E-Business
FG to Implement Blockchain Technology — Arabi
Dr Dasuki Arabi, director-general, Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR) has said the Federal Government is set to implement a road map for blockchain technology in the country.
Arabi said this at a two-day workshop organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission in collaboration with BPSR, in Abuja.
The theme of the of the workshop is: “Distributed Ledger Technologies (Blockchain) Ecosystem, Decentralisation and Adoption Methods as Growth Plan for the Telecom Sector- Development of Bold Blockchain Strategy for Nigeria”.
According to Arabi, “a Blockchain is a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain.’’
The D-G said blockchain was real and had come to stay, adding that the government needed to innovate the technology.
He said the public service was underperforming due to lack of efficiency in operations, adding that it was the biggest beneficiary of blockchain.
He said there was a National Government e-masterplan that was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), which had set strategies for digitisation from paper to paperless governance by the year 2030.
Arabi said from year 2023, assessments would be done electronically for everybody that is on Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) and working for the government of Nigeria.
“There is a National Government e-Masterplan approved by FEC, which has set the strategy for digitisation for this massive movement of paper government and public service to paperless by the year 2030.
“However, as it is a legal document, we can always review it. Blockchain is definitely going to be very important in implementing the e-government masterplan.
“We will sensitise Nigerians and come up with a robust road map for the implementation and adoption of blockchain technology in the Nigerian public service.
“Adopting this technology will give us the privilege to improve on transparency and accountability, then working together between MDAs and most importantly it will break bureaucracy.”
Arabi, however, said that the framework for the technology had been set up and implementation had already started.
To achieve this target, the D-G revealed that the BPSR was partnering Digital Bridge and other institutions to train 500,000 public servants in IT and blockchain technology.
He said that the decision was imperative as blockchain would help the government in decision making, secure data and reduce cost of governance.
“When you look at the responsibilities that are saddled with the public service, you will see that there is a lot to benefit out of blockchain technology.
“We cannot meet our target, we cannot change the life of a citizen if we are not efficient. Blockchain is here to reduce cost of governance.
“Along the line, the concerned agencies will come up with that, but certainly you cannot open the system like that, adopt a new technology without regulations, it is virtually impossible.
“We are trying to work with Digital Bridge and other institutions to get us to understand the language of digitisation, speak it, understand digitisation and call it digital literacy,’’ he said.
Arabi, further said that the facilitators would train 500,000 public servants under the programme.
He said apart from the benefits of efficiency, blockchain would improve the security of government data in the case of cyberwar like the case of Russia and Ukraine.
“Cyber security becomes very important for us to safeguard the data that we are generating, to safeguard our system, information and possibly to use it as a weapon of war as we move on.
“We are not able to get the nation’s budget to support most of our works and our activities.
“We will become more transparent and open.
“The international community will be willing to come and invest in Nigeria using technology through Public Private Partnership.”
He said while 40 per cent of the national budget of Rwanda was funded by development partners, Nigeria had witnessed apathy from development partners.
Also speaking, Mrs Amaka Ukwueze of the University of Nigeria, in her presentation emphasised on the legal framework necessary for the adoption of blockchain.
She said government needed to promote legal certainty for blockchains application.
She said government laws must not stiffen blockchain technology adding that laws should encourage it.
“If you don’t develop the market confidence, users’ confidence, and make sure that people can trust this technology, people will still develop cold feet to trust this technology.
“Create a flexible regulatory environment that enables experimentation.
“There is a need to make room in developing new regulations, developing the laws and to make room for future innovations that may come up from the technology,” she said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the development is coming amidst the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) bid to stop the use of cryptocurrency in the official banking channel.
NAN recalls that the CBN had in February 2021 barred banks from trading cryptocurrency and recently fined four banks some N800 million for cryptocurrency-related transactions.
In a sobering revelation of the evolving threat landscape facing the digital asset ecosystem, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs has disclosed that over $2.1 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen in the first half of 2025 alone, spanning at least 75 high-profile hacks and exploits.
