E-Financial
Rafsanjani @ IMF/World Bank Meetings, Says Nigeria’s Debt Surge Reckless
Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, executive director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) and head of Transparency International Nigeria, has highlighted Nigeria’s escalating debt as reckless and unsustainable.
Rafsanjani, urged immediate reforms in global financial governance and robust debt management strategies for African countries to avert the continent’s growing fiscal crisis.
He stated this the 2025 International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington D.C.,US.
In an exclusive interview on the Nigerian programme, The Policy with Leah, on the sidelines of the meetings, Rafsanjani dissected Nigeria’s current borrowing practices.
He criticised the heavy reliance on loans primarily funnelled into recurrent expenditures instead of development projects, resulting in negligible benefits for the citizenry.
“Most of the loans we take are not for development but for consumption,” Rafsanjani asserted.
“There is little or no accountability around them. Civil society must be involved in monitoring these debts, especially when even lawmakers lack access to full disclosure.”
Rafsanjani aligned with the G24’s recent position that developing countries face a debt trap largely fuelled by weak governance, corruption, and rampant illicit financial flows.
He expressed strong support for debt cancellations in cases where borrowed funds have failed to generate real development outcomes.
He also joined critiques of the IMF and World Bank governance, condemning the disproportionate influence of powerful nations.
“Global financial decision-making must be more transparent, inclusive, and fair,” he insisted, endorsing ongoing global civil society campaigns pushing for institutional reforms.
On the domestic front, Rafsanjani raised concerns over Nigeria’s economic vulnerabilities, including its overdependence on oil, dwindling infrastructure, and persistent insecurity—factors he said deter foreign investments.
He lambasted government austerity measures, such as subsidy removals in healthcare, education, and transport, which he said exacerbate poverty rather than alleviate it.
“It is ironic that while developed nations continue to subsidise critical services, we are removing support for the poor under the guise of reforms,” Rafsanjani said.
He also highlighted Nigeria’s urgent need for investment in science, technology, and education to avoid being left behind in the global digital economy. “Without quality and affordable education, our youths cannot compete in the digital economy,” he noted.
“Our universities are underfunded, research is dead, professors and lecturers are continually finding it hard to survive and laboratories are non-functional.”
Rafsanjani called for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools across government sectors to boost fiscal transparency and accountability.
He explained that AI could automate audits, track spending, and detect financial leakages early, but underscored that Nigeria must first invest in energy, digital infrastructure, and skilled manpower to support such technologies.
Addressing state fiscal management, Rafsanjani urged governors to prioritise internally generated revenue over dependence on allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).
He warned that increases in FAAC funds must translate into tangible improvements for citizens, rather than fuelling wasteful “elephant projects.”
“The fuel subsidy savings must also be transparently accounted for by governors,” he stressed
“These funds belong to the people and must be used to improve healthcare, education, and infrastructure, not to enrich political elites.”
He condemned Nigeria’s high governance costs and the lavish lifestyles of some public officials, contrasting this with more modest practices among counterparts in advanced countries.
“You cannot expect development assistance from abroad while living lavishly at home,” Rafsanjani said.
“Ministers abroad fly economy class; in Nigeria, one official moves with 20 cars. That kind of waste is unsustainable.”
Concluding, Rafsanjani called on African governments to prioritise sustainable financing, institutional reforms, and human capital development to break free from cycles of poverty and debt dependency.
PalmPay, one of Africa’s leading digital financial services companies, is considering a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after attaining a valuation of more than one billion dollars, according to a Bloomberg report.
PalmPay
The report, citing sources familiar with the matter, said the fintech company was also seeking to raise between 150 million dollars and 200 million dollars in fresh funding ahead of a potential Initial Public Offering (IPO).
According to the sources, the additional capital is expected to support PalmPay’s next phase of expansion across Africa and selected Asian markets.
If completed, the IPO would rank among the most significant public market debuts by an African fintech company and could encourage other technology firms on the continent to explore listings beyond the traditional financial centres of London and New York.
Founded in 2019, PalmPay has emerged as one of Africa’s fastest-growing consumer fintech platforms, providing digital payments, money transfers, savings, lending and merchant payment solutions.
The company has established its strongest market presence in Nigeria while expanding operations into Ghana, Tanzania and Bangladesh as part of its international growth strategy.
PalmPay says it currently serves more than 35 million registered users and supports over one million businesses and merchants, processing millions of transactions daily.
Its rapid growth has positioned it among Africa’s leading fintech firms, alongside companies such as Flutterwave, Moniepoint, OPay, Wave and Onafriq.
Unlike many technology startups that have prioritised rapid customer acquisition over profitability, PalmPay reportedly achieved profitability in 2025, a development analysts say could enhance investor confidence as the company prepares for another fundraising round and an eventual stock market listing.
The report noted that Hong Kong could offer strategic advantages for PalmPay due to its strong commercial ties with Asian investors and the company’s growing presence in emerging Asian markets.
PalmPay’s early investors include Transsion Holdings, the maker of the Tecno, Infinix and itel smartphone brands, as well as investors linked to NetEase and MediaTek.
Industry analysts believe these long-standing relationships could make Hong Kong a natural destination for PalmPay’s public listing while broadening access to investors already familiar with its business model.
The company’s IPO plans come as venture capital investment in African startups has slowed considerably since the record funding years of 2021 and 2022, prompting many technology firms to focus on profitability, stronger balance sheets and sustainable long-term growth.
Against that backdrop, PalmPay’s proposed fundraising and listing are expected to serve as an important test of international investor appetite for profitable African fintech companies.
