General News
Courier Service is Capital Intensive -Chinekezi
Mr. Larry Chinekezi, is managing /CEO of Tradeways Express, the largest indigenous independent courier company in Nigeria today
He is a recipient of many awards for outstanding contributions to the growth of the communications industry and has demonstrated high sense of accountability, integrity and transparency in his public and private life. Chinekezi has over 21 years experience in the courier industry and was once the managing director of TNT/IAS Express before leaving for Tradeways Express.
Independent Regulator for the Sector
So much has been said in that direction in the last three years. We have presented papers and have met with the Minister of Information and Communications and other stakeholders on that. We have presented papers to them and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) had in few occasions called stakeholders meeting where we dialogued over this issue and papers presented to the problem were harmonized. BPE is anchoring the process and I do know as I speak that the matter is in the National Assembly now. It is left for them to go on with their legislative function. We have been expecting that the public forum would have been called by now by the National Assembly so that people can defend their proposals and have the opportunity to say their minds. I can tell you right now that all the stakeholders have agreed that it is desirable but when it will actualize, I cannot tell.
Document Favouring Nipost
We are talking about privatization here and we do believe that the BPE people are well informed just as you said they are partnering with an international consultancy firm who knows what to do and even the publications we made gave our own input into the matter. We expect that when the document comes out, it is a document that will take care of every input made by all the stakeholders. So it is not going to be something for Nipost alone because we have said very clearly that it should not be something that will give birth to monopoly. it should not turn a public institution into a private monopoly. It has to be something that will take care of the interests of Nigerians. Just like when the telecom sector was liberalized, every body saw the system open up and nobody had any negative thing to say about it. So we expect to go the same way. We have no fear at the back of our mind that BPE will do the right thing.
Involvement in Illegal Drugs Business
No licensed courier company worth its salt will want to mingle with fraudsters. But looking at the other way round, it is human being that carry drugs and they must use the normal channel of movement and you see them being caught more often than not trying to board one international flight or the other. The owners of the airlines on their own wouldn’t want to accommodate the drug traffickers but for the fact that they do it without the airliners knowing makes it difficult for the airliners. The security operatives at the airport now know how to catch them in their game in the past if somebody has used a courier firm to move drugs, it does not mean courier companies have started to partner with drug barons or 419 people. It does not happen that somebody can use the system without the knowledge of the operator. That is why you have the NDLEA operatives manning major courier companies here especially those that have international consignments. They are also at the airport to ensure that every export material is screened. So that way, I am sure they will be able to catch anybody who abuses the system.
Areas of Reform by Tradeways
Well, there have been challenges with the economy going up and down. The reform is geared towards ensuring that we can absorb shocks arising from negative turn around in the economy. If you look at the existing infrastructure in the country, sometime ago Nepa was almost nonexistent and we had to rely solely on our own electric power generation because we needed to use energy to power our computers and reach our customers on line. The roads are also very bad and the airlines are not working as they used to. Courier service is synonymous with all services. Then, 95 percent of courier materials used to move by air but now the reverse is the case. About 5 per cent of courier materials are moving by air while 95 per cent are moving by road. That is why you have to look at that area and ensure you have seamless operation, which is the area we have focused on to ensure that we don’t only have the right system but also the customers. We initially focused on courier but as our business began to expand, we felt the need to invest more into cargo and international freight and that means having more cars, more professional staff coming in. Our staff strength has increased and as we continue to expand, it will keep increasing. The cost of doing business has gone up so much that we no longer talk about bottom-line, we are talking about survival in the face of difficulties. We are eventually doing everything by ourselves. The ones government used to do before, they are no longer doing them. So we have to employ staff and train them regularly. That is part of our expansion programme.
