News
COVID-19 Palliatives: Atedo Peterside Urges Rich Nigerians to Copy Zinox Solution to Feed the Poor
Rich and influential Nigerians as well as state and local governments and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) have been urged to borrow a leaf from the strategy deployed by the Zinox Group and Konga to reach and deliver much-needed succour to poor and needy families across Nigeria as the lockdown occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic bites harder.
This was the view of Atedo Peterside, founder, Stanbic Bank.
Peterside, who doubles as the Chairman, Anap Foundation COVID-19 Think-Tank, made this suggestion when he spoke as a guest on a televised interview on Africa Independent Television (AIT) on Wednesday.
The Rivers-born entrepreneur, who submitted that the country needed to improve some of the approaches it was deploying in fighting the pandemic, affirmed that there are three pillars in the COVID-19 fight: medical, governance and communication.
However, he disclosed that safety nets, deemed as one of the most important seven priority items identified by the Anap Foundation Think-Tank under medical, was an area that a lot more needed to be done.
‘‘Actually, the number of poor people in Nigeria is estimated at 80 million by NBS out of 180 million people.
“If you want the estimated 80 million poor Nigerians to remain in one place in view of the lockdown, you have to have a plan for them.
“I am not one to waste my time blaming government. If you do the numbers, we have an estimated 80 million classified and confirmed as being poor, add the next 20.
“I assume that the next 20 million can feed themselves because they are not poor.
“It then means that the richest 80 million can feed themselves and can probably also contribute or help to feed the bottom 80 million.
‘‘Even if one person in the top 80 million feeds at least one person in the bottom 80, we have solved the problem and that is without government intervention.
“A member of the Anap Foundation COVID-19 Think-Tank, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, owner of Zinox Group and Konga is going out to feed 7000 families every day for 14 days.
“This is to show you that the rich people can help the government solve the problem. So, we want more examples like Leo Stan Ekeh,’’ he counselled.
Continuing, the renowned investment banker said: ‘‘What we don’t want is rich people constantly being distracted. Instead of coming to join people like Leo Stan Ekeh to feed the poor, suddenly somebody dangles that there is some money at Central Bank, the same rich people will leave the task of feeding the poor, get distracted and begin to chase or apply for loans for the future.
“Can we just leave all that and focus first on the problem of the poor? Believe me, if we don’t solve that problem, the poor will infect the rich and we will all die.
‘‘The total number of poor people in Nigeria, using official NBS estimates, is 80 million.
“The 2.6m households being catered for by the Federal Government does not cover the 80 million people.
“So, if the Federal Government is trying to look after 2.6m households out of them, I am saying the richer Nigerians, state governments, LGAs, NGOs must now join to look after all of the 80 million poor people.
‘‘I am not saying Federal Government. Leo Stan Ekeh does not work for the Federal Government.
“President Buhari did not stop the rich people from trying to feed the poor. Let the rich people get up. Every state in this Federation has very rich people,’’ he declared.
Also toeing the line of thought espoused by Peterside, Dr.Mutairu Ademu, an economist, commended the strategy deployed by the Zinox Group in feeding the poor through its staff across the country; even as he noted that such gestures ought to be rewarded by the government.
‘‘It is a very ingenious strategy, one that is guaranteed to reach the poor and actual needy people.
“Well, I am not surprised because I have followed the innovativeness of this Group for nearly 20 years.
“This excellent strategy solves the problem of politics and tribe. This is because executing such initiatives through politicians will bring an unavoidable level of partisanship into it.
“Some politicians will use the palliatives to reward their loyal supporters and party stalwarts, thereby leaving people from other parties in the dust.
“In states where a particular political party is in charge, people from other parties will not be catered for; forgetting that those people from other political parties are also needy Nigerians and citizens of the state.
“So, this approach by the Zinox Group solves that. Also, with respect to the issue of tribe which will manifest in some people getting a larger share than others, the Zinox Group strategy of using staff to distribute the palliatives also resolves this.
‘‘This is why I urge other Nigerian corporate billionaires who preferred to rush to donate money to the government to consider borrowing a leaf from the approach of the Zinox Group and Konga which is guaranteed to reach the last mile.
“After all, there is no Nigerian worker that holds down full employment in two organizations at the same time.
“So, imagine other Nigerian billionaires and corporate organizations including the banks using their staff in various branches across Nigeria to feed the poor around them. We would have achieved so much in reaching the poorest of the poor.
‘‘All it costs the government in encouraging or rewarding this intervention would be some tax rebates or holidays which will not cost the government much.
“In fact, I suggest the government consult people like Leo Stan Ekeh more, especially on important public policy and economic-related issues.
“In fact, rather than being hostile to these entrepreneurs and frustrating them with double taxation, the government should rely on them more for necessary assistance; especially considering how they rallied round the government in supporting needy Nigerians in this emergency,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, the distribution of the palliatives by staff of the Zinox Group and Konga has kicked off, with beneficiaries already starting to receive the essential items being donated across the country.
