Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a pan-African organisation focused on digital rights and inclusion, has released its 2025 Annual Impact Report, highlighting major achievements across Africa and other parts of the Global South.

PIN

The report showed that PIN recorded a consolidated media reach of 3.07 billion in 2025, alongside a digital inclusion reach of 1,830 beneficiaries across five major initiatives.

It also disclosed that the organisation trained 282 stakeholders through cyber law engagements, hosted 55 events, and handled 11 strategic litigation cases, including one landmark privacy ruling.

According to the report, PIN expanded its digital literacy and skills development programmes through its Life Skills, ICTs, Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship (LIFE) Legacy Programme, delivering training across 13 African countries.

The countries include Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia, among others.

The programme targeted young people, women, educators, and underserved communities, with a focus on strengthening digital skills, employability readiness, and online rights awareness.

In addition, PIN said it trained over 250 judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers across Nigeria, Ghana, and Zambia through its Stemming the Tides of Abuse in Nigeria’s Digital System (STANDS) programme and related cyber law trainings.

The organisation said the trainings were beginning to influence judicial and law enforcement practices in participating countries.

Executive Director of PIN, Gbenga Sesan, said 2025 demonstrated what could be achieved through commitment to impactful work despite operational challenges.

“Even though 2025 tested that conviction with the threats that accompanied it, digital expansion continued at pace.

“2025 was also a year that reminded us of what is possible when people commit to doing much-needed work well,” Sesan said.

The report also examined broader digital rights trends across Africa and the Global South, warning of a widening gap between rapid digital expansion and the protection of fundamental human rights.

According to PIN, 2025 witnessed an increase in vague cybercrime and cybersecurity laws, heightening risks of surveillance, censorship, and disproportionate enforcement.

It added that internet shutdowns, online harassment, and platform restrictions continued to shrink civic space, particularly during elections and periods of political tension.

“Governments accelerated the rollout of digital infrastructure while, in too many cases, sidelining the rights frameworks that should govern it.

“New cybercrime laws were passed in the dead of night. Internet shutdowns were deployed as tools of political convenience.

“Journalists, human rights defenders, women, and young people continued to bear the heaviest costs of a digital environment that treats rights as a footnote,” Sesan added.

Despite sector-wide challenges, the organisation said 2025 remained a year of sustained impact, supported by its team, sponsors, board members, partners, and supporters across the continent.

PIN reaffirmed its commitment to promoting a rights-based digital future where innovation is balanced with inclusion, safety, privacy, and freedom of expression.

Dr. Obioha Oti, National President of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), has described agency banking as Nigeria’s most critical last-mile channel for achieving meaningful financial inclusion, stressing that millions of Nigerians, particularly in rural and underserved communities, remain financially excluded despite notable progress in the sector.

PAFON 3.0

Speaking at the third edition of the Payments Forum Nigeria (PAFON 3.0), themed “Fair Digital Payments as a Catalyst for Deepening Financial Inclusion in Nigeria,” Oti, represented by Alhaji Yusuf Adeyemo, vice president of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), said agency banking has become Nigeria’s most practical and scalable solution for bridging the persistent financial access gap caused by poor infrastructure, low financial literacy, trust deficits, and high service delivery costs.

According to him, without effective last-mile financial access, Nigeria’s financial inclusion ambitions may remain unattainable.

Oti noted that through extensive agent networks, Nigerians now enjoy convenient access to critical financial services including cash deposits, withdrawals, transfers, bill payments, account opening, and other essential banking products, adding that beyond transactional services, agency banking offers trust, human interaction, and proximity-factors that purely digital channels cannot fully replicate.

“Agency banking has emerged as the most practical, scalable, and human-centred solution,” he stated, adding that agents serve as trusted financial intermediaries within local communities.

Highlighting AMMBAN’s contributions, Oti said the association has played a central role in strengthening Nigeria’s financial inclusion ecosystem through policy advocacy, professional training, rural agent expansion, fraud awareness campaigns, consumer protection initiatives, and strategic collaborations involving banks, fintechs, telecom operators, and mobile money providers.

He further noted that the agency banking sector has created millions of jobs and unlocked significant economic opportunities nationwide.

Oti acknowledged the contributions of major ecosystem drivers, including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which he said continues to provide regulatory support through financial inclusion frameworks, consumer protection policies, and interoperability initiatives.