Level of Investment in Courier
Level of investment in courier is very poor compared with level of investment in the telecommunications sector. That is why we are hoping that the new regulator that is being expected will look more into professionalism rather the ability to issue licenses. Paying one million naira to acquire the license does not mean that somebody is ready to offer courier service as it should be. There is high level of investment required. Courier service requires enormous amount of money to run and when somebody does not have such huge amount of money to run the business, he can hardly create awareness. Over there, as it should be, supply chain management has improved so much. Companies no longer own warehouses where they stock their goods as they produce, courier companies, logistics companies go to the production line to pick up these goods as they come out and move them to places where they are needed in the distribution channel, and even warehouse for them so that when the goods are needed as required by their distributors, wholesalers and consumers, they can distribute from those end points. It is no longer the situation where for instance, you have Cadbury moving their goods from Lagos to all parts of the country. This will require Cadbury having large fleet of trucks to be able to do that . but you now have a logistics company that is supporting them. As these goods are coming out, they are picking them and distributing them. Manufacturing companies don’t have to buy trucks and opening warehouses all over the country. They rely on our logistics and then have the opportunity to focus on core business of production and it reduces a lot of cost for them. The kind of investment we are making is geared towards ensuring that we have what it takes to undertake such logistics services to the manufacturing sector and other sectors that require it.
Any Plans for Franchising
Oh yes and that‘s an area we are looking at. At the moment, we are still in the drawing board, we have not finalized arrangements. It’s an area we are looking at to be able to get the business closer to the people, even those in the hinterland/ we don’t have to go opening up offices and equipping them when there is somebody there ( a local person ) that can run it successfully. All we need do is to give him the backbone, the professional support and know how and ensure that standard is available there and service is seamless. So we are looking into that and that is part of how we want to achieve our goal of becoming the leading logistics courier company in Nigeria
Ensuring Quality in the Arrangement
It is just like having an agency of a telecom company. They provide the backbone. On your own, you don’t have to switch a network and all that, you are just an outlet. You have the manpower and the location. In every other thing, you still work through them. In the same way, you will just have an outlet there and our network is extended to that place. So we can still pick up and deliver.
Competition in the Industry
In every business, there are always market leaders. It so happened that the so called foreign courier companies are part of the market leaders. So market leaders always determine the way market is done in a particular sector. Again, I said something about investment, if you have what it takes to compete with these people, of course, you can , but if you don’t have, you cannot be like them. When we started in 2002, we said we wanted to compete with the biggest in the industry and we set out and opened 37 offices in all the thirty six states of the federation the same day plus Abuja. So, on day one we opened, we had branches in all the states. We never gave anybody to deliver for us. The same also across the country. We also secured our international relationship so that our mails outside the country can be delivered using our own network without using anybody within the country and I can tell you that the first mail we handled when we started was an international mail that went to Bangkok, Thailand and it was delivered in three days and that gave us the impetus that we had a good future. It was a test case just like when a telecom company comes up and they do their test run.. In fact our feat brought about change in the courier service. We came with a bang and sold the idea to courier companies that operated that time that things could be done in a better way and you can see what has happened in the last six years.
Fidelity Bank Plc, a leading financial institution, will host a free virtual training on the Nigeria Tax Act 2025 (NTA) as part of its commitment to helping small businesses prepare for the upcoming legislation.
Fidelity Bank
The masterclass is scheduled for 10:00 AM (Nigerian time) on Friday, 12 December 2025. It will provide participants with clear insights into changes in the tax framework, the impact on income and business operations, and practical steps to avoid penalties in 2026.
Attendees will also learn strategies to stay ahead in an evolving regulatory environment.
The Nigerian government enacted major tax reforms on 26 June 2025 when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed four tax bills into law.
These Acts will take effect on 1 January 2026 and represent a significant overhaul of the country’s tax system.
The reforms aim to modernize and harmonize Nigeria’s tax framework, improve revenue generation, broaden the tax base, and create clearer rules for individuals, businesses, and government agencies.
