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.
General News
Appeal Court Nullifies Registration of ‘KPMG Professional Services’

The court of appeal in Lagos has asked the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to revoke the certificate of registration of “KPMG Professional Services”.
In a unanimous decision delivered on Thursday, the appellant court granted the reliefs sought by KPMG Nigeria against CAC and KPMG Professional Services.
The judgment was read by Abdullahi Mahmud Bayero, the judge.
The two other judges are Abimbola Obaseki-Adejumo and A.M. Talba.
In 2002, KPMG Professional Services was registered as a company with CAC despite the existence of KPMG Nigeria, comprising its audit, tax, and consulting arms.
The KPMG Nigeria has long been registered in Nigeria before 2002.
KPMG Audit was registered in 1969, KPMG Tax Consultants in 1990, and KPMG Consulting in 1969.
Displeased with the registration of KPMG Professional Services, KPMG Nigeria approached the federal high court.
The consulting firm had argued that the name “KPMG Professional Services” was deceptively similar to its long-established identity.
In 2005, the lower court dismissed KPMG Nigeria’s case, citing an alleged merger between KPMG Nigeria and Akintola Williams Deloitte as reason the company could no longer assert rights to the name.
The lower upheld the second respondent’s (KPMG Professional Services) counterclaim and ordered that KPMG Nigeria’s name be struck off the CAC register.
The lower court had premised its decision on newspaper articles stating that KPMG Nigeria reportedly merged with Akintola Williams Deloitte.
Delivering the judgment, Bayero ruled that the lower court erred by relying on newspaper articles to ascertain that KPMG Nigeria allegedly merged with another company.
The judge said the documents showing the alleged merger were not presented before the lower court, and the form of the alleged merger could not have been known.
“In any event, the only branch of KPMG, if any, that entered into a merger with Akintola Williams as stated in the newspaper articles 18, is KPMG Audit,” the judge ruled.
“The other spheres were totally unaffected. It would therefore be wrong to state that the merger (which has not been shown to this Court) of KPMG Audit with Akintola Williams means all the other areas of business, including KPMG Consulting and KPMG Tax Consultants, also ceased to exist.
“Even if the Appellants (KPMG Nigeria) had ceased to do business as the Court seemed to have held, the 2nd Respondents (KPMG Professional Services) should not have been carrying on business until the Appellant’s certificate of registration is withdrawn or set aside.
“They cannot use the name until the Appellant’s certification of registration is withdrawn or set aside. They cannot use the name until the name is removed from the 1st Respondent’s (CAC) Register of Names.
“The 1st Respondents can only assign the name to the 2nd Respondents after first taking it away from the Appellants.”
The court ruled that CAC erred by registering KPMG Professional Services despite the existence of a business name, which is already registered.
The judge reversed the earlier ruling of the lower court and reaffirmed the primacy of statutory protection for existing business names under Nigerian corporate law.
General News
Air Peace Launches Abuja–London Heathrow, Gatwick flights October 26

Air Peace has announced the launch of direct flights from Abuja to London Heathrow and Gatwick airports, with operations scheduled to begin on October 26, 2025.
The airline said in a statement on Sunday that round-trip fares for the Abuja–London service will start from N1m, making it the first Nigerian carrier to offer direct connections from the capital to both of London’s major international airports. This was contained in a press release issued on Sunday by the airline’s spokesperson, Efe Osifo-Whiskey.
“Direct international flight services from Abuja to both London Heathrow and London Gatwick Airports, effective October 26, 2025.
“Air Peace becomes the first Nigerian carrier to offer direct services from Abuja to both of London’s major international airports, further solidifying its role as a leader in regional and intercontinental aviation.
“Travellers originating from any of Air Peace’s domestic destinations across Nigeria can now book through fares via Abuja to either Heathrow or Gatwick using a single ticket, eliminating the need for multiple bookings or baggage re-checks,” the statement read.
Similarly, the new route opens convenient access for inbound passengers from the UK to cities across Nigeria.
“Travellers from London can access multiple destinations across Nigeria using a single Air Peace ticket through Abuja every morning. These destinations are Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Benin, Warri, Owerri, Kano, Yola, Gombe and Asaba, for now. Other destinations will be added later,” Osifo-Whiskey stated.
Air Peace is also offering what it describes as unprecedented value in pricing and service.
Osifo-Whiskey said, “It provides a distinct competitive advantage, enabling passengers to travel between Nigeria and the United Kingdom with greater ease, efficiency, and value, due to the possibility of choosing multiple cities entry and exit points.
“Has the cheapest fares ever, starting from only 1 Million Naira round trip. Huge baggage allowance.”
The Abuja–London launch comes months after the airline began Lagos–London Heathrow flights, which started earlier in 2024.
General News
Prateek Suri CEO Maser Meets Zambia’s Education Minister to Propel Student Housing and Education Projects