This staggering figure marks a 10 per cent surge over the previous first-half record set in 2022 and nearly eclipses the total stolen in all of 2024.
But beyond the monetary scale, the report reveals a deeper concern: a growing trend of state-sponsored cyber aggression weaponising crypto assets for strategic and geopolitical purposes.
The most devastating breach to date occurred in February when Dubai-based exchange Bybit lost $1.5 billion—the largest crypto heist in history.
TRM Labs attributes the attack to North Korean state actors, noting that the incident alone accounted for nearly 70 percent of total losses during the period and doubled the average hack size to $30 million.
“The Bybit hack redefined the threat landscape,” the report stated.
“It exemplifies how digital asset theft has transcended criminal opportunism and morphed into a tool of statecraft.”
Indeed, North Korea-linked entities were responsible for an estimated $1.6 billion of the total stolen, further entrenching Pyongyang’s status as the most prolific nation-state threat actor in the crypto sphere.
Yet the menace is diversifying. On June 18, Iranian crypto exchange Nobitex was breached for over $90 million by a group reportedly linked to Israel, Gonjeshke Darande (Predatory Sparrow).
Unusually, the stolen funds were routed to unusable vanity addresses, underscoring symbolic and political motives rather than financial gain.
TRM Labs flagged this as a “disturbing shift,” with digital asset theft increasingly deployed as a weapon in asymmetric geopolitical conflict.
The report also found that more than 80 percent of losses stemmed from infrastructure breaches, including private key theft, seed phrase leaks, and front-end compromises— attacks typically ten times costlier than other vectors.
Meanwhile, DeFi exploits such as flash loan manipulations accounted for 12 percent of losses, reflecting persistent smart contract vulnerabilities despite years of scrutiny.
As digital currencies become enmeshed in global rivalries, TRM Labs warns that conventional cybersecurity approaches are now inadequate.
“Massive breaches, often tied to nation-state operations, require a new defence paradigm,” the firm asserted, urging industrywide adoption of advanced safeguards and cross-border collaboration among regulators and law enforcement.
Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has inaugurated the pilot take-off of its new Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered registration portal.
A statement issued by the commission explained that Malam Hussaini Magaji, registrar-general of the CAC, made the announcement during the 2025 Stakeholders Forum in Port Harcourt.
According to him, “the initiative is a major milestone in Nigeria’s business facilitation drive.”
The Registrar further explained that the upgraded portal marks a complete overhaul of the Company Registration Portal (CRP), saying that it comes with advanced features designed to simplify and speed up business registration.
The new system, according to him, allows for instant name reservation approvals, likening the ease to creating an email account, and stressing that the AI-powered platform could suggest available alternatives to business names and approve them immediately.
Another innovation, he stated, is the ability to register a business using only the National Identification Number (NIN) of a director or proprietor, pointing out that there is an ambitious target of completing business registration and certificate generation within 30 minutes, subject to real-time NIN validation.
Bitget has launched its institutional services in Nigeria, offering fintech companies a robust platform to build innovative solutions on top of Bitget’s suite of institutional-grade offerings.
Gracy Chen, CEO, Bitget, in a statement said, “Our goal is to empower Nigerian businesses to innovate and leverage blockchain for wealth creation opportunities, hence, the institutional services empower fintech leaders with tailored solutions, as the offerings designed to cater for the unique operational needs of institutional clients, enabling businesses to embed trading functionalities like spot and futures markets, wallet management, and more, directly into their platforms.
“The Key services include White-label Broker Services which enabled Fintech companies to deploy customized crypto exchanges using Bitget’s infrastructure while managing branding and users independently. There is also API Solutions that can make the Developers to integrate trading functionality via APIs for spot, margin, and derivatives markets, ensuring fast execution and seamless experiences for end users.”
Chen added, “The ND Broker Model provides clients with complete autonomy over user-facing platforms, offering exclusive front-end flexibility while relying on Bitget for back-end market liquidity. Clients are able to employ Protection Fund and Proof of Reserves of over $600million secured in the Bitget Protection Fund and real-time Proof of Reserves, which gives clients assurance of maximum transparency and security.”
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