E-Business
ConnectNigeria Panelists Urge SMEs to Leverage Mobile Money, eCommerce
It is an obvious situation that the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are confronted with several challenges which hamper their growth and the nation’s economic development.
Chiefly among the challenges that need to be addressed immediately include finding solutions to the high cost of doing business occasioned by poor infrastructure (power, roads, water), multiple taxation, high cost of legal documentation of credit facilities at both the states Lands Registries and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC); inadequate capacity building on the part of the SMEs in the areas of entrepreneurship, and skills acquisition, resulting in the perception of the sector as high risk and poor attitude to loan repayment by borrowers in the sector.
With these in mind, Connectnigeria.com recently organized an e-Business Fair for SME owner to engage face-t-face with players in the financial, e-commerce, and telecommunication sector, and to seek palliatives to the challenges.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the Fair, Mr. Obaro Osah, head, Lagos Region, SMEs Group at Bank of Industry (BoI) said that the Bank has ben playing critical role by providing grounds for small businesses financing.
He said that the Bank has made the process of accessing funds very easy by reducing the processes to three easy activities to apply for funding now, giving every Nigerian access to funding for business.
According to him, most startups are faced with the challenge of penning down marketable business proposal.
In lieu of that, BOI entered into partnership with 232 Business Development Support Partners (BDSPs) to help the entrepreneurs in drafting presentable proposals to banks for grants or loans.
He also urged participants and other startups to embrace cashless as a means of reducing risks associated with carrying cash around, and means of packaging their activities to partake in the formal sector of the economy.
Also speaking, Mr. Mike Ogbalu, managing director, FirstMonie, the FirstBank mobile money services platform, said that they have been driving innovative mobile payment systems and commitment to continuously deliver innovative products and solutions, part of which includes enhancing the robustness of its mobile banking and mobile payments platforms.
Ogbalu while encouraging participants at the Forum to join other 2.4 million FirstMonie subscribers who enjoy services dispatched through more than 13,000 agents it has established, he said the ultimate aim is to create more value for their customers.
Firstmonie is designed to enhance financial inclusion and cater for millions of Nigeria’s unbanked and the underbanked citizens, while aligning with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy to promote a cashless economy in Nigeria.
Ogbalu said that the Firstmonie solution was provided to entrench e-banking through the use of the mobile phone and to mitigate the challenges of banking services delivery to the vast unbanked market.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek recalled that, in recognition of Firstmonie continued effort to drive financial inclusion, lead innovation in mobile payment systems and support the CBN cash-less policy, the platform was awarded the Best Mobile Money Operator in Nigeria by the EFInA Financial Inclusion Awards.
From Union Bank of Nigeria’s perspective, Mr. Ayodeji Mebude, head of Channels, said that the bank sees support for SMEs growth as critical in the life of a nation.
He said, this inspired the Union Bank and as part of its transformation programmes to launch a number of initiatives targeted at the group.
Apparently, Union Bank launched an enterprise hybrid account that gives growing businesses the flexibility of a current account with the benefits of a savings account.
It is suitable for businesses such as co-operative societies, trade associations, professional bodies, social clubs and Non-governmental organizations.
Some of the features of the UnionEnterprise Hybrid Account include: access to Union Bank’s array of value adding, e-banking products and services; a minimum daily opening and closing balance of N5, 000 only; lodgement of cheques/dividend warrants; as well as provisions for third party over-the-counter transactions across the Union Bank branch network.
Additionally, UnionEnterprise Hybrid Account holders will enjoy accrued interest on their account balance at the prevailing savings account rate, with zero commission on turn over.
Representing Skye Bank, Ayodele Olojede, head, Small Business Group, said that as parts of its contribution towards the development of the real sector of the economy, Skye Bank Plc had introduced a number of products and incentives designed to help Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) grow their businesses through access to finance and effective management of their financial resources.
Olojede said that the bank’s decision to support SMEs is based on the realisation that these small businesses are the major drivers of any economy worldwide.
She also hinted that the Bank will be making a major announcement in that regard soon.
And Femi George, data platform lead, Microsoft Nigeria, added that entrepreneurs ought to foster a culture of business innovation to survive in the present tech-world.
