General News
e-Payment will Minimize Fraud – Obaro
John Obaro is managing director of SystemSpecs Limited, a thriving financial and human capital management software solutions company. He has had a distinguished IT management career and is regarded as one of the most respected personalities in the Nigerian IT industry. Obaro worked in the banking industry for 10 years before setting out to start up SystemsSpecs 18 years ago. He spoke to chike onwuegbuchi and funmi ilesanmi on issues in the e-payment space.
FG’ Directive on e-Payment
It was a very good move on the part of the government to embrace e-payment and that has given a good platform for the industry to grow, because government at the end of the day is the largest player. In the last one year, there have been experiences that move from extreme excitement to extreme frustration, so you have two clear groups in the industry today, those who are very excited about e-payment, and those who are very frustrated by e-payment.
The first challenge is that e-payment itself has not been properly defined, so you have people come up with anything different from a cheque leaf and call it e-payment. You have people put data on CDs and flash drives and send to their banks and call it e-payment. You have people send schedules to their banks and call it e-payment. You have people send attachments to e-mails, and send it to their banks and call it e-payment. Now, these clearly are not in anyway e-payment.
e-Payment is e-payment. e-Payment must be end to end electronic payment for transactions. The moment you have manually intervened, it is no longer e-payment. It is at the very best manual e-payment. Most of the people who have experienced frustration with “e-payment” are those who have been practicing moving schedules physically to the banks, they do not know what is happening to the payment, they send in diskettes of data manually to the banks, they do not know what is happening to the payment, they just wait. These people are bound to experience lots of frustration.
However, for true e-payment, organizations key in their transactions from the comfort of their offices themselves, it is transmitted to the banks, necessary accounts are debited and the counterparts credited. The organizations that sent these instructions are able to see on the screen of the computers on their desk the status of all instructions they have given. Therefore, any organization that cannot see their current and even historical transactions on the screen in front of them showing the status are not practicing e-payment.
In the last one year, we have some arms of government that are practicing e-payment and are enjoining the benefits and we have those who are struggling with manual processes.
Extent of MDAs Compliance with e-Payment
Let me put it this way, a number of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are doing true e-payment but a large number of them are still struggling with sending schedules to their banks. Part of the challenge is that a number of the MDAs probably did not get a proper understanding of what they were to do at the early stages; they just knew they were no longer allowed to write cheques. The next thing they did was to hand over their payment instructions to their banks in whatever form. So they just transferred the problem in an attempt not to flout government regulation and not knowing what next to do they just present cheques to banks or key in some things into a spreadsheet and send it by e-mail to their banks.
As the year started wearing on with the confusion and pressure on their operations, many of them started exploring better and more effective ways of addressing these issues and I can only see things getting better. Yes, there has been a move from fairly cumbersome ways of addressing issues into more efficient ways, especially as they see possibilities. Part of the initial challenge was that many people did not believe that these things were possible. They did not believe that it is possible to sit in your office, issue a debit instruction, your account is debited and your identified beneficiary will be credited. Many people did not believe it, did not understand it and it was therefore easier for them to just throw the schedules to the banks.
Directive on Cheque over N10 Million to go e-Payment
I think that is a very encouraging move from the Central Bank of Nigeria. I know it is inline with vision: 2020 of the federal government, which entails the economy to go electronic in terms of payments. Of course we have been advocating that, you no longer need a cheque leaf at all to carry out transactions. We have organizations today that carry out a good number of their transactions on Remita without touching cheque leaves. For now I would say in SystemSpecs for instance less than one to two percent of our transactions are issued on cheques. Why? We need to issue cash directly for some pressing transactions, other than that we are looking at a future where we do not need cheque leaf for anything, because if you want to pay a third party, you can press some buttons and the beneficiary gets credited.
The N10 million limit by the CBN, I feel is something that would encourage organizations to begin to look in the electronic direction.
