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Interesting Developments in the Courier Sector
Courier and postal services last year witnessed exponential growth in volume of services rendered to customers. There were also innovations in some areas which helped to notch up demand for services rendered by the sector. Information and Communication Technology still stands out as a great enabler that has helped to drive the new areas of opportunities being savored by the sector to deliver innovated, prompt and effective services to rising clientele of postal and courier services.
The fear was that the dawn of the information age would have a negative effect on the postal and courier sector as skeptics were of the view that the boom in ICT would lead to reduction in services rendered by the sector. But events were to prove skeptics wrong that instead of reducing the operations and opportunities available in the industry, ICT has actually enlarged the scope and areas of activities for the sector. As an evolving phenomenon, ICT will continue to create more opportunities and even change manual and old ways of doing business in the sector in 2009 and beyond.
The postal and courier sector in 2009 will most likely continue to witness an upswing in terms of volume of services it renders. With a fiscal policy that tends towards reduction in government expenditure during the year, there is likelihood that there will be heightened demand for the services of the sector. Oversea travel for government personnel has been slashed and such a development is likely to lead to increase in courier and postal service exchanges during the year.
The introduction of new actors in the Ministry of Information and Communications which saw Prof. Dora Akunyili replacing Mr. John Odey as minister, and Ibrahim Dasuki Nakande being succeeded by ……. as minister for state for Information and Communications , will actually change things either for better or for worse. But given the track record of Prof Dora Akunyili as former director general of National Agency For Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigerians are not in doubt that Akunyili is capable of delivering as an individual. However people have continued to express their reservation that the Amazon is now being made to head a ministry where she lacks the expertise to operate and area different from her area of calling as a pharmacist where she has made her mark.
Other school of thought feels sad that Akunyili might rubbish whatever fame she had been able to garner for herself during her days as the director general of NAFDAC.
As Akunyili is settling down in the office, she needs to be reminded that there are issues which he predecessor could not finalize before the recent hand over / takeover which are vital to the development of the information ministry. One is the Postal Commission bill that is supposed to usher in an independent regulatory body for the postal and courier sector. The postal and courier sector has showed much hope of being a money spinner for government and private operators but proper regulation of the industry has being a major drawback.
Akunyili will do well to take a closer look on the process of constituting the Postal Commission and know why it has been delayed. Inputs into the draft Postal bill have been made by all stakeholders and same submitted to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to vet and submit to the vice president who is the chairman of ….. She should find out the position with this document and possibly fast track it for approval by the presidency.
2009 will most probably usher in the much awaited Nigerian Postal Service commercialization. The postmaster general of the federation, Mori Baba has argued that commercialization of the federal government parastatal will make the organization to be less dependent on government revenues. The process has brought in re-engineering into Nipost with an eye to unlimited areas of making profit for the organization.
Banks in Nigeria are also indicating their interests to pick courier licenses. In fact Union Bank plc has already picked one and operates under the name Union Express, while others are still undergoing preliminary screening by the Courier Regulatory Department. The implication is that the stake will now be higher when more banks begin to indulge in the express and logistics business. With many funds at their disposal, they will try to control the business but the multinational courier companies will prove a hard nut to crack in the new development as they have also the finance and expertise to give the banks a fair competition.
In these developing scenarios, there is need to have a strong regulatory platform that will not be inclined to favoring any particular company. The worth of the market will be much higher than what it is at present and proper regulation of the industry will attract more foreign investors into the economy. Then the arrangement where the Courier Regulatory Department (CRD), the organ saddled with the regulation of the postal sector which is tied to the apron strings of Nipost , also a player in the industry will no longer be tenable .

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E-Business
Firm Discovered a New Corporate Phishing Technique using a Popular AI Web Development Platform

Kaspersky has discovered that attackers have begun exploiting another legitimate service for malicious purposes – this time it is Tencent EdgeOne Pages, a platform for creating and hosting web applications.

