nigerians with many platforms offering general and specialised products and services. The burgeoning market could only be as a result of the many benefits that accrue to all the touchpoints in the value chain – e-commerce platforms, manufacturers, wholesalers, logistics services providers, customers and many others.
The success of the e-commerce platforms in the country, which play mostly in the business-to-customers (B2C) subsector spurred many other players who see a big opportunity in extending such services to the business-to-business (B2B) subsector.
In the past few years, many platforms like Alerzo, Omnibiz Africa, Wabi Nigeria, Chooya etc have sprung up and are helping to facilitate the estimated USD100+ billion informal retail market in the country.
Just like the B2C e-commerce platforms are positively touching the lives of their stakeholders, the B2B platforms, with their niche offerings, are positively facilitating the businesses of their stakeholders, especially the manufacturers, the wholesalers and the retailers, who have latched onto their platforms.
Among other things, the manufacturers and distributors benefit from the logistics services offered by platforms like Alerzo as these platforms transport the ordered goods from manufacturers’ and distributors’ warehouses to the target retailers, scattered all over the country at no cost to these manufacturers and distributors.
Perhaps, one of the most strategic offerings of the B2B e-commerce platforms for manufacturers and distributors in the country is market intelligence. They collect data of, and develop insights around, consumer behaviours and preferences.
Manufacturers and distributors can partner with these B2B companies to share these insights and use them to guide their production and supply respectively, ultimately giving them a better understanding of their end consumer.
For the retailers, the B2B e-commerce platforms have not only boosted their profitability but have also reduced the burden that comes with the day-to-day running of their businesses as well as making their businesses more sustainable.
These platforms buy from the manufacturers and/or the big-time distributors at good prices and through their scale sell to the informal retailers at prices below what are obtainable in the open markets where third party costs are factored into the prices.
Another major gain of the informal retailers from the emergence of the B2B e-commerce platforms is that they can sit in the comfort of their shops or homes and, with a click of a button on any of the multiple channels open to them, restock their shops. Alerzo, for instance, enables this through its retail app, Alerzoshop.
Some of these B2B platforms even go the extra mile of delivering these retailers’ orders to their shops at no extra cost to them.
For example, Alerzo has been delivering the orders of the over 80,000 informal retailers across the country who have signed up to its platform, and in the process, is elevating their health status, improving their quality of family life and saving them huge resources that would have been expended in the running of their businesses.
The icing on the cake for these retailers is that many of these B2B platforms offer book-keeping applications for retailers to track their sales, cost, price, profit and manage their customers, as well as payment platforms (which manufacturers and distributors can also take advantage of) like AlerzoPay and Veedez by Alerzo.
With an increasing number of retailers adopting smarter ways of doing business, it is expected that more manufacturers will take advantage of this trend, especially in a growing competitive market.
Lere Ojedokun is a Communications Expert based in Lagos
E-Business
Kaspersky Brings AI-driven Context to Cloud Workload Security

Kaspersky has updated its Cloud Workload Security (CWS) offering, introducing AI-powered workload analysis, enhanced integrations and performance optimisations designed to help organisations better secure complex cloud and hybrid environments.

The latest update brings integration with OpenAI API in the Kaspersky Container Security (KCS) part of the offering, also resulting in the creation of a new Advanced Pro license within the product.
The new capability provides contextual descriptions of detected vulnerabilities and potential risks, helping accelerate investigations, reduce knowledge gaps and support faster decision-making.
Designed for modern DevOps and hybrid cloud environments, Kaspersky CWS provides centralised visibility across workloads, Kubernetes clusters and cloud platforms, while supporting runtime protection, shift-left security practices and regulatory compliance requirements.
AI-driven visibility and improved workload protection
The update allows organisations to enrich container image scanning results with automated explanations and risk context generated by third-party large language models integrated via OpenAI API. By transforming technical scan data into actionable insights, the feature helps teams prioritise remediation and streamline security operations.
Additional improvements include single sign-on (SSO) integration and multi-domain Active Directory support, enabling more seamless deployment across distributed enterprise environments.
To optimise performance, Kaspersky CWS now also enhances image scanning efficiency by skipping oversized images when needed and avoiding rescans of identical images within a predefined timeframe. Expanded security policy capabilities and UX/UI updates further simplify workload protection and policy management.
Enhanced protection across cloud environments
The new release also updates Light Agent components, now leveraging the latest versions of Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Windows (version 12.12) and Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Linux (version 12.4) to improve overall security and integration capabilities.
“As AI adoption accelerates across industries, organisations are increasingly relying on containerised environments – placing additional pressure on security teams.
“To help ease this burden, we introduced AI integration within Kaspersky Cloud Workload Security that enables security professionals, including those just beginning their journey in container security, to make faster decisions and gain deeper insight into potential risks and vulnerabilities,” comments Anton Rusakov-Rudenko, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Cloud & Network Security at Kaspersky.
“Combined with performance optimisations and expanded integration capabilities, the solution helps organisations to protect cloud environments more efficiently while maintaining operational resilience.”
E-Business
SARS Denies Being Hacked by Nullsec Nigeria, Hacker Group

