Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents of Nigeria (AMMBAN) has decried the directive coming from the Corporate Affairs Commission mandating all Point Of Sale (POS) agents to register with the commission.

At a press conference which was held over the weekend in Lagos, the group insisted that the reason tendered by the commission that the registration was to curb crime in the Fintech space was not tenable, maintaining that it was purely a revenue drive agenda.

In a paper read by the National General Secretary, Oluwasegun Elegbede on behalf of the President of the association, Fasasi Sarafsdeen Atanda said, “The Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents of Nigeria (AMMBAN) strongly disagrees with the recent directive by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) that all POS agents must register with it, regardless of their status as individuals or non-individuals. We believe this directive is unnecessary, contradictory to existing laws, and amounts to a mere revenue generation move to further tax hapless Nigerians.”

AMMBAN maintained that the reason that the directive was designed to curb crime in the financial space was not tenable. “We disagree with CAC’s claim that it wants to fight crimes in the agency agency banking business space through registration. We believe that the kind of crimes in the space are both human and technical, which CAC registration cannot fight.”

Referring to Section 18 (1) of CAMA which states that “A person may apply to the commission for the registration of a company” and section 22(1) states that “A company shall be deemed to be a separate legal entity from its members.”

The group insisted that what this means is that individuals and non-individuals (companies) have different legal statuses and requirements. Moreover, the CBN Policy on financial inclusion and development states that “agency banking services shall be provided by agents who are individuals or non-individuals (companies) registered with the CBN (Section 2.1).

“The group disclosed that the policy clearly recognized the distinction between individuals and non-individuals and does not require individuals to register with CAC,” the paper read.

AMMBAN disclosed that it has made and still making spirited efforts in combating the issue of crimes within their business space,  and condemned the insistence of CAC to deploy the police to execute the directive against those who fail to register their business by July 7.

The group while denying allegation credited to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that AMMBAN members are  colluding with bank staff to hoard cash or engage in buying and selling of cash. Aside asserting that the allegation was misleading, they also stated that it is damaging to the reputation of their members who are law-abiding citizens.

“Our association finds it criminal for anyone to buy and sell cash, as our role is to bring succour to the general populace at a very convenient cost to serve.” And they also called on the commission to endeavor to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt.

AMMBAN also categorically denied allegation that her members are responsible for scarcity of cash, adding that her members are also facing similar challenge because their agents are not given any preferences in accessing cash from the bank, saying, “it has been a long standing demand that the CBN categorize agencies into different tiers to enable them to have access to cash, rather than seeing them as individuals with a limit of N500000. This will help to address the current cash scarcity and promote financial inclusion.”

The group further said that they reject the CBN ‘s policy limiting multiple accounts/wallets to two. They added that the policy has crashed the agent network category and is an attack on financial inclusion. “We urge everyone to work together to promote financial inclusion and economic growth, rather than engaging in activities that can undermine the progress made so far.”

Chairman of AMMBAN, Fasasi Sarafadeen Atanda disclosed that their members have lost millions of jobs due to inconsistent policies in the Fintech space. “People are asking us why are we taking this step, we are taking this step to save millions of jobs in Nigeria, because it is not just about POS, it is actually beyond POS.

“We know the implications of most of these policies that are not well thought out and their impacts on the economy generally. As of today since the beginning of the cashless policy and the cash redesign policies last year, to the level of NIN and BVN linkage and then the recent policies of asking all agents to go and register with CAC, and lots of policies being dished out to providers internally via internal memo, such as restriction on how many accounts an agent can have, all these policies have led to the following statistics: We have lost over 1.5 million jobs in the last one year.”

He said there are over 3.7 million POS in circulation as of today, but the service providers were only able to deploy 2.7, leaving the gap of 1million POS amounting to a loss of 1million jobs in Nigeria.

He further added “Also agents that are utilizing Fintech solutions, they are utilizing mobile apps, they are utilizing websites, they are also exploring digital and Fintech solutions, that space alone is employing hundreds of jobs, in the form of app developers, UI, US Engineers and all others in that space, we have lost cumulatively 200,000 jobs.

He also stated that the aggregators were not left out in the policy summersaults. “And aggregators, we have about 217 registered Fintech companies in Nigeria and most of them are adopting the strategy of aggregators. Who are the aggregators or who are the agent network?

They are the people that are stepping down all the services of financial institutions. You have aggregators that are helping providers to deploy and manage US terminals and each and every one of these 217 registered Fintech, they have a minimum of a 1000 aggregators. So when you multiply a thousand with at least, 200 out of the 217, you can see the number of jobs that have been lost through that.”

He also said that Nigeria has lost a lot of foreign direct investment.

National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday said Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by 2.98 per cent in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024.

In its latest report, the bureau put the nation’s current growth rate at 2.98 per cent, saying the growth rate is higher than the 2.31 per cent recorded in the same quarter in 2023 but lower than the 3.46 per cent recorded in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023.

“Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.98% (year-on-year) in real terms in the first quarter of 2024. This growth rate is higher than the 2.31% recorded in the first quarter of 2023 and lower than the fourth quarter of 2023 growth of 3.46%,” the report read.

“The performance of the GDP in the first quarter of 2024 was driven mainly by the Services sector, which recorded a growth of 4.32% and contributed 58.04% to the aggregate GDP.

“The agriculture sector grew by 0.18%, from the growth of -0.90% recorded in the first quarter of 2023. The growth of the industry sector was 2.19%, an improvement from 0.31% recorded in the first quarter of 2023.

“In terms of share of the GDP, the services sector contributed more to the aggregate GDP in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2023.”

A new ongoing malware campaign that exploits the growing popularity of AI tools by disguising itself as an AI voice generator has been discovered by Kaspersky.

The malware uses GitHub to store password-protected archives as the final payload. This payload contains password and data stealers, enabling cybercriminals to steal various types of data, mine cryptocurrency, and download additional malicious software.

The Gipy malware has been active since mid-2023 and distinguishes itself by choosing AI tools as bait to spread malware. In a recent campaign observed by Kaspersky, the initial infection occurs when a user downloads a malicious file from a phishing website that imitates an AI application used to change voices.

These websites are well-crafted and appear identical to legitimate ones. Links to the malicious files are frequently placed on compromised third-party websites running WordPress.

After the user clicks the “Install” button, the installer for a legitimate application starts, but in the background, a script executes malicious activities.

During its execution, Gipy downloads and launches third-party malware from GitHub packaged in password-protected ZIP archives. Kaspersky experts have analysed over 200 of these archives. Most of the ones on GitHub contain the infamous Lumma password stealer.

However, the experts also found Apocalypse ClipBanker, a modified Corona cryptominer, and several RATs, including DCRat and RADXRat. Additionally, they discovered password stealers like RedLine and RisePro, a Golang-based stealer called Loli, and a Golang-based backdoor named TrueClient.

The cybercriminals behind Gipy do not show a particular geographical preference, targeting users worldwide. The top five affected countries are Russia, Taiwan, the US, Spain, and Germany.

“AI tools bring remarkable benefits and revolutionise our daily lives, but users must stay vigilant. Cybercriminals are leveraging the surge in AI interest to spread malware and conduct phishing attacks. AI is being used as bait for over a year now and we do not expect this trend to abate,” comments Oleg Kupreev, security expert at Kaspersky.