Attackers are misusing its capabilities to generate phishing emails targeting corporate users. Previously Kaspersky has described similar attacks leveraging Google services and web applications generated by Bubble, an AI-powered app builder, to hunt for corporate credentials.
Employees across multiple industries including the industrial sector, sales, and government are among the targets. The goal of the attack is to steal login credentials for corporate resources. Over the past 30 days, the company’s experts have detected more than 8,000 phishing emails using this tactic, including messages in English, Korean, and Russian.
The Tencent EdgeOne Pages service is positioned as a platform for quickly creating and deploying web applications using AI. Scammers misuse it to generate and publish phishing pages in minutes with virtually no web development skills.
Attackers host phishing pages on EdgeOne’s legitimate cloud infrastructure and use trusted domains. As a result, such sites appear to be established and secure to many protective solutions, complicating the detection of such attacks.
How the attack begins
The user receives an email from the alleged “corporate email support team”. The message states that the account login credentials will expire in 48 hours, and that failure to update them may result in problems receiving or sending emails.
To avoid restrictions, the user is prompted to click a link and enter relevant information. Phishing emails are not limited to this narrative, and could deliver any corporate message, such as a message from the HR department or a notification of a received document that should be downloaded.
Clicking the link in the email opens a page with a form for entering the victim’s name, email address, and password. It is a simple design, with virtually no additional elements.
After the user enters their login and password, the data is transferred to a server controlled by the attackers.
“We are seeing a continuation of the trend in which attackers use AI and no-code platforms as part of their phishing infrastructure. We’ve previously observed a similar scheme using the Bubble platform, and here we have yet another example.
“While the communication used in these phishing attacks is typical and has been used before multiple times, the attack technique itself significantly lowers the barrier to entry for attackers and accelerates the creation of phishing resources.
“Previously this required at least basic web development skills, but now an infrastructure for fraudulent emails can be created in minutes,” comments Roman Dedenok, Anti-Spam Expert at Kaspersky.
General News
MSMEs Paucity of Funds Receives Boost as Senate Backs Bill Seeking to Unlock Cash for them

Businesses across Nigeria, particularly micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), may soon be able to convert unpaid invoices and credit sales into immediate cash without relying on conventional bank loans following the passage of the Factoring, Assignments and Receivables Financing Bill for second reading in the Senate.

The bill, which seeks to establish a legal framework for factoring and receivables financing, is expected to improve access to credit, boost liquidity for businesses and enhance domestic and international trade.
It also seeks to provide legal certainty for the assignment of receivables through factoring, promote transparency, modernise assignment laws and facilitate greater access to credit for businesses across the country.
Leading debate on the bill which was sent from the House of Representatives for concurrence, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said on Tuesday that the proposed legislation would create an enabling environment for debt factoring to thrive in Nigeria while defining the rights and obligations of creditors, factors and debtors involved in such transactions.
He explained that the bill provides for factoring contracts between sellers and factors and clarifies the legal relationship among parties in receivables financing arrangements.
According to Bamidele, the legislation has already passed all legislative stages in the House of Representatives and has complied with the Senate’s procedural requirements under Order 78(3) of the Senate Standing Orders.
He told lawmakers that the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Compliance, chaired by Abdul Ningi, had scrutinised and cleared the bill for concurrence.
“The committee confirmed that all procedural requirements for consideration and concurrence by the Senate have been fully met,” he said.
Seconding the bill, Adetokunbo Abiru said the legislation would provide businesses with an alternative source of financing by enabling them to turn credit sales into cash and improve their working capital.
Abiru noted that factoring has become increasingly popular across Africa over the last decade, largely through initiatives supported by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
He disclosed that the African factoring market is currently valued at over $50 billion, but Nigeria’s participation remains below one per cent.
According to him, countries such as Egypt and Morocco have benefited significantly from the financing model, adding that Nigeria risks missing out on the growing market without a clear regulatory framework.
“I think that passing this major legislation will help support our micro, small and medium enterprises in terms of converting most of their credit sales into cash without going through the normal borrowing arrangement,” Abiru said.
In his remarks, Ningi also assured lawmakers that the compliance committee had reviewed the bill and found no legal impediments to its passage.
Following a voice vote, the Senate approved the bill for second reading and subsequently referred it to the Committee of the Whole for clause-by-clause consideration.
Telecom
Airtel Nigeria Launches Web Data Calculator to Give Customers Greater Visibility into Data Usage

