News
e-Commerce Firms Must Look Beyond e-Transaction Bill- Supermart.ng
Following the rise in the electronic commercial activities in Nigeria and its contributions to the growth of the economy, stakeholders have long been agitating for policies and regulatory frameworks that can aid orderly conduct of electronic transactions in a manner that is fair especially to the customers.
It was against this background that the Electronic Transaction Bill was presented to the last National Assembly.
The bill is currently raising concerns among e-commerce businesses who anxiously await its passage into an Act.
However, reacting to this development, Oluwatayo Alofun, media officer of Supermart.ng, has said that while the bill is a welcome development that will be instrumental in bringing order to e-commerce in Nigeria, there is need for e-commerce firms to look beyond seeing regulations as the compelling factor for rendering quality services to consumers.
Citing the example of Supermart.ng, he said, “at Supermart.ng, “We already promised our customers to deliver groceries to them in as early as three hours of order.
“We understand that a customer’s time is very precious to him so we make it a goal to deliver on that promise against any logistics challenge.
“This has not being easy but we owe it to make life easier for households in Lagos by saving them three to six hours through our delivery system”.
The Electronic Transaction Bill is expected to regulate the e-commerce sector and protect consumers.
To this end, some of the key issues highlighted in the bill are non-disclosure of full information on products and services, deceptive advertisement, improper description of products, delivery of defective products, poor informal dispute settlement procedures, double payments and poor customer service.
Speaking on highlights of the bill, Alofun said “when you look at the key issues highlighted in the bill, they all go down to conscious efforts on our part as e-commerce business operators to put our customers interest first in our dealing, this is what Supermart.ng has been doing since inception-putting customers first. Take customer service as an instance, when we employ delivery men, they are professionally trained to be able to talk to customers, they are equipped with smart phones to be able to provide up to date information to customers and as well as update the Supermart.ng system. We leave nothing to chance in our customer service process which makes it almost impossible for us to fail on our promises”
Alofun however expressed hope in the possibility of the Bill to improve the state of e-commerce business in Nigeria and to boost consumer’s confidence in the electronic transaction system. He therefore urges the executive arm of the government to consider the Bill for assent into an Act.
Oracle Sparks CRM Evolution with New Cloud Solutions
By peter ugwu
Oracle has unveiled significant new functionality within Oracle Service Cloud and Oracle Social Cloud that helps organizations deliver better customer experience and drive more informed business decisions.
The new social customer service capabilities enable brands to increase social engagement and business insights via a new community self-service solution, enhanced social service and incident routing, and extended social listening and analytics capabilities to private data sources.
Today more than one in three customers prefer to contact brands through social channels rather than by phone or email (Nielsen), and the distinction between social and traditional channels is eroding.
To deliver the best possible customer experience across this expanding range of traditional and digital channels, customer care organizations need to provide a positive and unified experience where and when customers want, whether they are on Twitter, Facebook, customer communities or other social networks.
Through a unified and modern customer experience across channels, organizations establish a competitive advantage.
The latest release of Oracle Service Cloud includes Community Self-Service, a new approach to web self service that brings community functionality directly into the core multi-channel web experience.
Oracle Service Cloud now enables organizations to deliver a seamless experience between web service and community interactions, leveraging the power of customer knowledge to improve service operations.
This helps organizations streamline the customer journey and lets customers quickly find an answer, while also driving efficiencies by reducing the overall requests to the contact center.
Gartner’s research indicates that investment in Peer-to-Peer Communities drives support costs down and boosts profits.
In fact, in a December 2014 research note, nine CRM Projects to Do Right Now for Customer Service, “Gartner clients who are successful in this space are still seeing on average a 20% reduction in the creation of support tickets following the introduction of peer-to-peer communities,” wrote, Michael Maoz, vice president, Distinguished Analyst, Gartner, “Clients are seeing other business benefits as well. By enabling community-based support, clients have been able to recognize new sales opportunities and increase existing customer satisfaction, resulting in increased revenue in several of these cases.”
Oracle is also introducing new workflow and automation capabilities between Oracle Social Cloud and Oracle Service Cloud that empower organizations to leverage the power of social insights and engagements.
Business users can now attach contextual attributes and notes generated from posts or incidents identified by Oracle Social Cloud directly to the Oracle Service Cloud. By providing more customer information and context, organizations can improve service quality, drive efficiencies and improve resolution time as social posts are shared with the appropriate agents quickly.
