Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Connect with us

E-Business

NIBSS Extends POS Transaction Timeout to 45 Seconds

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) has extended Point of Sale (POS) transactions timeout from 15 second to 45 seconds.

 

Niyi Ajao, NIBSS acting managing director, who disclosed this during a press briefing in Lagos, said the agency was aware of the poor transaction network going on in the country, and pains it has caused to e-payment users.

 

He said the move was to improve on poor network quality for e-payment transactions by extending the time it takes to complete a transaction, especially, POS and restore confidence in the e-payment system.

 

Ajao said that NIBSS facilitated 285 e-payment transactions in 2018, and that the transaction volume will hit 600 million by this year end.

 

He explained that transaction timeout is the total turn-around-time (TAT) for a POS transaction cycle from the time it is received from a POS to the time a response is sent back to the terminal. “This TAT had been configured at 15 seconds in agreement with banks and processors. However, delayed responses from Issuers after this timeout in recent times could cause authorised debits not to return to the terminal before the set TAT, hence the adjustment to 45 seconds,” he said.

 

He said there has been several meetings between the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), banks and Payment Service Providers on the need to improve transaction quality and provide seamless e-payment services to customers.

 

According to the NIBSS boss, the adjustment to the timeout will be done on March 22, and is meant to reduce the number of failed transactions in the country.

 

He said the reversal for failed transactions is one area that NIBSS will henceforth, pay more attention to, so as to strengthen e-payment users confidence in the system.

 

“Whenever there is a transaction decline the system is supposed to reverse the transaction such that a debited cardholder would receive a reversal credit. Delays on reversal could be caused by platform downtime, network issues at processor level or delayed responses and Issuer/Switch Inoperative – Processor or bank is not available to receive the reversal even when it’s transmitted by NIBSS,” he said.

 

He said that NIBSS has taken remedial actions in fixing the rising e-payment challenges in the country, by fixing all platform application issues by  February 21; network remediation carried out with concerned Processor and implementation of a secondary process whereby all reversals for any business day are re-transmitted between 10pm and 12 mid-night to return credit back to cardholders through their banks/Processors by March 22.

 

 

 


Kindly share this post

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Comments

E-Business

Global Crypto Heists Surge to $2.1Bn in H1 2025 as Digital Assets is Weaponised

Published

on

Kindly share this post

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.

Global Crypto Heists Surge to $2.1Bn in H1 2025 as Digital Assets is Weaponised

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.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

E-Business

CAC Launches AI-powered Business Registration Portal

Published

on

Kindly share this post

Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has inaugurated the pilot take-off of its new Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered registration portal.

CAC Launches AI-powered Business 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.


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

E-Business

Bitget Launches Institutional Services to Empower Fintech Innovation

Published

on

Kindly share this post

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.”

 


Kindly share this post
Continue Reading

Trending