“Our decision to host this masterclass reflects our commitment to empowering businesses with the right information ahead of the commencement of the new tax regime.
“Information is money and a well-informed business owner is already steps ahead in the race to success.
“This is why we are bringing experts to provide accurate details and demystify the tax act,” said Osita Ede, Divisional Head, Product Development, Fidelity Bank Plc.
Interested participants can register via https://bit.ly/2026TaxLawMasterclass .
PalmPay, Nigeria’s leading digital banking platform, has renewed its commitment to deepening financial inclusion across the country. At the CeBIH Annual Conference 2025, themed “Reimagining Financial Inclusion through Cultural Shifts in Consumer Credit,” PalmPay’s Managing Director, Chika Nwosu, urged industry players to deepen financial inclusion by embracing community-aligned solutions and customer-centric innovations that can better serve Nigeria’s underserved and unbanked populations.
Speaking during a panel session titled “Social Inclusion, A Veritable Tool for Financial Inclusion,” Chika Nwosu joined other industry leaders to share insights on strengthening participation among women, rural dwellers, low-income earners, and other financially excluded groups.
Chika Nwosu highlighted PalmPay’s commitment to inclusive finance through its 500,000-strong agent network, which enables seamless cash-in/cash-out services for unbanked users across Nigeria. He also emphasised the importance of PalmPay’s USSD platform, 861#, which allows users with basic phones or limited internet access to perform essential financial transactions.
“Financial inclusion goes beyond access; it must be equitable and tailored to real-life needs,” Chika Nwosu said. He shared how PalmPay leverages behavioural insights to design impactful services, including affordable health insurance, reliable bill payments, merchant solutions, and automated savings features that support financial discipline among users.
The session further examined the role of grassroots agents and community touchpoints in driving last-mile adoption. Chika Nwosu noted that PalmPay’s widespread community presence continues to build trust and encourage excluded populations to embrace digital financial tools.
The session was moderated by Ronke Kuye of the CeBIH Advisory Council and featured representatives from E-Doc Online, SmartCash Payment Service Bank, SANEF, and EFINA.
PalmPay reaffirmed its commitment to driving accessible, secure, and inclusive financial services for all Nigerians. PalmPay is a leading digital banking platform driving financial inclusion and economic empowerment in underserved emerging markets. Through its secure, user-friendly, and inclusive suite of financial services, PalmPay empowers individuals and businesses with tools to manage and grow their money.
PalmPay offers a comprehensive range of products, including mobile payments, savings, and micro-insurance via its app and mobile money agent network.
Since launching in Nigeria in 2019 under a Mobile Money Operator license, the platform has grown to over 35 million app users. PalmPay has operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, and Bangladesh.
Reality Defender and 1Kosmos have announced a strategic partnership that will see the deepfake detection firm integrate its real-time deepfake defenses into 1Kosmos’ blockchain-based biometric authentication platform.
Deepfake
A release says the integration enhances the platform’s existing PAD capabilities with new signals on both live and pre-recorded AI-generated image and video impersonations: “multimodal deepfake detection” that “enhances ISO/IEC 30107-3 PAD Level 2 performance to counter the growing share of synthetic-media attacks.”
“Deepfake attacks are evolving faster than most organizations can adapt, and detecting them requires specialized, continuously updated models,” says Ben Colman, CEO of Reality Defender. Reality Defender’s models keep pace with regulatory changes like the EU AI Act and upcoming ISO 25456 standards, to ensure seamless compliance.
“Advances in AI-generated impersonations are rewriting the rules of identity assurance and ratcheting up fraud losses,” says Mike Engle, chief strategy officer for 1Kosmos. “By adding Reality Defender as an embedded detection layer, we’re enabling enterprises to verify identity with greater certainty and stop AI-driven impersonation attacks before they result in financial loss, brand damage, or regulatory consequences.”
The product deploys without friction, integrating natively into existing 1Kosmos workflows, identity stacks, and user experiences with no new licenses, retraining or rearchitecture.