The improved connectivity between Oracle Social Cloud and Oracle Service Cloud includes extended social listening and analytics to enterprise private-data sources such as the new Community Self-Service capability, survey data, chat and call logs.
Organizations can now listen and analyze unstructured data and gain insights with terms, themes, sentiment and customer metrics, and can view private and public data side by side in the Oracle Social Cloud Relationship Management dashboard.
“In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, understanding the voice of the customer is essential to providing exceptional experiences, whether on public social networks, across communities, or within high-touch contact centers,” said David Vap, group vice president, product development, Oracle. “The updates to the Oracle Service Cloud and Oracle Social Cloud help businesses listen, identify and track social conversations, enabling them to quickly and efficiently respond to customers looking for answers, which helps foster a loyal group of brand ambassadors.”
The latest enhancements to Oracle Social Cloud and Oracle Service Cloud extend Oracle’s commitment to help organizations leverage social channels to enhance the customer experience and build on the recent introduction of Oracle’s Twitter-enriched social customer service solution.
For more information, attend Stephen Fioretti’s session Accelerating Success with Modern Service in the Cloud at 3:10 p.m. eastern in A204 on Tuesday, September 18 at CRM Evolution in New York and visit Booth 300.
Southeast Asia cybercrime networks are expanding operations into Africa as crackdowns intensify in the subregion, according to a recent report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The massive, unintended geographic shift triggered by intense pressure from international task forces in Myanmar and Cambodia,have seen highly sophisticated criminal networks now establishing footholds in major tech hubs across Kenya and Nigeria, transforming local technical talent into accomplices for industrial-scale digital theft as reported by https://streamlinefeed.co.ke/
This strategic migration represents a critical evolution in the $17 billion crypto scam economy.
Transnational scam syndicates are organized criminal networks that run industrial-scale online fraud using trapped or trafficked labor.
The UNODC has documented this diversification, noting that African nations are increasingly targeted as operational bases due to robust internet infrastructure and a surplus of unemployed tech workers.
In response, local authorities are engaged in a frantic game of catch-up against well-funded foreign cartels.
Recall that in 2025, UNODC, described the shift as part of a broader trend in which crime “spreads like a cancer,” into regions with weaker enforcement and limited digital safeguards.
The report pointed to the rapid proliferation of online fraud operations, including cryptocurrency scams and phishing schemes, moving from countries like Myanmar and Cambodia into new footholds in Africa—particularly Nigeria.
A recent case publicized June 12, 2025 by the WeChat public account West Africa Chinese Voice illustrates the trend: Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested 177 Chinese nationals in Lagos and Abuja between December 2024 and January 2025.
The suspects were allegedly running scam centers under the guise of corporate offices, where local Nigerians were trained to carry out online investment frauds—many following the “pig-butchering” model, which builds trust with victims before luring them into fraudulent crypto investments.
Authorities seized hundreds of SIM cards, high-performance computers, and prewritten scam scripts during the raids
Ugochukwu Eze, a 47 year-old man, was on Thursday arraigned before a Federal High Court in Lagos for allegedly hacking into the server of SunTrust Bank to steal a total of N800m.
Ugochukwu also known as Amazon, was arraigned before the court by the operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS).
DSS accused Ugochukwu of fraudulently hacking into the server of SunTrust Bank to remove and divert the sum of N800 million into several accounts in other financial institutions.
M. Bajela,prosecuting counsel, DSS, in the charges filed before the court alleged that the defendant and others now at large, between 2023 and 2026, conspired among themselves and unlawfully and seriously hindered the function of Suntrust Bank Plc’s computer system server and in the process fraudulently diverted over N800 million belonging to the bank.
Ugochukwu was also accused of concealing and transferring various sums of money traced to the unlawful cyber-attacks to some account in some financial institutions.
The offences alleged to have been committed by the defendant according to the prosecutor contravened sections 5; 6(1) and 8 of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2024. And Sections 10, 20 and 18(2)(D) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the allegations.
Based on his plea of not guilty, the prosecutor asked the court for a trial date, and prayed the court to remand the defendant in the facility of the correctional services pending the time trial will commence.
However, E. Afrogha, defendant’s lawyer, told the court that she has filed her client’s bail application. adding that her client has been in the DSS custody for over a month.
But the prosecution counsel told the court that he has not been served with the bail application, not withstanding that his witnesses are available.
Based on the counsels’ submissions, Justice Friday Ogazi, presiding judge, adjourned the matter to August 24,2026 for hearing of the bail application.
