General News
UNISS Will Revolutionize University Administrative System—Yemane
Berhane Yemane is the chief executive officer of Noel Information Technology Solutions, a company providing a wide range of business solutions and support services. He has almost two decades of experience in professional consulting and management of Oracle Financial Applications implementation and Client/Server applications design, development and deployment. He spoke to hilary okeke on UniSS application designed to automate university administration.
University Student System Application
University Student System (UniSS) is based on Oracle developers’ suite, which enables universities to accomplish their critical missions in today’s rapidly changing educational environment. It is a single source student system designed to provide a solution for staff responsible for school administration, student enrolment, financial and business services of educational institutions. UniSS application is designed for and developed using the latest industry standard Oracle 10g developer suite which can adapt to increased demands, can easily be customized to fit each client’s requirements and is not wholly affected by a single application failure.
The software functions can be compared to leading software companies’ applications’ functions such as maintaining students’ records, calculating GPAs, and school’s general information; and is by far the most cost effective application to customize, implement and support. The Access Control section of the application contains security at multi-levels, for the authorization of users who are allowed access to data, by maintaining users’ access levels to the application and creating audit trail of all changes made to student’s record to include, but not limited to user ID and date stamp.
UniSS is developed based on the knowledge of African educational institutions, the understanding of the technology and IT infrastructure of the continent. All functions, forms and reports are tailored to suit the educational requirements of each institution. As an Oracle based application, it is designed as packaged modules. Functions such as internal processes, interface with third-party software, federal or state government’s grants and scholarships, as well as legal requirements are all included in the application modules. These functions are not relevant to customers outside the western countries’ educational institutions but they are included in the pricing of the application module. Implementation of Oracle modules costs an average $15-20 million but implementation of the UniSS application costs less than half of that.
Project Implementation
First, we conduct feasibility study and document the university structure; do a feasibility study of the university’s IT infrastructure; recommend to the university the Oracle software and hardware, as well as IT infrastructure required to run the UniSS application; and modify UniSS application accordingly by designing customized forms, reports and processes. We then gather and prepare students’ and university’s data, create interface programmes to enter the data into the UniSS database, deploy the application in a “development” environment; conduct user training along with Oracle training; conduct rigorous unit tests of the application and data clean up in preparation for production environment deployment. Deployment of UniSS application in a “production” environment is the last stage of the implementation process.
Availability to Nigeria Market
My trip to this country is basically to explore the Nigerian market. I got here about a week ago and I have since spoken to interested people. Before the end of this week, I may speak to the management of the Lagos State University. We are trying to promote this university automation system, and we will keep doing that till people begin to appreciate what they stand to gain.
Security and Integrity of the Application
Although Web-based, this is an internal application system – an application for university wide administration. It is not an Internet or online based application where people can log in; it is internal. So you have to be an authorised university administrator or personnel to gain access to the application. Of course, if the university wants the students to access their records or they want them to generate reports; they would have the online arm of it so that the students can do so. That is negotiable with the university.
The universities stand to gain a lot from this application. First, they can save money and reduce paper work during admissions and in general administration of the school, and also save time. Any organisation replacing its manual system with automated system has a lot to gain on the long term in terms of money, efficiency and data security. For a student requesting for transcript, that can be generated in a matter of seconds; all that is needed to be done is query the student data and just print the transcript, with the automatically generated signatures of relevant personnel. This makes the process much faster than it normally would have been. UniSS is a good product, but I have to convince school administrations to see if they have any use for it, and I am sure a lot of private and government owned Universities do so. I hope the uptake will be encouraging.
We promoted the application in Atlanta, Georgia. We installed it for one of the universities on trial basis. In the United States, there are software applications like that. I take this to countries based on the needs of their schools; we developed the software bearing in mind the needs of the schools here. The software is in the early stage of testing in the American school where it is currently used. The IT people there have analyzed their needs and have been able to identify certain sections that we need to incorporate into the software. Note that it is still at the trial stage and not out in the market yet.
