E-Business
Why & How We Engaged MasterCard in eID Card- NIMC

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), has explained MasterCard’s involvement in the national identity registration programme, while refuting claims, in several quarters, of adequacies regarding the card’s payment components.
President Goodluck Jonathan had on August 28, 2014, heralded the official launch of the eID card pilot scheme.
As part of the pilot phase, NIMC has started to issue identify cards with MasterCard’s electronic payments functionality, which raised eyebrows among stakeholders in the IT and financial sectors of the economy.
Speaking in Lagos during a media roundtable, Chris Onyemenam, director general of NIMC, said that MasterCard was engaged to only provide the payments technology on the eID, in accordance with international standards.
He said, “MasterCard is providing the payments technology for 13million National eID Cards as part of the pilot programme. On completion of the pilot programme, NIMC will announce which payment partner will be brought on board, in addition to MasterCard, for the mass rollout of the National eID Cards”.
On how MasterCard was selected for the programme, the DG said, “MasterCard presented it’s payments solution and business proposal to NIMC for the National eID Card business together with other card schemes and companies. The three popular schemes, approved and licenced by the Central Bank to operate in Nigeria and with significant business relationship with the Nigerian deposit money banks, we’re invited to submit proposals to NIMC. The most responsive and willing vendors was MasterCard”.
NIMC announced its selection of MasterCard as the payments technology provider for the Nigerian National eID pilot programme in May 2013 at the World Economic Forum on Africa held in South Africa.
Explains why MasterCard was selected to the expense of Local companies, Onyemenam, said that, “Let’s get it very clear, all existing payment platforms have been licenced and approved to operate in the local market by the CBN, which ‘opened up’ the market as it were. Secondly, there is really no local company except if you are referring to the former locally-owned company in Nigeria, which also has significant foreign partners in the US.
“The reason why NIMC selected MasterCard is due to its deep experience with similar large-scale government programs around the world, its commitment to advancing financial inclusion in Nigeria and importantly, MasterCard’s ability to meet all the functional, technological and economic requirements of the project.
“MasterCard is also the world’s most-accepted payment brand, meaning that Nigerians can use their cards to pay at millions of MasterCard locations in Nigeria and across the border. MasterCard was also able to quickly develop a mutually-beneficial business roadmap that met all the requirements of the NIMC project plan and timelines. Others are just responding and will be considered accordingly”.
The NIMC DG refuted claims that MasterCard can access personal information and biometric data of the National eID cardholder, thus, “MasterCard’s prepaid technology is just one of the card’s 13 different applications, five of which are currently live. MasterCard payments technology is stored securely and separately from other applets, including the card’s identification applets. In fact, there is a firewall between the payment applets and all the other applets so not even a Point of Sale terminal or ATM can access the secured data that is protected on certain parts of the card.
Also speaking, Daniel Monehin, division president, Sub-Saharan Africa, MasterCard, explained that the Corporation is not involved in the identification component of the program and cannot access the national identification database, any citizen’s personal or biometric information.
He said, “MasterCard never collects personal information of cardholders. All payments account specific information is managed by MasterCard’s issuing financial institutions, they are the banks. All personal identification data including biometric and demographic information is collected, managed and secured by NIMC”.
Expatiating on the payments technology deployed by Mastercard under the program, Monehin said the eID card is a chip and pin card certified according to the EuroPay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) standard for globally interoperable, secure payments, which is mandated by the Federal Government, and it is approved and licenced by the CBN.
The key element of the EMV involves dynamic digital data in every transaction.
“This makes these types of transactions extremely secure and reduces the risk of fraud. When a customer uses an EMV-enabled card to pay at an EMV terminal, it can be instantly identified as an authentic, approved payment instrument belonging to that consumer through a process called dynamic authentication. When used with a personal identification number (PIN), the chip verifies that the consumer is indeed holding his or her own payment card,” he said.
According to him, about 70% of adults in Nigeria who are financial excluded can be integrated into the system through the eID card program, while eliminating the need to carry large amount of cash, among other benefits.
E-Business
Transcorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend

Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.
The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.
In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.
Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.
E-Business
Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
E-Business
NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.
According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.
NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”
The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.
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