This was confirmed by Gideon Ayogu, group head, Corporate Communications, Zinox Group.
According to him, ‘‘Distribution of the essential food items – which include medium bags of rice, tomato paste and cooking oil – has commenced.
“We were able to leverage on the delivery capabilities of Konga to get the items across to staff in various parts of the country.
“By the end of this week, we expect the overwhelming majority of the beneficiaries to have received their items.
“Also, evidence of these donations by our staff will be rigorously verified by the audit team created especially for this purpose in order to ensure that the intended beneficiaries actually benefit,’’ he revealed.
Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU), Ikoyi, Lagos, said its operatives have busted a syndicate who used Point of Sale (POS) terminals and other technological tools to gain access to financial institution’s database to steal more than N3 billion.
Police did not name the financial institution where the money was stolen but DSP Ovie Ewhubare, spokesperson for the Unit, in a statement Friday, said that while a member of the syndicate has been arrested, other remained at large.
The PSFU spokesperson said the suspect was apprehended following an extensive investigation into a sophisticated cyber intrusion targeting a financial institution.
“The members of the syndicate allegedly used Point of Sale (POS) terminals and other technological tools to gain unauthorised access to the financial institution’s database.
“The breach enabled the suspects to initiate fraudulent transactions worth more than N3 billion,’’ he said.
According to him, investigations reveal that the proceeds of the alleged fraud are quickly laundered through multiple bank accounts in an attempt to conceal the source and movement of the funds.
The spokesperson said that the detectives deployed advanced digital forensic techniques and financial analysis to trace the transactions, identify members of the syndicate and recover key evidence to support prosecution.
Ewhubare said that Mr Eloho Okpoiakpo, commissioner of Police in charge of the PSFU, commended the investigating team for its professionalism in uncovering the alleged fraud.Law Enforcement
He said that Okpoiakpo directed the detectives to intensify efforts to apprehend other fleeing members of the syndicate, assuring that every effort would be made to bring all those involved to justice.
A new case study by Moniepoint Inc., Africa’s all-in-one financial ecosystem platform for individuals, businesses and their customers, traces four decades of Nigeria’s food service industry and reveals how the sector’s most persistent payment problems, that include settlement delays, unreliable confirmation, unchecked theft and inaccessible credit have been resolved by real-time digital infrastructure, turning food commerce into an $11.09 billion market in 2025.
The sector has undergone a massive structural shift marked by food-delivery super-apps, as well as a new generation of cloud kitchens operating without a single dining chair, with the food service industry poised to experience unprecedented growth as the Nigerian market is projected to reach $19.31 billion by 2030, growing at 11.73% annually.
The study traces the industry’s roots from the UAC-owned Kingsway Rendezvous of 1973 and the 1986 launch of Mr Bigg’s, through the rise of Chicken Republic and other quick-service chains, to the present day, where food and drinks form the second-largest merchant sector on Moniepoint’s platform, trailing only retail.
Tosin Eniolorunda, group CEO of Moniepoint Inc., noted that “Moniepoint believes financial inclusion is not just about access. It’s about dignity, about enabling people to transact on their terms. What’s happening in the food service sector today is significant. The real competitive question today is how deeply that payment infrastructure is woven into the way the business actually runs day to day.
“Moniepoint is sitting right at the centre of that shift. We are ensuring that payments are connected to inventory, inventory to recipes, recipes to procurement, procurement to credit, and credit to growth plans. By building out tools like Moniebook and Orda that match the operational reality of these culinary entrepreneurs, who act as mini-factories converting perishable raw materials into time-sensitive output, we are providing the digital operating system that drives sustainable scale for Nigeria’s socio-economic development.”
The report finds that for most of that history, Nigerian food businesses ran almost entirely on cash, with multi-location operators managing cash across a dozen or more outlets, facing constant exposure to loss, theft and human error. The rise of bank transfers in the 2010s introduced a new pain point around confirming that the payment had actually landed before releasing an order. At peak hours, the study notes, this manual verification could add two to five minutes to every transaction, with digital infrastructure most likely to falter precisely when demand and stakes were highest, especially during Christmas, New Year’s and Eid celebrations.
The study also documents how disconnected payment and inventory systems enabled operational leakage that was structurally difficult to detect, from unaccounted stock in the kitchen to under-ringing at the till and how Nigeria’s collateral-based lending system routinely locked thriving food businesses out of credit.
The International Finance Corporation estimates that the country’s unmet MSME credit demand was $32.2 billion in 2022, a gap that falls disproportionately on women, who, the report shows, own 86.8% of businesses in the accommodation and food services sector, the most female-dominated sector in the Nigerian economy.
