E-Business
FG Reportedly Spent $630m on Leaking National Database

Nigeria has pumped at least $630 million into its leaking National Information Management System since 2011, according to The Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ).
FIJ reports recently revealed significant integrity flaws in the national database, despite the heavy monetary investment.
Nigeria began to implement the idea of an electronic identity card under President Goodluck Jonathan.
In September 2011, the federal government approved N30.66 billion for the NIMC to provide electronic IDs to all Nigerians over the age of 18. Considering the naira-dollar exchange rate at the time, the sum was about $197.85 million.
In 2012, the National Identification Number (NIN) and the NIMC Verification System (NVS) were introduced as the basis for digital identity management in Nigeria. Three years down the line, the federal government issued an order that made NIN mandatory for all Nigerians.
In the same year, the World Bank Digital Development Team performed a diagnosis of the Nigerian identity management infrastructure.
In the report, the World Bank recommended that Nigeria unify its databases, upgrade its identity management technologies and create more policies that would encourage more people to register.
To that effect, the World Bank, in conjunction with Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the European Union, released a $433 million grant to Nigeria in 2019 to enhance its identity management systems.
Apart from the main objective of increasing the number of persons with a national identification number, the grant was also meant to reinforce the NIMS, privacy and security and create and strengthen the authentication services.
According to the conditions of this grant, at least 148 million Nigerians must be registered by June 2024. As of December 2023, Nigeria had only registered 104 million people. With these figures, Nigeria may still reach its target to register 148 million people.
However, access by unlicensed agents like Xpressverify (as revealed by FIJ) to registered citizens’ data suggests that Nigeria is behind in its objective to tighten data security and ensure the privacy of personal information.
In 2001, the Department of National Civic Registration (DNCR), the Nigerian parastatal charged with national identity management, contracted a private firm to create the National Identity Database for about $236.8 million.
The project was, however, shut down in 2006 due to allegations of corruption and impropriety.
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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