My advice to organizations is that, they should avoid the temptation of having some transactions in the electronic form and another set of transactions in the traditional way of cheque writing because at the end of the day it may further compound their reconciliation challenges. You might as well seize the opportunity to move all your transactions to an e-payment platform so that you can have a full view of all your transactions.
I do not see the directive as a negative for any organization rather I see it as an opportunity for them to immediately go electronic. Really, what do you need? A laptop and an internet access is all that is needed to adopt electronic payment. I want to encourage organizations to see the CBN mandate as an opportunity to go fully electronic. The challenge is that most of the banks are thinking only of their individual banks, therefore they have solutions that their customers can use to carry out e-payments with them.
In real life, most organizations have multiple bank accounts, so you find the challenge of an organization that wants to perform true e-payment log into the website of bank A and perform its transactions, then log out to log into the website of bank B, learn to navigate through the website of bank B, the way bank B wants it. Then they log out and need to remember their password for bank C to log into their website. All of these create confusion in the mind of the corporates. That is where a solution like Remita comes in. Remita presents one front to the organization, one password assess and transmits the instruction of the organization to the respective banks. That makes life easier for the corporates. On ones screen for instance, you can see your balances across all banks; if you have accounts in seven banks, with Remita you can see your balances on each of the seven banks on a screen, including your gross total. From the same screen, you can issue payment instructions; you can pay people within the same bank or in any other bank without having accounts in any of these other banks.
You can pay beneficiaries in other banks even in microfinance banks and mortgage institutions. At the same time you are able to see the status of all your transactions, the instructions you gave, you are able to know the ones that have been successfully paid, the one that has one challenge or another and you can immediately address those challenges. Perhaps if the account number was wrong or you do not have sufficient funds, you are able to track all of that yourself.
Bankers understand this, a number of bank customers are also beginning to understand this and that is why I foresee a bright future for the industry.
Depriving Banks of Certain Revenues
It is only a bank that wants to be short sighted that will not embrace e-payment. e-Payment is actually what you may call a major efficiency platform for bankers. Take for instance under the manual system, you issue a cheque to someone, that person goes to his bank, he fills a teller form, he queues up before he can pay in the cheque. The cashier collects the cheque, pass it through some internal processes before it is keyed into their computer system. It then goes through clearing which will be monitored while going through the two to three days clearing. All of these takes resources from the bank, not just a cheque but you can imagine all the banking halls filled up with people who are trying to pay in their cheque leaves.
Whereas with an electronic payment platform, once banks have their IT infrastructure well in place, they just sit back and watch these transactions happen without manual interventions. You can see that this is a major efficiency platform for the banks. Apart from that, the risks of fraud get minimized because it is when you have a lot of manual human interventions that opportunities for fraud exist. With the electronic platform the bank gets more efficient and the chances of fraud are minimized. I believe the banks are the winners at the end of the day.
I do not see any forward looking bank opposing e-payment because they see it as a loss of revenue. They still continue to charge COT and other agreed charges with the banks.
Software Company of the Year Award
I must say it is a very special award to us at SystemSpecs. Special in the sense that in our 18 years of operation we have won different awards both nationally and internationally but this is the first time we have an award by our colleagues in the same industry, that is Nigeria Computer Society (NCS). When your colleagues in the same industry conduct a survey and come up with an award recognizing you, that gives a very exciting feeling. We feel humbled by the award and we feel challenged at the same time. Challenged in the sense that you have an award by people who know, by people who understand and you now have to remain on top of the game; you have to improve your standards and remember at all times that your products are a showcase for the industry. You therefore have to do everything to keep the integrity of the award at all times.