He said, Microsoft recognizes that, “In the digital age, technology has become the great equalizer, giving voice to your customers, partners, and employees and enabling your business to listen and become more responsive to customer needs and opportunities – using the connectedness of the cloud to respond with new business models, expanded channels and improved processes”.
He defined ‘The Microsoft Cloud’ as unique, as the companies that use it.
From a city that streamlines how its people travel through it, to a global outdoor apparel company that connects its teams around the world. See how this cloud has transformed some of the world’s greatest brands, George said urging the participants to leverage the opportunities in the Cloud.
Mr. Emeka Okafor, managing director, Connectnigeria.com, Organisers of the Forum, spoke to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek on the sideline of their decision to host the Forum with over 1000 SMEs in attendance.
He said, “Developing entrepreneurs is a continuous process in the life of a nation. What we hope people got out of the Forum is knowledge that will help them propel their businesses from, maybe, N1,000 to N10,000 daily or from a ten-man business to 100-man business. We looked for the professionals and those that have passed through some rough edges to share their experiences and inspire the young ones; telling them the steps to follow and others to avoid.
“Great countries do not depend on government to grow businesses; individuals do. Bill Gates of this world, and others did things that changed the world. Government may be doing enough in terms of policies, but which country has ever said that government is doing enough? They are individuals who go beyond current trends and break even.
“So, we put the Forum together because of love for the Country. We love this country; it is the only one we have and we want it to grow. We believe that now we are in the digital age, IT moves the world, we have very creative people; surprisingly, God has blessed this nation that close to 80% of the population are youths, therefore, if we are able to make them see potentials in what they do, the nation’s economy will blossom. Imagine where one million young people hired two million people each, we will wipe out unemployment”.
He described various eCommerce platforms introduced in the market as “fantastic; there is nowhere else we can go except up! Gone are the days were like ‘Nigerians are fraudulent, so we cannot do business with them’. They have seen the potentials of eCommerce with the ever growing population, smartphone users, internet growth and other developmental strides.
The fair also featured panel discussions that involved Supermart, Uber, Jovago, among others; exhibitions and networking.
Data Knowledge and Information Privacy Protection Initiative (DKIPPI) has warned that widespread ignorance of data privacy practices is exposing Nigeria to serious national security and economic risks amid a rise in ransomware attacks.
Tokunbo Smith, president of DKIPPI, warned on Tuesday in Lagos, that the increasing frequency of ransomware incidents underscores the dangers of weak data protection systems across organisations and institutions.
He described ransomware attacks as a growing threat in which hackers infiltrate systems, demand payments and threaten to leak sensitive data.
Mr Smith said, “The cost of ignorance in data privacy is not just what you lose. It is what you expose. Data privacy has evolved beyond a technical concern to a critical governance and national development issue requiring urgent attention. Ransomware is no longer just cybercrime; it is economic warfare and a governance issue.”
Mr Smith urged both public and private sector leaders to adopt proactive and comprehensive data protection frameworks to safeguard sensitive information and strengthen institutional resilience.
He also called on government at all levels to go beyond punitive responses and implement stronger regulations, enforcement mechanisms, and national cyber resilience strategies.
According to him, DKIPPI will soon release a policy advocacy paper outlining the key risks associated with poor data protection practices.
He said the paper would highlight financial losses, institutional inefficiencies, and threats to national security, while recommending urgent reforms to procurement processes, compliance systems, and governance structures.
Mr Smith added that addressing data privacy gaps was critical to protecting Nigeria’s digital economy and restoring trust in its institutions.
Decision to cancel the $32.8 million fine previously imposed on Meta for alleged data privacy violations was taken as far back as October 30, 2025.
The development has raised concerns over the country’s approach to data protection enforcement and regulatory transparency.
This followed a confidential, out-of-court settlement singed by Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) with Meta, effectively waiving the fine imposed earlier that year.
This deal, sanctioned by a Federal High Court, resolved disputes over behavioural advertising and user data transfers without Meta paying the penalty.
Recall that the NDPC claimed that it launched investigation in September 2023 that examined Meta’s handling of personal data from more than 60 million Nigerian users.