Prateek Suri, CEO of MASER and recognized as the richest Indian entrepreneur in Africa, was welcomed this week by Zambia’s Education Minister, Hon. Douglas Munsaka Syakalima, for a high-level meeting in Lusaka that focused on student housing and broader education infrastructure initiatives.
The meeting, held at the Ministry of Education’s offices, opened with warm greetings and a presentation by Mr Suri detailing Maser’s plans to support Zambia’s rapidly scaling education sector. Suri, who led Maser to become Africa’s seventh unicorn, emphasized the company’s commitment to infrastructure that benefits students, educators, and communities across the continent.
Minister Syakalima underscored the urgency of addressing Zambia’s student accommodation gap, citing the country’s expanding net enrollment and the need for safe, affordable housing for tertiary students. Under his leadership, the Government has embarked on a bold infrastructure agenda: over 82 secondary schools already completed, 46 set to be finished in 2025, and 120 new institutions under construction, alongside 169 ECE hubs and 145 satellite centers to reach underserved areas.
During the meeting, Suri shared Maser’s vision for modern student housing built through public–private partnership models. He outlined a multi‑phase plan utilizing sustainable building design, digital infrastructure, and vocational training facilities integrated into these campuses. “Zambia’s youth deserve world-class learning environments,” Suri remarked. “Maser is prepared to leverage its experience to co-create impactful educational infrastructure.”
Minister Syakalima responded positively, stating, “We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with Maser. The CEO’s entrepreneurial success and the company’s commitment to Africa’s education development are exactly the kind of partnership we need to scale our infrastructure goals.”
Beyond housing, the dialogue extended to opportunities in blended learning, vocational skills, rural outreach, and digital inclusion. With Zambia implementing its forward‑looking 2023 Education Curriculum this year—including early childhood, primary, and Form 1 levels—the minister highlighted the need for supporting infrastructure at all levels to enable effective rollout.
Under Minister Syakalima’s tenure, the education sector has seen notable progress: 4,200 new teachers hired recently, bringing the total teacher workforce to over 40,000 in three years; strengthened focus on foundational learning via teacher training programmes like the “Catch Up Programme”; and ambitious expansion of school infrastructure across Zambia’s provinces.
Maser, co‑founded by Prateek Suri, transformed from an African startup in consumer electeonics and large infrastructure projects into a multi‑sector unicorn operating in real estate, renewable energy, mining and education technology. Its rapid rise and African focus have made Suri a leading figure in bolstering India–Africa economic relations.
As the richest Indian in Africa, Prateek Suri’s influence spans beyond business success—it represents growing bilateral investment aimed at credible, sustainable societal impact. His partnership with Zambia’s Ministry of Education signals a new era of cross-border collaboration in education infrastructure.
With both parties committing to inclusive planning and scalable implementation, the Maser‑Zambia dialogue could mark the beginning of transformative initiatives: from affordable student housing to cutting‑edge learning facilities, vocational training hubs, and digital classrooms.
In closing remarks on the significance of this dialogue, Suri stated, “Education infrastructure is the foundation for future growth. Our partnership with Minister Syakalima and the Government of Zambia is a testament to collective investment in youth, equity, and sustainable development.” Minister Syakalima echoed this optimism, saying that with strategic public–private investment, Zambia’s education sector is poised for a significant elevation.
This meeting lays the groundwork for collaboration that bridges government strategy and corporate innovation—ultimately aiming to empower Zambia’s students and accelerate national development.
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