Areas of Operation
When we started at about 18 years ago, we partnered with a then UK firm now called Info and has actually been bought over by a US company. We partnered with the company for the deployment of Sun Systems, one of the most popular accounting software worldwide. We started representing them in Nigeria, we moved into oil and gas, manufacturing and other sectors of the economy. After a while, we then moved on to develop our solution for payroll and human resources. It has been a very interesting experience. A few years ago, we ventured into the e-payment space, we started out from saying when people finished running their payroll, they should be able to effect payments directly from their offices; and that was how we started Remita. On our stable today, we have Sun Systems from Info, we have Human Manager which is a payroll and human resource management solution and then we have Remita which is an electronic payment platform.
Mobile Money
People have defined it variously, it is the extent that you use a mobile phone to effect payment, people want to see that as mobile payment which is still part of the what we are saying. On Remita for instance, you can effect your approvals via your mobile phones so you can effect payments to vendors from the mobile phone. I also foresee a future for that even though for now we are focusing more on corporates but as time goes we will also be looking at individuals who would want to carry their mobile phones and it is as good as carrying cash in hand.
Future of e-Payment in Nigeria
I see a bright future for e-payment in Nigeria. What many people may not realize is that Nigeria is currently ahead in the area of corporate e-payment. Nigeria is currently ahead of quite a number of countries including a number of western nations. If we get it right the way we are doing it, it will become a very exportable product even to other countries. It increases the velocity of money that of course would immediately have an impact on our economic activities because with money moving around everybody gets a piece of the action.
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has charged Nigerians to shun Ponzi schemes as many of such schemes have destroyed lives, eroded trust and undermined national development.
Aisha Abubakar, acting zonal director, Enugu Zonal Directorate and assistant commander of the EFCC, gave this charge during the 2025 Annual Management Retreat of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps which was held at Jubilee Hall, Holy-ghost Cathedral, Ogbete, Enugu State.
Speaking on the topic, “Get-Rich-Quick Syndrome and the Youth Vulnerability: The Case Study of Ponzi scheme-The Role of Law Enforcement in Prevention and Disruption”, Abubakar said that the get-rich-quick syndrome has become a serious economic and security threat in Nigeria, with the youths bearing the brunt.
She said that the get-rich-quick syndrome is a mindset characterized by the desire to attain wealth without legitimate, gradual effort, adding that the craving is often fueled by social media portrayals of instant riches and social pressure.
“In Nigeria today, the aspiration for wealth has grown increasingly urgent among the youth, leading to vulnerability to financial frauds such as Ponzi schemes. They often fall victim to enticing schemes that offer double returns within short timeframes, despite the absence of legitimate business operations. The desperation to escape poverty and fund small projects pushes many into high-risk unregulated investments”, she said.
While citing the causes of get-rich-quick syndromes among the youths, Abubakar said that greed, financial illiteracy, peer pressure, social pressure, digital and technological exposure, drugs, disappearance of cherished family and societal values, extravagant lifestyle, depression, unproductive lodging in hotels, impatience, frustration with traditional systems and psychological factors are some of the things that cause many to fall prey to schemes “even when they suspect it’s too good to be true”.
“Notable examples in Nigeria include, MMM Nigeria, MBA Forex, Chinmark Group and CBEX. In April 2025, Nigeria witnessed one of its most devastating financial scams with the collapse of CBEX, a digital asset trading platform that operated as a Ponzi scheme. It promised investors a 100% return on investment within 30 days, leveraging on the allure of cryptocurrency trading and artificial intelligence-driven strategies”, she said.
Abubakar listed types of get-rich-quick syndromes which include advance fee fraud, fake jobs and scholarship schemes, online loan and grant scams, fake forex and crypto currency platforms, amongst others.
She said that cybercrimes, which she identified as an activity of get-rich-quick syndrome, have adverse effects on the country’s economy. She lamented that cybercrime has earned the nation a bad reputation in the global world, thereby reducing foreign investments in Nigeria, which has affected in totality, the growth of our economy.
She said that the reputational damage affects even individuals in Nigeria, as the global world has no confidence in Nigerians, within and outside the borders of the country.
