E-Financial
Blockchain to Reinvent African Economies, Ecosystems, Organizations
By Dipo Faulkner
In today’s fast emerging economic zones, technology adoption can be a journey of faith into the unknown, riddled with the conflicting priorities of modern societies, bouts of human and institutional inertia and not to forget, legal and regulatory considerations.
Having grown up in Nigeria, I have first-hand experience on how complex or excruciatingly difficult real estate transactions can be.
I stand to be corrected but the multibillion-dollar property and real estate sector, a key sector of the Nigerian economy, is largely driven by paper-based systems and processes, and the industry could do better with the aid of information technology. Advanced technology solutions will help tidy things up, and make transparency, trust and peace of mind a permanent feature of dealings in the sector.
Every document or financial transaction that needs to be exchanged, settled, confirmed, validated or signed has a similar element of friction. It is obvious that when these sorts of bottlenecks are eliminated, significant economic value is unlocked.
In any property deal, the number of participants that are required to be involved from realtors, banks, insurance companies, brokers, land registries, government tax authorities, and other intermediaries is incredible, not to mention the ever-present danger that the seller of the property may not be the actual owner of the property being sold.
In any case, I suspect this is not a problem unique to Nigeria. The respected Peruvian economist Hernando De Soto believes that up to five billion people worldwide suffer from lack of title to their property. He reckons that this global scenario results in more than $20 trillion of capital that is outside of the traditional financial services ecosystem.
Banks have a key role to play in this dynamic. Their functional and statutory obligations mean they must galvanize social harmony, business investment and economic value for their diverse stakeholders.
I am aware that Nigerian banks and financial institutions across Africa have consistently sought for ways to resolve key sector issues like this one. But before supporting economic activities, these banks must ensure that their product and service delivery value chains are driven by a creative workforce and technology innovation.
Also, I know from my interactions with chief technology officers in the financial services sector that their ongoing investments in technology systems has helped the sector to build operational resilience into their systems even they begin contemplating adopting new concepts and practices like blockchain.
Designed to inject the trust element in technology-enabled transactions, blockchains are built on shared ledgers where participants write transactions in near real-time to an unbreakable chain that becomes a permanent record of an asset or transaction. This is viewable by all parties in the transaction. Blockchain thus allows businesses to work together in a new way resulting in lower cost, faster transactions and less risk.
In this way, blockchain can be used by individuals who want to complete transactions involving multiple parties.
Large organizations may also want to use blockchain to collaborate across organizational silos. Ecosystems could tap blockchain to handle complex transactions across different jurisdictions, or governments may want to use it in the service of citizens.
This will have a profound impact, bringing wholesale change to organizations, ecosystems and economies. My personal view, also echoed by other experts, is that blockchain technology will do for transactions what the internet did for information — and in the relatively near future.
My thoughts on this subject seem to have been authenticated by two recent studies released by IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) which found that banking and financial markets are adopting commercial blockchain solutions much faster than initially expected.
15% of banks and 14% of financial market institutions globally interviewed by IBM plan to adopt full-scale, commercial blockchain solutions in 2017. And within the next three years, 65% of banks expect to have blockchain solutions in production.
Consider how assets from cars to contracts, art to corporate bonds — even identity-based assets, such as health, product provenance, or tax records — can be shared, exchanged or transferred on a blockchain platform with greater efficiency and privacy.
As transaction costs plummet and the way organizations are governed matters more and more, blockchains will create a new distributed form of business governed and managed transparently through smart contracts that include agreed upon by-laws.
In the emerging blockchain economy, the role of third-party intermediaries to broker trust and/or to reconcile will increasingly be called into question as we reinvent new processes that eliminate the need for such reconciliation and intermediation.
While blockchains can powerfully improve businesses’ efficiency, trust and value, executives must carefully evaluate where blockchains can be used to gain improved efficiency and support new business models. I would therefore recommend that businesses answer these three questions:
- How fast should we move? Early movers in the blockchain adoption race may have an advantage as they are setting business standards and creating new models that will be used by future adopters of blockchain.
We’re also finding that these early adopters are better able to anticipate disruption, fighting off new competitors along the way.
- How can we scale across business networks? Once blockchain technology has scaled across multiple participants, they can anticipate achieving the kind of network effects that can drastically reduce the frictions that curb growth.
- How can we innovate with new revenue models? As new entrants and business models emerge, banks may be forced to defend current revenue streams or move to where the money will flow next.
New revenue models must anticipate the potential for disruption in areas core to the business today and in the future.
As the market evolves, blockchain technology may add at least one new revenue stream; and so, the potential to monetize reference data looms large.
My take is that African businesses, especially banks and non-bank financial institutions, will be the first set of enterprises to get on board the blockchain train, and fervently exploring the potential uses of blockchain technology.
Beyond banking and real estate, other economic sectors including manufacturing, retail and government agencies will pick and choose lessons from these trailblazers, recalibrating their needs and expectations as they gradually adopt blockchain technology.
In other climes, the Japan Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange Group are two of the leading bourses collaborating with IBM to explore blockchain to manage risk and bring additional transparency to global financial markets.
Dipo Faulkner is the country general manager, IBM Nigeria.
Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has begun the final phase of liquidation for the defunct Premier Commercial Bank, initiating the payment of liquidation dividends to verified creditors, nearly 25 years after the bank’s closure.