Unique Selling Point
I have over 15 years experience in software development. First, we look at the market when developing software. I used to work for the State of Georgia where I was part of a team that developed Oracle application based Scholarship and Grants System. It is a huge application that was accessed by all the 45 universities in the state of Georgia. That gave us the idea; our target market then became Africa where there is need for such software. However, the design of this system assumes that the university structure is divided into faculties and each is broken down into departments that have degree or diploma programmes. Each faculty’s employees have access to their own faculty’s information, while courses for each department in a faculty will be available in drop down lists based on a student’s registration information and grade level. Only authorized users in a faculty can access a student’s final grade into the system, while approval is required from the head of the faculty to change a student’s final grade – the authorized user can write the approval in the “Comment” field provided. The approval document to change a student’s final grade signed by the faculty head can also be scanned and made available on the application by clicking the “Approval” button. Moreover, there is a “Comment” field available for each student so that each department has the ability to write or update a student’s progress.
Nigeria is experiencing a complex cybersecurity landscape where reported fraud incidents have decreased by nearly 46 percent over the past four years, yet financial losses from cybercrime are on the rise, according to Check Point Software.
This trend is attributed to sophisticated schemes developed by cybercriminals who are increasingly targeting the nation’s rapidly digitizing economy, with further coverage provided by Dark Reading.
Nigeria’s digital transformation has made it a prime target for cybercriminals.
In June 2026, organizations in the country faced an average of 4,361 attempted attacks weekly, ranking it second in Africa for cyber threats.
While the volume of detected threats fluctuates, it consistently remains elevated, often double the global average.
The Nigerian government is developing a new cybersecurity framework, expected later this year, which will mandate incident reporting, set minimum cybersecurity investment levels, and foster public-private collaboration.
Despite a decrease in the number of reported fraud incidents, financial losses have escalated, with digital payment fraud reaching ₦25.85 billion (US$18.7 million) in 2025.
Insider threats, including SIM swap fraud and account compromise, are significant contributors to these losses. Many organizations, particularly smaller businesses, lack adequate training and resources, making them more vulnerable.
The country’s cybersecurity maturity is ranked at a moderate level, and effective enforcement of existing regulations, such as the Data Protection Act, will be crucial to combatting the growing financial impact of cyberattacks.
TotalEnergies, together with its partners Hydra Storage Holding and Reatile Renewables, inaugurates Hydra project, the largest hybrid renewable energy project in Africa, located in South Africa’s Northern Cape province.
The project combines a 216 MW solar photovoltaic plant with a 500 MWh battery energy storage system, marking a significant contribution to the country’s Just Energy Transition program that aims to decarbonise the economy thanks to renewable energy sources.
The facility will supply 75 MW of dispatchable renewable electricity to the national grid continuously between 5:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., under a 20-year power purchase agreement signed with Eskom. This represents more than 400 GWh of electricity per year, equivalent to the consumption of approximately 200,000 South African households.
“We are delighted, together with our partners Reatile Renewables and Hydra Storage Holding, to bring the Hydra project into operation. It enables us to supply dispatchable renewable power to the South African grid, thereby strengthening the country’s energy security while decarbonising its electricity generation.
This project reinforces our renewable production capacity in South Africa, the continent’s largest power market in terms of electricity consumption”, said Magali Pailhé, Managing Director of TotalEnergies Southern Africa.
Hydra project has been developed by a consortium composed of TotalEnergies (35%), Hydra Storage Holding (35%) and Reatile Renewables (30%). It is part of the South Africa’s Risk Mitigation Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme launched by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.
General News
BOI Pledges to Drive Nigeria’s Cocoa and Dairy Sectors with 70% of its €85m EIB Facility
Bank of Industry (BOI) has secured a €60 million credit facility from the European Investment Bank to fund Nigeria’s cocoa and dairy value addition drive, with a focus on processing, ingredients and chocolate manufacturing.
Dr. Olasupo Olusi, Managing Director/CEO of BOI, disclosed this on Tuesday, during the Africa Cocoa Summit convened in Abuja by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment with the aim of transitioning Africa from exporting raw beans to local processing and branding.
Also known as the Cocoa Value Addition Summit with the theme: ‘From Bean to Brand,’ it was attended by leaders and stakeholders from Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon who signed the Abuja Declaration to establish the Cocoa Value Addition Alliance (CVAA).
According to Olusi, the €60 million forms part of the €85 million EIB–BOI facility, backed by the European Union under the Global Gateway initiative, and designed specifically to strengthen these critical sectors in Nigeria.