“Cybercrime has created a market system where fraudsters obtain competitive advantage and drive out legitimate business. A lot of funds are lost to internet fraud, some of which are eventually used to fund organized crime groups and terrorism, potentially leading to further crime and terrorist attacks. I am sure you will agree with me that it has also undermined national defence and security in Nigeria and this has contributed to negative output in the economy”, she said.
She thereafter discussed the roles the Commission has played in the prevention and disruption of these schemes.
“Through roadshows, social media campaigns and partnerships with youth-focused institutions, the EFCC has raised awareness of fraudulent investment scheme. We partner with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Security and Exchange Commission, Banks and global bodies like the INTERPOL to trace funds, monitor financial flows and disrupt scam networks”, she said.
Ahead of the International Day of Families, observed on May 15, Kaspersky experts analysed cyberthreats that use popular family-focused brands, such as Disney, LEGO, Toca Boca and others as bait. The research, based on selected keywords monitoring, revealed a steady rise in attack attempts, which increased by 38% from Q2 2024 to Q1 2025.
Kaspersky telemetry shows a consistent upward trend in the number of attempted attacks exploiting children – and family-related brands. Starting from just 89,000 in Q2 2024, the number of attacks has increased quarter by quarter, reaching almost 123,000 in Q1 2025. Throughout the reported period, Kaspersky detected over 432,000 such attempts.
Among the most frequently exploited brands throughout the reported period were LEGO, Disney and Toca Boca — all widely recognised and trusted by children and parents alike. LEGO-themed content accounted for the overwhelming majority of attacks, with over 306,000 attempts, followed by Disney (62,000) and Toca Boca (45,000).
Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig were also used as popular lures, though to a lesser extent — 12,500 and 4,900 attempted attacks. Cybercriminals exploit the popularity and emotional familiarity of these brands to trick users into downloading malicious files, often disguised as cartoons or games. The more popular the brand is, the more attractive it becomes as a hook for threat actors.
Kaspersky’s analysis shows that the most common threats targeting children and families are not always the most obvious ones. Throughout the reported period, nearly 400,000 infection attempts were linked to Downloaders — software that may appear harmless but is often used to silently deliver other potentially dangerous applications. These downloaders are frequently disguised as games, videos, or installers related to popular brands, making them especially effective at tricking users.
Furthermore, over 7,800 cases involved Trojans, which can steal sensitive data, monitor activity or grant remote access to attackers. These are particularly dangerous when hiding inside seemingly innocent files, such as cheats or fan-made apps.
Meanwhile, adware accounted for over 6,400 attempted attacks, typically appearing as flashy games or video apps that bombard users with unwanted ads, slowing down devices and potentially opening the door to additional threats.
As part of the analysis, Kaspersky researchers identified multiple scam and phishing websites mimicking the design and branding of popular among family companies. One notable example was a phishing page crafted to resemble the official Tokyo Disney Resort website.
Such scams are often indistinguishable from legitimate pages at first glance, with the only difference being the URL of the website. The fraudulent site offered users the chance to “buy” park tickets, just like the real one, and prompted them to enter their personal and payment information. However, instead of securing a magical day at the theme park, victims could have their bank card details stolen.
Another discovery made by Kaspersky researchers involved scams exploiting the name of MrBeast — a YouTube celebrity widely followed by children and teens, and well-known for giving away expensive prizes like gadgets, money and even houses. Cybercriminals created phishing pages promising “free gifts from MrBeast,” including digital gift cards for platforms such as Roblox, Xbox and PlayStation.
The site prompted users to choose their prize and complete a seemingly harmless task to claim it. To increase urgency, a countdown timer was displayed, urging visitors to “complete a sponsored activity” within a limited time to unlock the final reward code.
The entire process is a tactic designed to redirect victims to increasingly deceptive scam pages. Eventually, users are asked to pay a small commission fee to claim their “gift”. However, after submitting the payment, the victim may be left with no reward and may have lost money.