To address these bottlenecks, Moniepoint introduced three structural interventions that reshaped the industry’s economics. Moving away from the traditional $T+1$ bank settlement cycle, it provided instant, same-day access to funds, allowing operators to finance the next morning’s inventory directly from the previous day’s sales.
This was paired with automated transfer confirmation at the terminal to eliminate manual verification queues and an embedded lending model that used verified transaction history instead of property collateral to unlock bulk purchasing power ahead of seasonal surges. Driven by these updates and the tightening of the cashless policy, Moniepoint witnessed a 2,823% surge in QSR terminal usage.
Beyond payments, a unified business banking dashboard replaced month-end spreadsheets with real-time, role-based visibility to curb financial misconduct across multiple branches. With Moniepoint’s launch of Moniebook and the acquisition of Orda, analysts say that the business is transitioning from a payment provider to a complete operating system, in line with its ecosystem ambition.
This integration allows culinary businesses to track ingredient depletion against precise recipes to expose hidden theft or portioning errors, while simultaneously consolidating fragmented orders from delivery apps, social media, and walk-ins into a single inventory ledger.
Some other insights from the study:
- Transaction volume across the industry peaks at lunch, between 1 pm and 2 pm, with a second evening peak at 7 pm reaching 10 to 15 times its level at 7 am – except online food delivery, which peaks and remains strong past 10 pm.
- Card payment activity records its biggest month-on-month jump of the year between November and December, while April is the industry’s quietest month for payment activity, running 46.3% below December’s.
This food service case study joins Moniepoint’s expanding pool of definitive thought leadership materials curated for the benefit of stakeholders, including regulators, investors, and the general public, aimed at enhancing their understanding of how digital payment ecosystems are transforming Nigeria’s commercial landscape across diverse sectors and market structures.
Flutterwave has secured a strategic investment from Circle Ventures, the venture capital arm of Circle Internet Group, to accelerate the expansion of its USDC payments and settlement infrastructure across Africa.
This comes as demand for faster and more efficient cross-border transactions grows.
The investment strengthens Flutterwave’s ambition to integrate USDC settlement into its existing payment ecosystem, allowing businesses to receive payments in local currencies while settling in the dollar-backed stablecoin.
The company said the move would reduce settlement delays and transaction costs while enabling near-instant settlements beyond traditional banking hours.
The announcement comes after Flutterwave participated in the launch of the Circle Payments Network in 2025, marking a deeper collaboration between the two companies in advancing digital payment infrastructure across the continent.
Flutterwave said the investment aligns with its strategy of positioning stablecoins as a key component of Africa’s financial infrastructure, while ensuring blockchain-based payment services operate within existing regulatory and compliance frameworks.
Commenting on the development, Flutterwave Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Olugbenga Agboola, said the investment would help build the infrastructure required for the next phase of global money movement from Africa.
According to him, stablecoins have evolved beyond experimentation into core financial infrastructure capable of transforming how businesses move money across borders.
“This support from Circle Ventures is about backing the rails that will power the next era of global money movement from Africa. Stablecoins like USDC are no longer an experiment; they are becoming core financial infrastructure.
“By embedding USDC settlement into our current payments infrastructure, we are building a system that lets businesses move money at the speed of the internet. This fundamentally changes how payments from Africa connect to the world, and it positions Flutterwave as the default stablecoin gateway for the continent,” Agboola said.
Police Busts Syndicate Who Allegedly Stole N3Bn from Financial Institution
MTN Accelerates Network Expansion to Meet Surging Telecom Demand
Court Remands Akujobi, Ex Access over alleged Theft of N294.5m
TeKnowledge, Equinix Partner to Advance Nigerian Digital Infrastructure
NSIB Faults Runway Identification, Reveals Cockpit Disagreement in Asaba Jet Incident
NASENI Moves to Digitize CCB’s 5m Assets Declaration and Operations
Mobile Internet Gender Gap Widest in Africa – GSMA
Nigeria Launches FreeTV Nationwide
CANAL+ Partners Samsung to Pre-Load DStv Stream on New Samsung TVs In Nigeria, Other African Countries
Lebara Nigeria Launches Lebara Play, Africa’s First Telecom-Owned Micro-Drama Platform
Telecom3 days agoNCC Seeks Cost-Based Pricing Framework for Ducts
E-Financial3 days agoCBN Warns against Rejection of N100 Banknotes
Telecom2 days agoFixed Wired Internet Market Lags as Mobile Gains Ground
News3 days agoFlutterwave Secures Circle Ventures Investment to Deepen USDC Payment
Telecom3 days agoMeta Introduces Muse Image With Advanced AI Image Editing Across WhatsApp and Instagram
News3 days agoHow EFCC Turned Recovered Loot Into School Supplies for Thousands of Nigerian Students
E-Financial3 days agoBVN Enrollments Hit 69.55m- NIBSS
News2 days agoStudy Reveals How Moniepoint is Powering Nigeria’s $11Bn Food Service Sector