E-Financial
Stevens IoTech, Accenture Launch Financial Services Analytics Curriculum
Stevens Institute of Technology, a premier, private research university, and have initiated a research and education collaboration to focus on analytics for the financial services industry.
As part of the three-year collaboration, Accenture and Stevens will conduct advanced analytics research projects and workshop sessions with Accenture’s financial services clients, and Stevens will begin offering a Financial Services Analytics (FSA) Graduate Certificate Program in January 2015, a statement jointly released by the two outfits read.
The FSA curriculum was developed to combine the latest academic thinking with industry-proven experience to address evolving analytics needs in the financial services industry, including aspects of financial big data and data visualization.
Coursework is being offered through Stevens’ School of Systems and Enterprises, Financial Engineering (FE) Division. The FE Division at Stevens offers comprehensive research and education programs at the master’s and doctoral levels, and is led by world-renowned and industry-connected faculty.
Qualified students will have the opportunity to participate in internships with Accenture and other leading firms. Scholarships funded by Accenture will be awarded to two students per year to cover tuition and fees for the FSA graduate certificate.
According to recent Accenture research, one of the main big-data challenges organizations are facing globally is the lack of talent to implement and run big data and analytics on an ongoing basis. For the financial services industry, the demand for professionals with credentials in financial services analytics is strong, and it is growing at a rapid pace.
Another report by Accenture indicates that the United States could face a shortage of more than 260,000 analysts by 2015.
The same report, “The Looming Global Analytics Talent Mismatch in Banking,” articulated specific strategies for closing the talent gap, including the addition of business analytics coursework at the university level.
The Financial Services Analytics Graduate Certificate Program is specifically designed to help close the talent gap through graduate-level coursework.
“Finding and accessing analytics talent will require innovative sourcing strategies to bridge the gap between supply and demand,” said John DelSanto, senior managing director for Accenture’s Financial Services group in North America. “Stevens is teaching and researching complex systems and data analytics at a level that ties into an entire class of problems that we are addressing with our clients. As a result, Stevens graduates are well prepared to work on some of the most important business challenges of our times in financial services.”
“During this ‘century of complexity,’ our ability to understand and analyze data with perceptive questions in mind, supported by our ability to visualize the results of our analysis to allow strategic insights and critical decision-making, will be a key competitive discriminator for all organizations – commercial, government and academic,” said Dinesh Verma, dean of the School of Systems and Enterprises at Stevens. “With this in mind, the Stevens-Accenture collaboration has been established to develop optimal analytical competencies for the financial services enterprise.”
“In today’s financial environment of large data sets and data overload, there is a need for techniques to discover unique insights that allow businesses to increase the effectiveness of business operations, enhance customer relationships, improve product offerings and improve risk analysis and risk management,” said Dr. Rupak Chatterjee, an industry professor and deputy director of Financial Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. “The Stevens FSA curriculum was created based on the needs of Accenture’s clients in all of the major areas of the financial services industry – companies that can benefit from cutting-edge tools for the modern data-driven world. The FSA certificate will put students at the leading edge of financial analytics and technologies that are so critical for the big-data needs found in almost all aspects of life.”
The FSA Graduate Certificate Program features classes in topics such as: Data Quality and Composition; Advanced Data Mining, Analytics and Visualization; Creation of Databases and Decision-Making Tools and Enterprise Level Data Analytics and Delivery.
The 15-credit graduate certificate program is considered an option for completing a Financial Engineering Master’s Degree. Classes will be taught by Stevens scholars in Accenture’s midtown Manhattan offices, online and on Stevens’ campus in Hoboken, N.J.
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 305,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries.
Also, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University®, is a premier, private research university situated in Hoboken, N.J. overlooking the Manhattan skyline. Founded in 1870, technological innovation has been the hallmark and legacy of Stevens’ education and research programs for more than 140 years.
Within the university’s three schools and one college, more than 6,300 undergraduate and graduate students collaborate with more than 350 faculty members in an interdisciplinary, student-centric, entrepreneurial environment to advance the frontiers of science and leverage technology to confront global challenges.
Debt Management Office (DMO) said the federal government spent N3.14 trillion on servicing its domestic debt in the first quarter of 2026.
The office disclosed the data in its latest domestic debt service report for Q1 2026.
The figure comprises N2.97 trillion in interest payments and N169.68 billion in principal repayments.
The agency said in January, the government spent N741.82 billion on domestic debt service, while the figure rose to N967.67 billion in February.
Debt service increased further to N1.43 trillion in March, bringing the total for the quarter to N3.14 trillion.