South African Revenue Service (SARS) has dismissed claims that its systems were breached, following allegations by a hacker group that it had compromised the tax authority’s digital infrastructure.

The controversy emerged after Nullsec Nigeria, a threat actor also known as Anonymous Nigeria, claimed to have breached both SARS and the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).
The hacktivist group allegedly posted links to download what it claimed was compromised data on the Breached hacker forum on Saturday, 23 May 2026, sparking concerns over a possible cyberattack targeting government systems.
However, SARS said it had conducted a thorough investigation into the claims and found no evidence that its systems had been compromised.
“SARS continuously monitors its systems for any suspicious activity and has conducted a thorough investigation in response to these reports. These claims are false and unsubstantiated,” the revenue service said in a statement.
“At this stage, there is no evidence that SARS’s systems have been compromised. SARS wishes to reassure the public regarding the integrity of its systems.”
The tax authority stressed that safeguarding taxpayer information remains one of its core responsibilities and forms part of its broader efforts to maintain public confidence in South Africa’s tax administration system.
SARS said the “protection of taxpayer information and the security of its digital platforms” is treated as “sacrosanct”.
The agency also urged South Africans to avoid sharing unverified claims and instead rely on official channels for accurate information.
“Members of the public are urged to verify information before sharing and not to circulate unverified claims or rely on information from unofficial sources,” SARS said.
At the same time, SARS warned taxpayers to remain vigilant against phishing scams and fraudulent messages falsely claiming to be from the tax authority.
For guidance on identifying scams and phishing attempts, SARS directed the public to its official online resource page: SARS scams and phishing guidance
SARS said it would continue monitoring its digital environment and communicate any developments through official platforms should the need arise.
E-Business
Pope Calls for ‘Disarming’ of AI, Warns of “New Forms of Slavery”

Pope Leo XIV called Monday for the “disarming” of artificial intelligence in his long-awaited manifesto on the rapidly developing technology, and warned of “new forms of slavery” behind its rise.

Leo, warned against “a race for ever more powerful algorithms and larger datasets, driven by the desire to secure geopolitical or commercial dominance”.
He presented his first encyclical, “Magnifica Humanitas” (Magnificent Humanity) in person at the Vatican, alongside AI experts including Christopher Olah, co-founder of US giant Anthropic.
Anthropic is embroiled in a legal battle with the US military after opposing the use of its technology for lethal autonomous warfare and mass surveillance.
At the presentation, Olah said AI companies operate “inside a set of incentives and constraints that can sometimes conflict with doing the right thing”.
He welcomed input from outside actors like the Catholic Church, to “push events in a better direction” saying that “the questions raised by AI are bigger than the AI research community”.
In the encyclical, Leo also sounded the alarm over AI-directed weaponry, saying it was “not permissible to entrust lethal” decisions to tech.
Leo has repeatedly clashed with the White House over the Iran war and its use of religion to justify conflict.
The “just war” theory — espoused recently by the Trump administration — was “outdated”, Leo wrote, adding that “no algorithm can make war morally acceptable”.
AI could be worth up to $4.8 trillion by 2033, a 25-fold increase in a decade, while concentrating its profits in the hands of a limited few, according to the United Nations.
“Disarming AI means freeing it from the mentality of ‘armed’ competition,” the pope wrote.
“To disarm does not mean rejecting technology, but preventing it from dominating humanity,” Leo wrote.
AI should be “human-friendly”, accessible to all, and open to discussion and debate, he added.
The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics has made the hot-button issue a cornerstone of his papacy by dedicating to it his first encyclical — a document that lays the basis for Church teaching and longer-term debate.
The manifesto references a range of cultural giants, from Greek philosopher Plato to Beethoven and his Ninth Symphony, even citing a character from JRR Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”.
“Magnifica Humanitas” was signed on May 15, the 135th anniversary of an 1891 encyclical by Leo XIII, which laid the foundations of the Church’s social doctrine during the Industrial Revolution.
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