The NDPC had accused Meta of several breaches, including the absence of explicit consent for behavioural advertising, unauthorised cross-border data transfers, the collection of data from non-users, and the deployment of algorithms that could expose users to financial and health risks.
At the time, the regulator described the penalty as part of efforts to strengthen digital rights protections in Africa’s most populous country, aligning Nigeria with global enforcement trends in the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union, where Meta and other major technology firms have faced multibillion-dollar fines for similar violations.
However, documents from a subsequent settlement indicate that Nigeria reversed its position in October 2025.
Under the agreement, Meta was absolved of the $32.8 million penalty and required only to cover legal fees incurred by the government during court proceedings challenging the NDPC’s final orders.
The settlement was signed on 30 October 2025 and later validated by the Federal High Court in Abuja on 3 November 2025.
Despite this judicial confirmation, the terms of the agreement were not made public at the time, and only recently emerged through disclosed documentation.
The development has triggered questions about transparency in regulatory enforcement, particularly given the scale of the initial allegations and the number of affected users.
Iliya-Ezekiel Ndatse, data protection lawyer, said the outcome weakens regulatory deterrence.
“Removing penalties after such findings reduces the effectiveness of enforcement actions and weakens the credibility of compliance obligations,” he noted.
The case has also drawn comparisons with Nigeria’s previous dispute involving Twitter, now rebranded as X, which was banned in 2021 before the two parties reached a negotiated resolution.
E-Business
Kaspersky Discovers Vulnerability in Qualcomm Snapdragon Chips that can Lead to Data Loss & Device Compromise
Kaspersky ICS CERT discovered a hardware-level vulnerability affecting Qualcomm chipsets that are widely used in a range of consumer and industrial devices, including smartphones and tablets, car components, IoT devices and more.
The vulnerability resides in the BootROM – firmware embedded at the hardware level. Attackers could potentially get access to any data stored on the device or device sensors like camera and microphone, implement complicated attack scenarios and in some circumstances get full control of the device. The results of the research were presented at Black Hat Asia 2026.
The vulnerability affects Qualcomm MDM9x07, MDM9x45, MDM9x65, MSM8909, MSM8916, MSM8952 and SDX50 series and was reported to Qualcomm in March 2025. Qualcomm formally acknowledged the vulnerability in April 2025. It has been assigned a CVE-2026-25262. Other Qualcomm-based chips may be affected as well.
Kaspersky researchers explored the Sahara protocol, a low-level communication system used when a Qualcomm chip enters Emergency Download Mode (EDL) – a special recovery mode designed for repairing or restoring smartphones or other devices. Sahara acts as the first step that allows a computer to connect to the device and load software before the operating system on the device starts.
Kaspersky demonstrated that a security flaw in this process could allow an attacker with physical access to the target device to bypass key security protections in the chip, compromise the secure boot chain and, in some cases, deploy malicious applications and backdoors to the chip’s Application Processor, thus fully compromising the entire device.
For example, in cases when the target device is a smartphone or a tablet, the attacker can potentially get access to entered user passwords, and subsequently this opens further access to multiple types of sensitive user data, such as files, contacts, location, access to the devices’ camera and microphone, etc.
A potential attacker only needs a few minutes of physical access to a device to compromise it. Therefore, if a smartphone has been sent for repair or left unattended for a short time, one can no longer be sure it is not infected. Researchers warn that the threat extends beyond end-user scenarios to include potential compromise during the supply chain phase.
“Vulnerabilities like this may allow attackers to deploy malware that is difficult to detect and remove. In practice, this could enable covert data collection or influence device behaviour over extended periods of time.
“While a reboot might seem like an effective way to remove such malware, it cannot always be relied upon: compromised systems may simulate a reboot without actually resetting. In such cases, only a complete loss of power – including battery depletion – guarantees a clean restart,” comments Sergey Anufrienko, security expert at Kaspersky ICS CERT.
Kaspersky advises organisations and individual users to exercise strict physical security control over devices including at the supply, maintenance and decommissioning phases. A reboot of the device by cutting off the power supply to the affected chip (if available) or full battery discharge may help to get rid of the malware if it was installed.
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