Business
Learn From Global Financial Crisis, Nigerian Banks Urged
Lead Banking and Capital markets director Mr. Emilio Pera, at Ernst and Young, a global leader in assurance, taxi transaction and advisory services has charged Nigerian banks to learn a great lesson from a global financed crisis which had gradually affected most financial sectors.
Pera who stated this at a one-day seminar on “Risk Management in Financial Institution: Imperative for Stakeholders,” added that there are a number of lessons. The banks should have learnt from the recent crisis.
Pera in his paper entitled “Lesson from Change: Regaining Balance in the Insurance Industry, however noted that despite the recent turmoil in Nigerian banking, African banks have generally weathered the global financial crisis relatively well as banks across sub-Saharan Africa, with the possible exception of Nigeria, have not felt collapse on a major scale. While some banks have faced the effect of slowing revenue growth and reduced trading income, this has not led to the collapse of any of the major banking institutions,” he said.
He added that as a lasting solution to the crisis banks must acknowledge that liquidity risk is a crucial task area that has to be given more attention since prior to the outbreak of the financial liquidity crisis, banks tended to concentrate on three major risk categories, which are credit, operational and market risk.
“This is increasingly going to be complemented by a fourth risk category, namely liquidity risk. I can tell you that major banks including some South African institutions, have incurred losses from proprietary trading positions which proved difficult to unwind in an illiquid market”, he said. He added that the fact that some major Nigerian banks had to be rescued by Central Bank intervention is due to those banks building up significant portfolio of credit with direct exposure to equity markets.
“This meant that those banks had taken on significant market positions, knowingly or unknowingly, even if the banks were not themselves directly exposed to stock-exchange equities” According to him, a credit risk issue arose as a result of the action of banks in that too much credit was extended to equities resulting in concentration risk. But in addition to that, liquidity risk was in all likelihood overlooked, or at very least under-acknowledged.
Information Technology
Digitisation Policy, Impactful On Nigeria – NITDA
Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has said the digitisation policy drive of the Federal Government as contained in the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) is impacting positively in corporate governance, Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Customer (B2C), and Business-to-Government (B2G) relationships.
A statement issued yesterday by the Head of Corporate Affairs and External Relations of NITDA, Hajia Hadiza Umar, said Inuwa stated this while delivering a good will message at the Validation Workshop for the National e-Commerce Policy and Strategy by the National Advisory Committee, on Electronic Commerce and Digital Economy (NACEDE), which took place in Abuja.
He said the Digital Economic sector, which is a super-set of e-commerce, remains key to Nigeria’s economic recovery in the post-COVID-19 era, deploying new technological innovations, such as e-commerce platforms, including social media-enabled trading handles, and ensuring rapid uptake of e-commerce for economic growth and competitiveness.
“Nigeria is experiencing the positive impact of e-commerce activities due to the growing increase in access to the Internet and related IT tools and services.
“The contribution of the telecommunications sector to the National Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was an average15 per cent in July 2022 and experienced 44.5 per cent broadband penetration with active internet subscriptions that peaked at 151 million,” Inuwa said.
The DG, who was represented by Engineer Salisu Kaka, Acting Director, Digital Economy and Development Department, further said, “We have approximately 2000 digital innovation companies with 384 products in Nigeria.
“These Startups have raised over $2 billion in venture capital funding in 2021 alone. With an estimated 89,000 developers representing 12% of the African developers’ population, Nigeria’s e-commerce market size is about $17 billion. There is annual spending of about $12 billion in 2022, and this is projected to reach $75 billion by 2025.
“Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) appear to be the major beneficiaries of the concept of e-commerce as it enables MSMEs to operate in the global marketplace.
“MSMEs can now participate in regional businesses and enjoy social, economic, and cultural networks seamlessly across international boundaries.
“Global corporations now operate with much consistency while MSMEs experience enhanced participation in international value chains, increased market access and reach, improved internal and external market efficiency, and lower transaction costs,” he noted.
He also said there is a need to maintain the tide and optimize the benefit of technology and e-commerce, which have necessitated Nigeria to have a robust national e-commerce policy and strategy.
“Additionally, Nigeria is a signatory to bilateral, regional, continental, and global treaties on trade and trade-related activities. Having a national policy that recognized these treaties is necessary for the mutual benefit of member nations.
Information Technology
Kaspersky Identifies New Malware Campaign Targeting iOS Devices
Kaspersky, a global cybersecurity company, says it has uncovered an ongoing mobile Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) campaign targeting iOS devices with an unknown malware.
The cyber security firm made this known in its latest report on Friday.
It said that the APT which was tagged as ‘Operation Triangulation’, distributes zero-click exploits via iMessage to run malware gaining complete control over the device and user data, with the final goal to spy on users.
It said that Kaspersky experts uncovered the new mobile APT campaign while monitoring the network traffic of its corporate Wi-Fi network using the Kaspersky Unified Monitoring and Analysis Platform (KUMA).
It noted that upon further analysis, company researchers discovered that the threat actor had been targeting iOS devices of dozens of company employees.
According to the company, the investigation of the attack technique is still ongoing, but so far Kaspersky researchers were able to identify the general infection sequence.
“The victim receives message via iMessage with an attachment containing a zero-click exploit.
“Without any further interaction, the message triggers a vulnerability that leads to code execution for privilege escalation and provides full control over the infected device.
“Once the attacker successfully establishes its presence in the device, the message automatically deletes itself,” it said.
According to the report, the spyware quietly transmits private information to remote servers.
“This includes microphone recordings, photos from instant messengers, geolocation and data about a number of other activities of the owner of the infected device,” it said.
The report stated that during the analysis, it was confirmed that there was no impact on the company’s products, technologies and services, and no Kaspersky customer user data or critical company processes were affected.
It noted that the attackers could only access data stored on the infected devices.
Igor Kuznetsov, Head of Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Unit at Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Team, said: “When it comes to cyber security, even the most secure operating systems can be compromised.
“As APT actors are constantly evolving their tactics and searching for new weaknesses to exploit, businesses must prioritise security of their systems,” he said.
Kuznetsov said this involved prioritising employee education, awareness and providing them with the latest threat intelligence and tools to effectively recognise and defend against potential threats.
He said the company’s investigation of the triangulation operation continues, adding that further details on it would be shared as there could be other targets of this spy operation.
Information Technology
Immigration Seeks Hitch-Free E-Passport System In PH
The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Rivers State Command, has re-emphasised its earlier stand on the provision of seamless e-passort for applicants.
A top official in the NIS, who pleaded anonymity, disclosed this in an exclusive chat with The Tide in Port Harcourt during the week.
Warning against any attempt to put the agency in bad light, saying such will be resisted by the system, the source said there was no need for panic, especially at this festive season, adding that it has a sound digital system to address their needs.
He called on both officers and men of the command to up their game to enable them meet up with the endless demands of their teeming clients
According to him, the Passport personnel have all it takes to deliver tasks on schedule with zero complain.
“Passport system is digitalized. We can meet up with the demands of the people. Our challenge is that people are always in a hurry to collect or do thier new passports”, he said.
He further called on members of the public to learn how to make do with the direct information obtained from the command on passport issues instead of feeding themselves with rumors.
By: King Onunwor
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