“This agreement reinforces the Bank of Industry’s commitment to unlocking long-term, affordable finance for priority sectors that drive inclusive growth. Approximately 70% of the €85 million financing facility will be channeled to Nigeria’s cocoa and dairy sectors, which BOI considers among the industries with the greatest potential to create jobs and retain foreign exchange earnings.”
“We are particularly focused on cocoa value chains, which provide livelihoods for thousands of Nigerians. Through this initiative, we aim to enhance productivity, value addition, and market linkages that will directly improve the incomes of farmers and processors,” he said.
The BOI MD said that the bank would prioritise lending to processors, cooperatives, and MSMEs that add value locally, rather than only to traders exporting raw beans, adding that the era of celebrating volume of raw exports must end, as Nigeria loses billions by shipping beans and importing finished chocolate. According to him, the goal is to create factories around cocoa communities so that value, jobs, and taxes remain in Nigeria.
However, Olusi noted that financing alone is not enough, and as such, BOI will complement the loans with technical assistance on compliance, climate standards, and access to the EU market. BOI, he said, will also support farmers and processors to meet the EU Deforestation Regulation and other international environmental and social standards.
Citing BOI’s track record, Olusi said the bank disbursed over ₦164 billion in 2025 to more than 3,500 agro and food-processing businesses. The support financed factories, mills, packhouses, and cold chains, and linked nearly 48,000 smallholder farmers into industrial value chains.
He said the new financing would target the entire ecosystem, from nurseries and farmer cooperatives to grinding plants, ingredient factories, packaging lines, and chocolate manufacturers.
Speaking also at the summit, President Bola Tinubu called for a decisive shift from Africa’s long-standing dependence on exporting raw cocoa beans, urging producing countries to prioritise value addition and capture a larger share of the global chocolate industry’s wealth.
The President who was represented by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, noted that although Africa accounts for about 70 per cent of global cocoa production, the continent retains only six cents of every dollar generated by the global chocolate industry.
He stressed that Nigeria was committed to processing more of its cocoa locally, expanding chocolate manufacturing, building indigenous brands and competing more effectively in international markets, rather than continuing to export raw cocoa beans.
According to the President, cocoa value addition remains a key component of the Renewed Hope Agenda and the country’s broader industrialisation strategy, and disclosed that investors are developing a 70,000-tonne cocoa processing facility in Shagamu, Ogun State, while Nigeria’s cocoa grinding capacity has already surpassed 120,000 tonnes annually.
Earlier, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, said the summit aligns with the Federal Government’s ambition of building a one-trillion-dollar economy by 2030.
She observed that despite Nigeria’s significant contribution to global cocoa production, the country continues to earn only a small fraction of the value created across the cocoa value chain.
According to Oduwole, the Federal Government is promoting greater value addition through manufacturing incentives, investment promotion and stronger collaboration among relevant institutions.
She added that the government would also deepen market access by leveraging existing trade partnerships and opportunities under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), while encouraging investors to take advantage of regional and global value chains to unlock the sector’s full economic potential.
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, described the summit as another milestone in implementing Nigeria’s Industrial Policy, and announced plans for the establishment of the Cocoa Value Addition Alliance, bringing together Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Cameroon, countries that collectively account for about 75 percent of global cocoa production.
According to Enoh, the alliance is designed to strengthen regional cooperation, promote local processing, and enable producing countries to capture greater value from the global cocoa market.
“We are not here to disrupt existing partnerships but to expand them,” he said.
Enoh urged African cocoa-producing nations to move beyond exporting raw beans and instead focus on developing branded cocoa products capable of competing successfully in global markets.
On his part, the Chief Executive of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr. Ransford Abbey, urged African cocoa-producing countries to deepen domestic processing.
“I am here to support the effort and commit to a joint effort towards increasing value for our hardworking cocoa farmers and our respective economies,” Abbey said.
He said Africa produced about 75 per cent of the world’s cocoa but earned less than 10 per cent of the global chocolate industry’s wealth.
“This system cannot continue. We must shift the paradigm from exporting raw poverty to creating refined wealth right here on the African continent,” he said, adding that stronger regional collaboration, investment and technology transfer will help African countries capture greater value from the global cocoa economy.
The Head of Cooperation of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Mr. Massimo De Luca, reiterated the importance of value addition in the cocoa value chain. While expressing the support of the EU, he called on governments of the various countries to ensure they play their part in ensuring that proper framework necessary for the success of the initiative was established and clarified.
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