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E-Financial

ICS BANKS Records Success on Oracle Exadata Database Machine

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ICS Financial Systems Limited (ICSFS), a global software and services provider for banks and financial institutions and a Gold level member of Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), has announced successful and unmatched results of high-watermark benchmark performance of its ICS BANKS® Universal Banking Application on Oracle Exadata environment.

Performed in August 2018, at Oracle’s UK Labs, ICSFS benchmarked its ICS BANKS® software suite on Oracle Exadata Database environment. The benchmark covers both Oracle Database Enterprise Edition 12c and 18c. The results have demonstrated ICSFS’ ability to derive remarkable and competitive performance of ICS BANKS® running on Exadata servers.

ICSFS generated ICS BANKS® data representing tier 1 and tier 2 universal banking activity volumes of 63 million customers, 630 million accounts, 5,000 branches and 60,000 concurrent users.

High-Watermark results were achieved on 18c & 12c Database with simulating 60,000 concurrent users, a throughput of 35.5k (35,577) financial transactions per second (TPS) on 18c Database and 32k (31,972) TPS on 12c Database are sustained during the test period of 35 minutes. The ATM & E-Channels benchmark revealed an overall throughput of 128k (128,448) TPS on 18c Database and 114k (113,858) TPS on 12c Database were achieved during the 20 minutes test. While ICS BANKS Digital Banking platform achieved results that exceeded expectations and success criteria; simulating 63 million online IBS registered users; whilst 200k concurrent users were working at the same time making a throughput of 143K TPS on 18c Database and 128K TPS on 12c Database; resulting in 257.5 million transactions on 18c Database and 231.5 million transactions on 12c Database within 30 minutes. During this test the system supported 1.25 million users log on within a 30-minute window.

The enormous and tremendous tests of End of Month Capitalization Batch processing 630 million Interest Accounts in 4 minutes window resulting in an unmatched batch throughput of 262k (262,354) accounts per second.

Managing Director of ICSFS; Mr. Robert Hazboun commented on this milestone; “ICSFS is the first Oracle ISV partner worldwide to perform this kind of testing on Oracle 18c database, and achieve best benchmarking results to-date. This performance benchmark reflects ICS BANKS and Oracle Exadata Database Machine’ high scalability and agility of providing high levels of operational efficiency, and delivering powerful solutions designed for the banking industry.”

Oracle EMEA Vice President, ISV/OEM; Mr. Kamil Guclu stated; “Success is more than leading with innovation and pioneering of technology, we have to be able to measure performance accurately too. ICSFS software with their application ICS BANKS®️ could achieve their phenomenal benchmark results, both Cloud and On-Premise by using Oracle Exadata.”

Executive Director of ICSFS; Mr. Wael Malkawi stated; “This high-watermark benchmark is a testament to ICS BANKS application’s capabilities, where no other banking software solution has produced such outstanding results. We are proud of these significant results and are honoured to share this success with a strategic partner such as Oracle.”

Chief Technology & Innovation Officer of ICSFS; Mr. Ghassan I. Sarsak added: “The vital performance and significant results of this benchmark reflect ICSFS’ strategic vision of utilising the latest technologies to lower transaction’s cost, while still increasing revenue streams for financial services, enhancing customer experience and ensuring efficient service delivery.” Sarsak added “ICS BANKS’ speed of transaction is aligned with the speed of innovation.”

ICS BANKS provides a complete suite of banking business modules with a rich sweep of functionalities and features, addressing business needs and automating accounting processes, as needed, to improve a bank’s business performance.

ICS BANKS has always been a pioneer in utilising the latest technology to serve financial institutions. In addition to its embedded Service-Oriented-Architecture (SOA), the system is deployed in a multi-tiered setup that runs on a web thin client.


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E-Financial

GTCO to Become First Nigerian Bank to List on London Stock Exchange

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By 8 am on July 9, GTCO Holdings is set to commence trading on the London Stock Exchange.

GTCO to Become First Nigerian Bank to List on London Stock Exchange

As the group is set to list all its shares on the London Stock Exchange, becoming the first Nigerian banking entity to do so.