The March figure was 47.7 percent higher than the N967.67 billion recorded in February and 92.7 percent above the N741.82 billion spent in January.
Also, the debt office said interest payments accounted for about 94.6 percent of total domestic debt service during the quarter.
The DMO said treasury bills accounted for the largest share of interest payments at N1 trillion, while interest on federal government bonds stood at N1.96 trillion.
The agency said the government also paid N4.24 billion in interest on FGN savings bonds during the period.
The DMO said the principal component of the debt service comprised N169.68 billion in repayments on local-denominated promissory notes.
Overall, the government’s domestic debt service rose sharply through the quarter, with March accounting for almost half of the N3.14 trillion spent between January and March.
Nigeria’s public debt increased by 0.01 percent to N159.35 trillion in the Q1 of 2026.
Interswitch Group, an integrated digital payments and commerce company, together with global banking software provider, Temenos have reassured the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of their commitment to advancing the modernisation of Nigeria’s financial services sector.
Interswitch and Temenos had earlier in June announced a strategic partnership across Africa which would see Interswitch leverage Temenos solutions – across core banking, digital banking, payments, wealth management and financial crime mitigation – to provide cloud-hosted and on-premises managed services to banks and financial institutions across Africa.
This will enable institutions to progressively transform their banking platform and evolve to more customer-centric business models. The service will initially support key African markets including Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya and others.
The recent regulatory visit to CBN headquarters in Abuja, was led by the Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Interswitch, Mitchell Elegbe, and Managing Director for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) at Temenos, Santhosh Rao, as part of the ongoing efforts by both organisations to deepen collaboration with Central Banks across the African region on the future of digital banking infrastructure across Nigeria and key African markets.
Discussions centred on the strategic partnership between Interswitch and Temenos, and how it will enable Nigerian financial institutions to progressively modernise their core banking platforms and transition to more customer-centric business models.
The two organisations also explored opportunities to work with the CBN in charting new frontiers in Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) innovation, leveraging resilient financial networks and decentralised application platforms to support the issuance and management of CBDCs.
Commenting on the visit, Elegbesaid: “Our partnership as Interswitch with Temenos and our continued engagement with the Central Bank of Nigeria reflect a shared commitment to building banking infrastructure that is resilient, inclusive, and ready for the next phase of Africa’s financial evolution.
We are proud to be at the table as these conversations shape the future of digital banking technology and innovation across key Africa markets…”
The Bank of Industry, through BOI Financing SPV Plc, has opened subscriptions for its inaugural Series 1 Fixed Rate Bond worth up to N250bn under its $1bn multi-currency instruments programme, seeking to raise long-term capital to finance businesses across Nigeria’s priority sectors.
The offer, which opened on 5 August and closes on 11 August, is being arranged by Chapel Hill Denham as the lead issuing house. The five-year bond is priced within a yield range of 17.35 per cent to 17.50 per cent and will be listed on the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
According to the offer document, proceeds from the issuance will be deployed to finance eligible businesses and projects across sectors, including agriculture and food processing, healthcare, engineering and technology, renewable energy, petrochemicals, oil and gas, creative industries and solid minerals, in line with BOI’s development finance mandate.
The lender said the financing is expected to improve access to medium and long-term funding for Nigerian enterprises, expand productive capacity, create and preserve jobs, deepen local value addition, support import substitution, boost exports and strengthen domestic value chains.
BOI, Nigeria’s foremost development finance institution, said it has provided funding to more than one million businesses across the country and disbursed over N1.27tn between 2023 and 2025. The institution operates across 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory and is jointly owned by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The bank also highlighted its financial performance, reporting a 36 per cent compound annual growth rate in gross earnings between 2021 and 2025.
Interest income rose 64 per cent to N884bn in 2025 from N538bn in the previous year, while its capital adequacy ratio stood at 39 per cent, nearly four times the regulatory minimum of 10 per cent. Its non-performing loan ratio was 1.7 per cent, below the CBN’s prudential limit of five per cent.
The bond has been assigned AAA ratings by Agusto & Co. and Intelligence Africa, reflecting the issuer’s strong capitalization, profitability, liquidity and ownership structure.
The issuance is open to institutional and qualified investors with a minimum subscription of N5m and additional investments in multiples of N1m. Interest will be paid semi-annually at a fixed rate, while principal repayment will begin in the third year through equal semi-annual amortised instalments until maturity in 2031.
The bond is also exempt from tax, making it an attractive investment option for investors seeking stable returns amid expectations of declining interest rates.
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