Airtel Nigeria has launched the Airtel Web Data Calculator, a new digital tool designed to help customers estimate and better understand their internet data consumption based on real-life usage patterns.

The launch comes amid a broader industry effort to improve transparency around data consumption and strengthen customer confidence in mobile broadband services.
It also aligns with ongoing collaboration between telecommunications operators and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to address customer concerns about data depletion and improve quality of service across the sector.
Recent industry initiatives have included customer education campaigns, daily usage notifications, billing audits, customer engagement forums, and the development of new tools that provide greater visibility into how data is consumed.
Available through Airtel’s website, the calculator enables customers to estimate data usage across common digital activities such as video streaming, social media engagement, voice and video calls, and everyday web browsing. By translating online behaviour into understandable data estimates, the tool empowers customers to make more informed decisions about their data plans and digital habits.
Speaking on the launch, Oladokun Oye, Customer Experience Director, Airtel Nigeria, said the initiative reflects Airtel’s commitment to customer empowerment and service transparency.
“As Nigerians become increasingly dependent on digital services for work, education, entertainment and communication, it is important that customers have clear visibility into how their data is consumed. The Airtel Web Data Calculator was developed to help our customers understand their usage patterns better, make informed choices, and enjoy greater confidence in their digital experience,” he said.
Oye added that customer concerns around data depletion have remained a recurring topic across the telecommunications industry, making transparency a critical component of customer experience.
“We believe that trust grows when customers have access to clear information. This tool is another step in our ongoing efforts to simplify the customer experience, provide greater clarity around data consumption, and support informed decision-making,” he said.
The launch follows a period of intensified engagement between telecom operators, regulators and consumers on data usage awareness. The NCC has consistently emphasized that many instances of perceived rapid data depletion are linked to factors such as high-definition video streaming, automatic application updates, cloud synchronization, background app activity and evolving smartphone capabilities. The regulator has encouraged operators to improve customer education and develop tools that help subscribers better understand their consumption patterns.
Industry data underscores the importance of such initiatives. Nigeria recorded more than 13 million terabytes of internet consumption in 2025, reflecting the country’s accelerating digital transformation and growing dependence on mobile broadband services.
Commenting on the significance of the launch, Dinesh Balsingh, Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, said the company remains focused on building a network and customer experience ecosystem anchored on trust, transparency and continuous improvement.
“The future of telecommunications will be defined not only by network investments but also by how effectively operators help customers understand and manage their digital lives. The Airtel Web Data Calculator represents a practical innovation that places more information and control directly in the hands of our customers.”
He noted that Airtel continues to invest heavily in network modernization, customer experience initiatives and digital tools that improve service quality while making telecommunications services easier to understand and use.
“We welcome the industry’s collective focus on transparency and commend the NCC’s continued collaboration with operators to strengthen consumer confidence. As data becomes increasingly central to everyday life, Airtel will continue to develop solutions that make connectivity more accessible, transparent and rewarding for every customer.”
The launch also builds on Airtel Nigeria’s recent customer engagement initiatives, including forums dedicated to helping subscribers better understand data usage, value optimization and service quality. These engagements have brought together customers, regulators and Airtel executives to foster greater awareness and dialogue around digital consumption.
The Airtel Web Data Calculator is now available to customers nationwide and can be accessed via Airtel Nigeria’s website.
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