He also credited the Shared Agent Network Expansion Facilities (SANEF) for accelerating agent expansion across the country, while Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) was recognized for its support through research, innovation funding, and data-driven insights.

Despite these achievements, Oti warned that the sector continues to grapple with significant obstacles such as liquidity shortages, network instability, fraud risks, poor agent profitability, infrastructure deficits, and overlapping regulations.

He stressed that these challenges must be urgently addressed to sustain growth and deepen inclusion. “For inclusion to truly deepen, digital payments must be affordable, reliable, transparent, and accessible to all Nigerians,” he said, insisting that fairness in digital payments is essential to closing the financial inclusion gap.

He warned that unfair pricing structures, unstable systems, and exclusionary payment models could further marginalize vulnerable populations.

Looking ahead, Oti urged stakeholders across the financial ecosystem to prioritize stronger collaboration, improved agent profitability, infrastructure development, enhanced financial literacy, increased financing access for agents, and supportive regulatory frameworks.

He projected that Nigeria’s financial inclusion future will be “phygital,” combining physical agent networks with digital platforms to create seamless financial access.

According to him, agents are rapidly evolving beyond transaction points into community-based financial service hubs capable of driving grassroots economic development. “Agency banking is no longer just a distribution channel; it is the backbone of financial inclusion in Nigeria,” Oti declared.

He reaffirmed AMMBAN’s commitment to working with regulators, financial institutions, and technology providers to strengthen the ecosystem, empower underserved populations, and build a more inclusive national financial system.

Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has warned that weak penalties under Nigeria’s Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) policy are undermining efforts to protect telecoms assets.

Tony Emoekpere, president, ATCON,  made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos while calling for urgent legal reforms to strengthen enforcement.

Emoekpere said that although offenders are being apprehended and prosecuted, the current framework was failing to serve as a deterrent.

NAN reports that Nigeria’s Designation and Protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) Order 2024, signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, provides the country’s main legal framework for safeguarding critical Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure against vandalism, sabotage and theft.

The Order, anchored on the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015, classifies assets such as telecom towers, fibre-optic cables and data centres as critical national infrastructure requiring enhanced protection.

“People are being caught, but the offences are still treated as petty crimes.

“That limits the impact. CNII needs stronger legal backing such as an Act or executive order to give it more teeth,” the ATCON president said.

He said that the group was actively supporting the implementation of the CNII policy in collaboration with security agencies, stressing that telecom infrastructure remained critical to national security and economic growth.

The ATCON president also reaffirmed support for the Federal Government’s “Project Bridge,” aimed at expanding connectivity across the country, but identified right-of-way approvals across states as a major bottleneck.

According to him, because telcos have to engage multiple states, it is slowing things down but efforts are ongoing to address it.

On service quality, he said operators are struggling to keep pace with rising subscriber numbers and increasing data demand, despite recent tariff adjustments.

“The challenge is not that nothing is being done—investments are ongoing. But demand is growing even faster, and operators are constantly trying to catch up,” he said.

Emoekpere added that subscriber migration between networks and shifting usage patterns are placing additional pressure on certain operators, contributing to service fluctuations.

He, however, assured customers that efforts are ongoing to improve network performance.

“We value our subscribers, and everything is being done not just to maintain, but to improve service delivery,” he said.

The telecommunications sector has consistently identified infrastructure vandalism as a major challenge affecting service delivery and operational costs.

Industry stakeholders say the CNII Order is expected to strengthen the protection of telecom assets and improve quality of service for consumers, following years of rising attacks on infrastructure across the country.

Data from operators show that fibre-optic cable cuts remain one of the biggest threats to telecom operations.

However, in spite of the Order, Nigeria recorded 1,883 fibre cuts in the first quarter of 2026, while between January and August 2025, about 19,384 incidents were reported nationwide, averaging more than 2,400 monthly cases.

MTN Nigeria alone reported 9,218 fibre cuts in 2025, compared with 9,000 in 2024 and 6,000 in 2023, highlighting the increasing scale of the problem.

The sector has also faced widespread theft of generators, batteries and other power assets used to keep telecoms sites operational.

In 2025, criminals reportedly stole 656 critical power assets, including 152 generators and 504 batteries, while telecom operators lost an estimated ₦27 billion nationwide within a 12-month period due to infrastructure damage.

Industry reports further indicated that 577 network outages recorded in the first quarter of 2026 were directly linked to vandalism of telecoms infrastructure.

(NAN)