Resemble AI heads straight to market with new funding
Resemble AI has raised 13 million dollars in strategic funding to accelerate development on its voice generation and deepfake detection products. An announcement says the investment round includes Google’s AI Future Fund, Okta Ventures, Taiwania Capital, Gentree Fund, IAG Capital Partners, Berkeley Frontier Fund and KDDI – partnerships, the firm says, that “create immediate paths to market distribution and embed our technology within key identity and security ecosystems.”
The company says its deepfake detection model achieves 98 percent accuracy across more than 40 languages with multimodal threat detection across audio, video, images and text, and enhanced explainability for content analysis. It intends to use the investment to “fuel our global expansion and accelerate the development of our AI detection platform.”
FARx releases new multimodal deepfake detection tool
FARx, which bills itself as “the world’s only fused-biometrics company,” has announced the launch of FARx 2.0, its new generation of biometric software which fuses speaker, speech and face recognition for added capabilities in synthetic and cloned voice detection. The software can be integrated into browsers, apps and communication systems, and operates in the background to provide continuous multi-factor authentication without disruption.
A post on the firm’s LinkedIn page says FARx 2.0 “identifies not just what is being said but who is speaking, enabling it to detect and block attempts to spoof someone’s identity using synthetic voices, deepfakes, or cloned audio and video.” Trained on some 55,000 synthetic voices from real telephony environments, it can “reliably distinguish between real and AI-generated voices.”
The Malvern Gazette quotes Clive Summerfield, CEO of the Worcestershire, UK-based firm, who says the new product aims to deliver “an even more sophisticated, flexible biometric multi-factor authentication technology to users across a broad range of industries and applications.”
“Legacy voice biometrics and traditional MFA systems are simply no longer enough to outsmart the new era of AI-powered threats.”
The launch follows a recent investment of 250,000 pounds (about US$337,00) through the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS).
Grant funds deepfake tool tailored to South Korea, Singapore
A team from Singapore Management University (SMU) has won a grant to develop a deepfake detection tool. A release says the project will be “the first multilingual deepfake data set that includes dialectal variants such as Singlish and Korean dialects.”
“Many existing tools don’t perform well on Asian languages, accents, or content,” says Professor He Shengfeng, who leads the team. “We’re focused on building something that fits the specific needs of our region.”
Understanding different linguistic, socio-cultural and environmental characteristics was a key requirement for the grant, which comes from AI Singapore (AISG) and South Korea’s Institute for Information & Communication Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP).
The team has dubbed its tool DeepShield, which its proposal paper calls “the first unified interpretable detection system capable of handling diverse and multi-modal manipulations – including object insertions, lighting alterations, background swaps, and voice dubbing – within a single, explainable pipeline.”
Overall, DeepShield wants to position itself as “not merely a detection tool, but a next-generation AI governance layer for digital media integrity – setting it apart from commercial offerings in both ambition and design.” The ultimate goal is a spin-off startup that He imagines licensing services such as deepfake forensics, media authenticity verification, enterprise compliance and digital governance to public and private enterprise.
Work commences in January 2026 with the scouring of large-scale, publicly available datasets such as the YouTube8M dataset.
Ant International’s winning deepfake detector looks to eliminate bias
Ant International has won first place at the NeurIPS Competition of Fairness in AI Face Detection. A release from the company says its entry trumped over 2,100 submissions from 162 teams globally.
The deepfake detection contest challenged participants to develop AI models that “not only achieve high-utility performance but also demonstrate fairness across demographic subgroups such as gender, age, and skin tone.”
“A biased AI is an insecure AI,” says Dr. Tianyi Zhang, general manager of risk management and cybersecurity at Ant International. “Our model’s fairness prevents exploitation from deepfakes and ensures reliable identity verification for all users, supporting our mission to deliver secure and inclusive financial services worldwide.”
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