“Cybercriminals are masters of emotional manipulation — and there is hardly anything more emotionally charged than content children trust and love. By imitating popular brands or influencers like MrBeast, attackers create a sense of familiarity and excitement that lowers users’ guard. That’s why it’s essential for parents to stay informed and teach kids how to question ‘too-good-to-be-true’ offers before clicking,” comments Evgeny Kuskov, Security Expert at Kaspersky.
Airtel Africa is positioning its mobile money platform, Airtel Money, to challenge Africa’s fintech giants through a planned initial public offering set for the first half of 2026, Sunil Taldar, chief executive officer said in the company’s latest financial results.
The IPO will bolster Airtel Money’s ability to compete with dominant players like Safaricom’s M-Pesa and MTN’s MoMo in the continent’s rapidly growing fintech market.
The operator’s fintech unit, operating across 14 African countries including Nigeria, has grown its subscriber base by 17.3 per cent year-on-year to 44.6 million active users as of early 2025, according to the company’s first-quarter financial results.
The mobile money platform provides critical financial services to millions of unbanked users, enabling digital transactions, credit access, and remittances via mobile phones.
This focus on financial inclusion aligns with Airtel Africa’s mission to drive economic prosperity and transform lives across its markets.
“We are making significant progress in our preparations for the Airtel Money IPO and remain committed to this objective,” Taldar said, underscoring the strategic importance of the listing.
He cautioned that the IPO remains subject to market conditions, adding, “Therefore, subject to these conditions, we anticipate a listing event in the first half of the calendar year 2026.”
The IPO is expected to raise capital to scale Airtel Money’s operations and sharpen its competitive edge.
Safaricom’s M-Pesa, with 70 million users across Africa and a stronghold in Kenya, remains the market leader, while MTN’s MoMo commands 65 million active users, particularly in West and Central Africa.
However, MoMo’s Nigerian arm, MoMo PSB, saw a 55.6 per cent year-on-year decline in active wallets, dropping to 2.1 million in Q1 2025, a vulnerability Airtel’s fintech unit could capitalise on.
Airtel Money’s growth strategy hinges on leveraging its expanding user base and innovative services to close the gap with its rivals.
The platform’s ability to empower underserved communities through accessible financial tools positions it as a key player in Africa’s fintech frontier.
Taldar emphasised the company’s broader vision, stating, “We will remain focused on delivering our strategy to transform the lives of our customers and support economic prosperity across our markets.”
Expressing gratitude to stakeholders, Taldar noted, “I want to say a particular thank-you to our customers, partners, governments, and regulators for their support and our employees for their unrelenting contribution to the business.” This collaborative effort underpins Airtel Africa’s confidence as it advances toward the 2026 IPO.
Nigerians May Pay More for Calls, Data as Senate Okays 5 Percent Excise Duty
W’Bank Says Cash Transfer Missed Millions of Needy Nigerians
EFCC Tells Nigerians to Shun Ponzi Schemes Like CBEX, Others
NIMC Launches NINAuth Digital Identity Verification App for Govt Services
NCC to Checkmate $3Bn Digital Piracy Market
E-Business3 days agoNIN: FG Increases DoB Update Fee by 75Percent to N28,574
Broadcasting3 days agoAfreximbank Unveils Third Edition of Short Film Competition ‘Creative Africa Nexus’
General News3 days agoNIMASA Embraces Technology to Strengthen Regulatory Mandate
Telecom3 days agoMTN Commits $10Bn to Nigeria’s Digital Infrastructure
E-Business3 days ago10 Percent of Nigerians Affected by Data Breaches since 2004
E-Financial3 days agoSEC Intensifies Fight Against Ponzi Schemes With Market
News3 days agoSERAP Challenges CBN to Publish Local Government Allocations
Telecom2 days agoLegend Internet Debuts Nigeria’s First Fibre-to-the-room Service