The company’s valuation also underscores the resilience of Africa’s digital payments sector, driven by rising smartphone adoption, expanding internet access and increasing demand for cashless transactions across the continent.
Although PalmPay has yet to make a final decision on either the fundraising or the IPO timetable, the reported preparations indicate that the company is positioning itself for its next phase of growth.
Industry observers say a successful Hong Kong listing could provide fresh momentum for Africa’s technology sector and create an alternative pathway for high-growth startups seeking access to global capital markets.
Hackers have hit the database of Zenith Bank, one of Nigeria’s largest financial institutions, stealing customers’ information.
Zenith confirmed the attack in an email to customers on Tuesday.
The bank said the hackers accessed limited customer information, “including email addresses and phone numbers, during a cyberattack that forms part of a broader global attack on organisations across different sectors”.
The lender stressed that the incident involved only limited customer information, adding that its banking services and digital channels remain secure and fully operational.
The bank said it is investigating the attack, noting that its incident response protocols and other cybersecurity measures were immediately activated after the breach was discovered.
“As a precaution, we encourage our customers to remain vigilant against phishing emails, text messages, or phone calls, and to never disclose their password, PIN, One-Time Password (OTP), or other security credentials to anyone,” the bank said.
Zenith Bank said it remains committed to protecting customers’ information and thanked them for their continued trust, adding that investigations into the incident are ongoing.
In August 2024, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) reported experiencing a similar incident.
The commercial bank said there were attempts to compromise its website domain, but customers’ data was not affected.
The latest attack comes months after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) warned the public of cyber hack attempts to gain access to personal accounts of Nigerians.
The CBN said the hackers were circulating fraudulent messages and emails falsely claiming to originate from the bank.
According to the financial regulator, there were misleading messages circulating, designed to deceive Nigerians and compromise their personal information.
The regulator said the fake communications, which include emails and online messages, often prompt recipients to click suspicious links while spreading false claims about the bank’s leadership, licensing activities, and policy decisions.
Nigerians lost N25.85 billion to digital payment fraud in 2025, according to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Though the figure represents a significant decline from the N52.26 billion recorded in 2024, CBN, said the losses remained substantial for payment service providers (PSPs).
According to the report, although the value of digital payment fraud declined significantly year-on-year, when compared to the N52.26 billion recorded in the previous year, the losses remained substantial for Payment Service Providers (PSPs), underscoring the need for stronger fraud prevention measures across the industry.
In the report, the CBN, also identified systemic risks, cyber threats, the dominance of a few systemically important payment service providers, and the activities of unlicensed payment companies as major concerns confronting the financial sector.
According to the report, although the value of digital payment fraud declined significantly year-on-year, the losses remained substantial for Payment Service Providers (PSPs), underscoring the need for stronger fraud prevention measures across the industry.
“Digital payment fraud in Nigeria stood at N25.85 billion in 2025,” the apex bank said.
It noted that while this represented a considerable improvement from the N52.26 billion lost in 2024, the amount remained significant.
“Though this was lower than N52.26 billion in the preceding year, it represented a substantial loss for PSPs,” the report stated.
The CBN attributed the reduction in fraud losses to enhanced security measures implemented across the financial sector.
It said, “The lower losses in 2025 reflected improvements in monitoring, BVN-NIN integration, and tighter controls.”
Beyond fraud, the report warned that Nigeria’s rapidly expanding digital payments landscape faces increasing systemic vulnerabilities as banks and fintech companies become more interconnected through shared payment infrastructure.
According to the report, a major operational failure involving a single payment service provider could quickly spread across the financial system because of the growing dependence on integrated payment platforms.
The CBN observed that despite ongoing efforts to strengthen payment system integration, interoperability remains a significant challenge.
It disclosed that about half of fintech stakeholders continued to express dissatisfaction with the current level of system-wide interoperability.
The report stated that “about 50.00 per cent of fintech stakeholders continued to rate system-wide interoperability as poor, primarily due to the lack of universal APIs and data-sharing standards.”
The apex bank also expressed concern over the concentration of payment activities among a few Systemically Important Payment Service (SIPS) providers, warning that operational failures involving any of them could have widespread consequences.
It explained that the failure of such providers could trigger a “domino effect”, where insolvency or operational glitches in one payment service provider spread rapidly to others, disrupting the smooth functioning of the financial system.
Cybersecurity also featured prominently among the risks identified in the report.
The CBN warned that payment service providers remain vulnerable to ransomware attacks, data breaches and credential theft, noting that cybercriminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in targeting financial institutions.
According to the report, “Banking and fintech institutions remained prime targets for ransomware, data leaks, and credential theft.”
It added that, “Cyber threats in Nigeria are no longer random cybercrimes, but increasingly targeted, organised, and identity-driven campaigns.”
The report further cautioned Nigerians against transacting with unlicensed payment companies, stressing that such entities operate outside regulatory oversight and expose users to significant financial risks.
It warned that customers using unlicensed PSPs are not protected by existing regulatory safeguards and that such operators could facilitate illicit financial activities.
“Users of unlicensed PSPs are not covered by regulatory protection that comes with effective oversight and supervision,” the CBN said.
It further warned that, “Unlicenced payment companies are gateways for money laundering which could undermine regulatory efforts and corrode public trust.”
The report underscores the growing importance of strengthening fraud detection systems, improving payment infrastructure interoperability, enhancing cybersecurity resilience, and intensifying regulatory oversight as Nigeria continues to expand its digital payments ecosystem.
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