This is as the group launches a public offer of new ordinary shares to raise approximately $100 million on the London Stock Exchange.

The equity offering, which is an accelerated bookbuild and managed by Citigroup, began on July 2 and is to last until July 31.

On July 31, the group announced that it would cancel the listing of its Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) on the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Official List.

It will also cancel their admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE)’s main market.

In place of the GDRs, the group will list all its ordinary shares directly.

aims to admit all its shares to the equity shares category for international commercial companies under a secondary listing on the FCA’s Official List.

The shares will also begin trading on the LSE’s main market for listed securities.

According to a regulatory filing on the London Stock Exchange, the net proceeds from the offering will be used to recapitalize GTBank Nigeria.

Based on the prevailing exchange rate of N1,540 to the US dollar, the targeted $100 million equates to approximately N154 billion.

This capital raise is expected to position the Group to fully meet the N500 billion minimum paid-up share capital required by regulators for banks with international licenses.

As of now, both Zenith Bank and Access Holdings have already met—and exceeded—this threshold.

 


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E-Financial

NAICOM Issues New Licenses to SanlamAllianz Life, General Insurance

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The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has handed over new licenses to SanlamAllianz Life and General Insurance Nigeria Ltd at brief ceremony held in Abuja.

Olusegun Omosehin, commissioner for Insurance emphasized the Commission’s commitment to supporting the growth of insurance entities in the country, while ensuring strict compliance with regulatory requirements. He urged the companies to prioritize good corporate governance, stability, and timely claims settlement processes.

The Commissioner reiterated NAICOM’s dedication to removing unnecessary bottlenecks and improving the insurance industry’s overall performance. He expressed confidence that the merger would enhance the companies’ capabilities and contribute to the industry’s growth.

SanlamAllianz recently launched its operations in Nigeria, marking a significant step in the company’s Pan-African expansion.

The launch follows the merger of Sanlam and Allianz’s Nigerian operations, creating a new entity named SanlamAllianz Nigeria.

This joint venture aims to transform the Nigerian insurance landscape by offering enhanced customer experiences, innovative solutions, and improved financial inclusion.


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E-Financial

World Bank Approves Extra $65m for Nigeria’s SPESSE

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World Bank has approved an additional $65 million loan for Nigeria to support the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental, and Social Standards Enhancement (SPESSE) project, increasing the total financing for the initiative to $145 million.

World Bank Approves Extra $65m for Nigeria’s SPESSE

The approval was granted on June 24, 2025, according to details posted on the World Bank’s website, which also indicates that the project’s status has moved to “active” following the approval.

The SPESSE project, initially launched with an $80 million loan approved in February 2020, aims to strengthen institutional capacity for managing procurement, environmental, and social standards in both the public and private sectors across Nigeria.

The World Bank described the project’s development objective as the establishment of sustainable capacity in these areas.

This latest approval is part of a broader wave of financing expected from the World Bank to Nigeria in 2025.

The bank is scheduled to approve loans totalling $1.61 billion over the coming months, supporting various development initiatives.

Among these is a $300 million loan for the ‘Solutions for the Internally Displaced and Host Communities Project,’ expected to be finalised by the end of July.

This project aims to improve access to basic services and economic opportunities for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities in selected local government areas in northern Nigeria.

In September, the World Bank plans to approve four additional loans: a $10.5 million facility to support technical assistance for the Central Bank of Nigeria, a $300 million Health Security Program targeting Western and Central Africa (Nigeria – Phase IV), a $500 million project for building resilient digital infrastructure (BRIDGE), and a $500 million loan under the Nigeria Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains for Growth project aimed at promoting sustainable growth and job creation within key agricultural sectors.

Earlier in March 2025, the bank approved three financing requests amounting to $1.13 billion.

These funds are directed towards projects focused on enhancing quality education, boosting household and community resilience, and improving nutrition.

Among the approved loans were $80 million for the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria 2.0 project, $552 million for the HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All programme, and $500 million for the Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus Programme.

In February, the Nigerian government announced expectations of new World Bank loans totalling $2.2 billion for six different projects in 2025. This follows a $1.5 billion loan disbursed in 2024 aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s economic stability and resource mobilisation efforts.


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