African financial services platform Moniepoint has partnered with open banking software-as-a-service provider tell.money to deploy a transaction security system in the UK market.

The companies said the partnership will allow Moniepoint to implement Confirmation of Payee, an account name-checking service designed to verify recipient details before payments are processed.

The integration will be rolled out through Monieworld, Moniepoint’s UK remittance subsidiary, as part of the company’s broader European expansion strategy.

Tell.money will provide the underlying verification technology, which the companies said is intended to reduce misdirected payments and help protect users against cross-border fraud.

Ravi Jakhodia, CEO of Monieworld, said: “Our goal with Monieworld is to build financial services for Africans in the diaspora.”

He added that tell.money was selected because it manages compliance and accreditation requirements, allowing the fintech company to focus on customer service.

Moniepoint is entering a competitive UK-to-Africa remittance market that includes established providers such as Wise, WorldRemit and Remitly, as well as African fintech firms including Flutterwave’s Send App.

According to data from the World Bank’s KNOMAD programme, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are estimated at about $620 billion annually, with digital -first platforms capturing increasing market share through open banking integrations and automated compliance systems.

The rollout reflects a broader trend of African fintech firms expanding into developed markets by adopting local regulatory and open banking standards.

Industry analysts expect diaspora-focused platforms to evolve beyond money transfers into services such as multi-currency banking, credit and investment products.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed 39‑year‑old Professor Segun Aina as the new Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), succeeding Professor Is‑haq Oloyede whose two‑term tenure expires on July 31, 2026.

Professor Segun Aina

Aina, who will turn 40 in July, will become the youngest registrar in JAMB’s history, marking a generational shift in the leadership of Nigeria’s premier tertiary‑admissions body.

In a statement issued in Abuja by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the new registrar was described as a distinguished academic and systems expert with extensive experience in national examination systems, digital infrastructure and public‑sector institutional reform.

A professor of Computer Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile‑Ife, Aina holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Kent, an MSc in Internet Computing and Network Security and a PhD in Digital Signal Processing, both from Loughborough University, United Kingdom. He also completed the Senior Management Programme at Lagos Business School.

His early career with JAMB began during his National Youth Service Corps scheme, where he gained foundational experience in national admissions and data‑driven institutional processes; those insights have since shaped his contributions to examination reform and systems optimisation.

At 39, Aina became one of Nigeria’s youngest professors of Computer Engineering and has advised federal and state governments on system design, digital transition and operational reform, while also consulting major examination bodies such as NECO and NABTEB on ICT systems and examination integrity.

He is a member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

President Tinubu expects Aina to leverage his experience, knowledge and practical insight to further strengthen JAMB’s operations and to build on the achievements recorded under Professor Oloyede’s leadership.

A Nigerian development scholar, Evans Woherem, has argued that Africa’s slow pace of development is rooted less in the capabilities of its people and more in the weakness of its institutions, systems, and governance culture.

In a sweeping article titled *_“Institutions, Culture, and the African Development Question: Why Systems Matter, and How Africa Can Leapfrog Development,”_* Woherem said “human beings are broadly similar biologically and intellectually across races and geographies,” stressing that the real difference between prosperous and struggling societies lies in “systems, institutions, cultures, incentives, and historical environments.”

According to him, one of the clearest demonstrations of this reality is the conduct of Africans living abroad.

“Individuals who, within certain African environments, may tolerate disorder, circumvent rules, participate in patronage systems, or adapt to corruption often relocate to countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan, Singapore, or Canada and quickly become highly compliant with laws and institutional expectations,” he wrote.

Woherem, a former Executive Director at both First Bank Plc and Unity Bank Plc, noted that such individuals suddenly obey traffic regulations, respect public infrastructure, pay taxes, and operate efficiently within merit-based systems, insisting that “the human material did not suddenly change. The surrounding institutional architecture did.”

He lamented that many African countries still approach development through what he described as a “project-based conception of development” rather than a systems-driven model capable of sustaining progress across generations.

The author of best-selling books- “Building a New Africa,” and “Information Technology in Africa,” criticised the nature of governance conversations across the continent, saying public discourse often centres almost exclusively on visible infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, schools, and empowerment schemes, while deeper institutional questions are ignored.

“What institutions have been strengthened? What systems have been redesigned to outlive the present administration? What governance mechanisms now function automatically regardless of who occupies office?” he asked.

The scholar argued that sustainable development cannot be measured merely by the number of projects completed but by whether nations are building durable institutions capable of continuously producing results irrespective of political transitions.

“A nation does not become advanced merely because it constructs roads,” he stated. “It becomes advanced when it builds systems capable of continuously producing, maintaining, financing, regulating, and improving those roads across generations regardless of changes in leadership.”

Woherem further blamed Africa’s institutional fragility partly on colonial structures that were designed primarily for extraction rather than national development.

He said many post-independence governments inherited centralized but weakly accountable systems and merely “localized the machinery of extraction” instead of transforming the state into a developmental institution.

The information technology expert also highlighted the absence of what he called “developmental consciousness” across many African societies, noting that issues such as industrial policy, bureaucratic reform, technological sovereignty, manufacturing competitiveness, and state capacity rarely dominate mainstream public debate.

Drawing comparisons with countries such as Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and China, Woherem said successful industrialisation was driven by strong institutions, disciplined bureaucracies, educational excellence, and long-term planning.

“Their rise was not accidental, nor was it merely infrastructural. It was deeply institutional and civilizational,” he wrote.

The development expert also challenged African media organisations to move beyond “cosmetic” reporting of governance performance by interrogating structural reforms instead of simply celebrating project commissioning ceremonies.

“Instead of merely asking how many roads were constructed, they should ask whether procurement systems have become more transparent, whether regulatory agencies function independently, whether educational outcomes are improving systematically, and whether industrial policies are producing measurable manufacturing expansion,” he said.

Woherem further stressed the importance of “Developmental Industrialists,” pointing to African billionaire Aliko Dangote as an example of economic actors whose contributions extend beyond personal wealth accumulation to building industrial ecosystems and national productive capacity.

He maintained that Africa’s future depends on stronger bureaucracies, impartial legal systems, technologically enabled governance, industrial strategy, educational reform, and a civic culture that rewards competence over patronage.

“Roads alone do not produce civilization. Systems do,” Woherem declared.

He concluded that Africa’s greatest challenge is not a lack of human potential but the absence of institutional structures strong enough to consistently bring out the best in its people.

“And until systems become the centre of African developmental thinking,” he warned, “progress will remain slower, more fragile, and more reversible than it ought to be.”