Premier Commercial Bank had its operating license revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on December 20, 2000, following findings of financial instability and regulatory non-compliance.
Since then, the NDIC has overseen the bank’s liquidation process under a winding-up order from the Federal High Court, which designated the corporation as the official liquidator.
In a public announcement, the NDIC invited all eligible creditors to visit any of its zonal offices between June 2 and June 27, 2025, to verify and claim their entitlements.
This move marks a critical milestone in the final settlement of claims related to the bank’s collapse.
To facilitate the verification process, creditors are required to present proof of deposit or shareholding, such as a passbook, chequebook, term deposit certificate, or bank statement.
Additionally, valid identification documents must be submitted, including a driver’s license, international passport, national identity card, NIN slip/card, voter’s card, or a formal identification letter from a traditional ruler or local government chairman.
The NDIC assured the public that the ongoing settlement is part of a broader effort to bring closure to longstanding claims resulting from Premier Commercial Bank’s liquidation. The process, according to the corporation, has been designed to ensure efficient disbursement to all verified stakeholders.
Premier Commercial Bank is one of 53 deposit money banks whose licenses were revoked by the CBN between 1994 and 2018 due to various violations and signs of financial distress.
These closures were followed by legal procedures appointing the NDIC to manage asset recoveries and creditor settlements.
By initiating this final phase of payment, the NDIC is reaffirming its commitment to financial system stability and depositor protection while calling on all affected individuals and institutions to complete verification processes promptly to receive their due compensation.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has directed all public companies and Registrars to stop treating unclaimed dividends older than 12 years as “statute-barred”, especially those dating from before the enactment of the Finance Act 2020.
The directive reaffirms the provisions of Section 60 of the Finance Act, which mandates that dividends unclaimed for over six years be transferred to the Unclaimed Funds Trust Fund (UFTF), where they remain accessible to shareholders pending claims.
The Commission said that shareholders are entitled to continue to claim their dividends that are not statute-barred (that is not above 12 years) before December 31, 2020 “when the Finance Act 2020, came into effect.”
According to the SEC in a Circular, “The attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission has been drawn to the fact that paying companies and their Registrars have continued to treat unclaimed dividends of public companies that are older than 12 years as being “statute-barred” without recourse to the provisions of the Finance Act 2020.
“In response to various inquiries on the subject, the Commission hereby clarifies as follows: The import of the provisions of Section 60 of the Finance Act 2020 (December 31, 2020), is that, where dividends declared by a public company quoted on the Nigerian Exchange Limited remained unclaimed for a period of six years or more, such dividends are expected to be transferred to the Unclaimed Funds Trust Fund (UFTF) to be held in trust and managed pending when the shareholder presents a claim for such unclaimed dividends.
“Pending the setting up and operationalisation of the UFTF by the Federal Government, pursuant to its powers under Sections 3 (4) (e) and 93 of the Investments and Securities Act 2025, the Commission hereby directs public companies and their Registrars to continue to honour all requests by shareholders for the payment of unclaimed dividends as described above, with effect from December 31, 2020”.
The Commission therefore directed public companies and Registrars to effect immediate compliance with the directive and submit periodic reports on same in the manner prescribed in the Commission’s Rules and Regulations.
Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has revised its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) as part of efforts to improve consistency, transparency, and service delivery in tax administration across the country.
According to a statement on Monday in Abuja by Mr. Collins Omokaro, Special Adviser on Communication Strategy and Advocacy to the Executive Chairman of FIRS, the revised SOP offers a unified framework for core tax processes including registration, payment, audit, and enforcement.
“This is about people, experience, and impact. It’s a step toward a tax system that supports voluntary compliance and national development,” Omokaro said.
He explained that while FIRS field offices have long operated with good intentions, inconsistent methods across different locations often created confusion for taxpayers.
The revised SOP, he said, is designed to eliminate such disparities by providing a single, clear roadmap for operations in all of the Service’s over 300 offices nationwide.
More than just a procedural manual, the new SOP is described as a statement of institutional direction, reflecting values that define the future of the Service.
Omokaro quoted Dr. Zacch Adedeji, executive chairman of FIRS, as saying that “This SOP is not just a technical document—it is a declaration of who we are becoming as a service. It reflects our commitment to transparency and service to the Nigerian people.”
The SOP update is one component of a broader reform agenda underway at FIRS, which aims to transform the agency into a fully service-oriented institution.
The changes are also aligned with the ongoing digital transformation within the agency, which is intended to harmonize human and technological systems for faster, more reliable, and taxpayer-friendly service delivery.
Internally, the SOP is expected to enhance operational efficiency and provide a foundation for improved staff training, clearer guidance, and stronger evaluation systems. Omokaro noted that every FIRS employee is expected to study, implement, and embody the procedures outlined in the new document.
“With this rollout, every FIRS staff member has a clear mandate: study it, apply it, and embody it. That’s how we’ll earn the trust of Nigerians,” he said.
The SOP reform is being introduced as part of the Service’s broader mission to reposition itself as a modern tax authority grounded in accountability, consistency, and a shared sense of national purpose.
The move comes as the FIRS continues to modernize its processes, improve tax collection efficiency, and foster a culture of voluntary compliance—all aimed at strengthening revenue mobilization to support Nigeria’s development agenda.
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