The judge also ordered that the defendant be remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCS) pending the hearing of the bail application.
One of the counts against the defendant reads: “That you UGOCHUKWU EZE (AKA AMAZON) (M) (47 YEARS) sometime between 2023 and 2026 in Lagos, and other places within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, unlawfully seriously hindered the function of SunTrust Bank Plc’s computer system, and in the process fraudulently diverted over N800, 000,000.00 (Eight Hundred Million Naira) belonging to the said SunTrust Bank thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 8 of the cybercrime (prohibition, prevention etc.) Act, 2024.”
Liquid Intelligent Technologies is using light-beam technology developed by Google spinout Taara to supply data centres and large enterprise networks in Lagos, addressing the high costs and delays of laying underground fibre in dense urban corridors.
The deployment includes nearly 12 live optical links serving banks, hotels, and utilities across commercial districts, proving optical technology can supplement traditional physical infrastructure where trenching cables is impractical.
High-capacity bandwidth is being distributed directly from points of presence at Africa Data Centres and other Lagos facilities to enterprises beyond the reach of fibre cables.
This reduces network downtime in areas where physical cable cuts take days to repair. The rollout follows a two-year deployment by Liquid to strengthen network resilience for local internet service providers.
Nigeria remains one of the largest economies on the continent, with Lagos acting as its primary commercial hub. Expanding network infrastructure across dense urban environments requires operators to blend multiple technologies.
Using focused beams of light transmitted through the air, the technology allows operators to establish links within days rather than weeks, complementing existing physical networks.
Liquid is now assessing expansion into Abuja, Ibadan, and Kano.
“For Liquid, deployment speed has been one of the most significant advantages,” said Eugene Uka, acting chief executive officer of Liquid Intelligent Technologies Nigeria.
He added: “Traditional fibre deployments are not always a possibility, especially across difficult terrains. Taara links can often be installed and activated within hours, allowing Liquid to fulfil its mission to create a digitally connected future that leaves no African behind.”
Bhavesh Mistry, regional lead for Taara in Africa, commented: “As demand for connectivity continues to grow, operators need more flexibility in how they expand and reinforce their networks.
“Fibre remains an essential part of modern communications infrastructure, and will for some time, but there are many situations where deploying fibre quickly or cost-effectively can be difficult. Wireless optical communication gives operators another tool to extend capacity, reach customers faster, and build more resilient networks without compromising performance.”
The Taara Lightbridge system delivers up to 20 gigabits per second of capacity across distances up to 20 kilometres using invisible light beams.
The platform avoids trenching, spectrum licensing, or extensive civil engineering work. Taara claims its system is active in more than 20 countries with telecommunications operators, including T-Mobile, Airtel, Digicel, Liquid, and SoftBank.
Fleeing Southeast Asia Scam Syndicates Find New Homes in Nigeria, Kenya- Report
DSS Arraigns Eze for Allegedly Hacking, Stealing N800m from SunTrust Bank
SEC Unveils Probate/Unclaimed Monies Clinic to Help Families Recover Inherited Investments
We have Multiple Layers of Protection for 281m Accounts in Nigeria – NDIC
NCC Asks Telcos to Make Budgetary Provisions for Cybersecurity
From Scarcity to Scale: What Africa Can Learn from India’s Agricultural Transformation
EFCC Busts NIS Visa Overstay Racket, Uncovers N700m in an Account
BON Establishes Six Ad Hoc Committees to Modernize Broadcasting
How EFCC Turned Recovered Loot Into School Supplies for Thousands of Nigerian Students
BVN Enrollments Hit 69.55m- NIBSS
E-Business3 days agoKaspersky Reveals a New Malicious Framework Targeting Cryptocurrency Users with the Use of OkoSpyware
E-Business3 days agoCMS T&M Launches TMO Rides to Enable a Faster & Cashless Transport Experience for CMS – Ajah Passengers
E-Business3 days agoNigeria Tightens Data Privacy Compliance as FG Issues Directive to MDAs
E-Business3 days agoFirm to recruit over 100 professionals to boost NRS e-Invoicing compliance
Telecom3 days agoFG Commences 90,000km Fibre Optic Rollout within Weeks
E-Financial2 days agoAccess Holdings Deepens Sustainable Finance Impact, Expanding Green Assets to ₦92.14 Billion
Telecom2 days agoDimension Data to Channel Funds to Support Nigerian Fibre Expansion
E-Financial3 days agoZenith Bank Confirms Cyberattack, Says Hackers Accessed Limited Customer Data