General News
How AI is transforming the financial services industry
By Ibrahim Youssry – Regional General Manager, North, West, East, Central Africa, Levant & Pakistan, Microsoft
Digital transformation is remaking the world around us, and artificial intelligence (AI) is a frontrunner. No industry will be left untouched by this digital journey, but one sector that is seeing the fastest and most fundamental effects is the financial services industry (FSI).
FSI players are geared to be dramatically disrupted by the power of AI – both internally (in the ways they operate) and externally (in terms of dealing with clients and customers).
A 2018 report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) on The New Physics of Financial Services unpacks this phenomenon at length, but one high-level take-away is that the AI changes here cannot be overstated. The long-term impacts of AI are radical and transformative, putting the FSI ecosystem into a period of reorganisation.
Competition from the underdogs
FSI has traditionally been dominated by large and established corporations, often with extensive heritage and market dominance. Through this, many FSI companies have enjoyed relatively low competition for customers, and have been slow to innovate and change ‘with the times’. Enter the leveling power of the cloud, accessible analytics and machine learning, and we see how a scrappy, determined fintech startup can disrupt a whole market or sector.
Many of these startups offer alternatives for banking, payments, transfers, payroll, credit, and other financial services. These digital-first businesses are highly agile, and are creating a whole new customer base that was underserved by established FSI companies – putting the pressure on older firms.
As a result, many FSIs have started embracing cloud technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve their own agility, their array of service offerings, and their customer experiences. Recent studies suggest that approximately 40 percent of African banking customers prefer to use digital channels for transactions over branch channels.
Added competition is good for the entire industry, and customers will benefit from new and improved technologies that change the way the industry interacts with them and meets their expectations.
AI at the core of digital transformation
But just what form do these advances take? AI lies at the heart of things like chatbots, advanced customer credit assessment, relationship management, security, anti-money laundering and fraud detection.
Chatbots draw from big data and machine learning to respond to customer queries and concerns. They can streamline customer support on routine services like banking transactions, and make product recommendations. This is customer-facing AI that helps FSI companies be ever-present for their clients, while reducing the resources required to do so.
For fraud detection, AI-powered technology enables computers to mimic, extend and amplify the thought process of a human analyst, at a pace and scale unmatched by humans. It can review trillions of transactions in every possible portfolio in the organisation. Because of this, banks, fintechs and payment facilitators are able to detect or be alerted to potential fraud – receiving fast, efficient and accurate alerts of the likelihood of an individual’s card or account being compromised, for example.
Foresight beats hindsight
AI and analytics can draw inference from vast stores of data and spot trends that are often beyond the possible scope of human sight, driving insight to analysts, investors and the like. AI is also able to evaluate an organisation’s public remarks and documents, bundle that up with sentiment analysis, and cross-correlate this with historical data to predict the performance of upcoming stocks, in literal split seconds.
These functions provide agility and resilience in an increasingly risky global market. In short, they inject a new level of intelligence into our organisations. Pairing this with our unique human capabilities of relationship management and creativity, and we unlock huge potential for our FSI companies.
Safe as houses, and more democratic
Through Microsoft’s security solutions (in which we have invested more than $1 billion year-on-year), we are working with FSI organisations to improve their security standards globally. Solutions such as the Customer Lockbox for Microsoft Azure, for example, assists customers with controlling and auditing support engineers’ access to compute workloads on Azure that may contain data while resolving the support issue.
These solutions have a proven success record, evidenced by our work with Interswitch, a payments and fintech innovator in Africa. Through partnering with large banks and corporates in Nigeria, Interswitch has been able to build a bank-guarantee service on Azure that extends the reach of banking systems to non-traditional players, corporate suppliers and borrowers – allowing them to manage their supply chain financing under objective terms and transparency.
Within the next decade, Africa’s objective is to ensure that the next 100 million Africans are financially included. AI has the potential to achieve this. As AI adoption increases, we’re constantly thinking about how we can help institutions make the transition to modern innovations, while still taking advantage of legacy investments.
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority has ordered all international airlines flying into Nigeria to enforce the $10,000 currency declaration rule.
The authority said the rule is required for passengers to declare cash or negotiable instruments above the limit, as part of efforts to strengthen anti-money laundering compliance.
According to the NCAA, the directive, referenced as NCAA/CPD/ABV/298, dated 24 April 2025 seeks to address gaps in the enforcement of existing currency declaration obligations for inbound passengers.
This was announced in a statement issued by the Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, Michael Achimugu, via his official X account on Tuesday.
“International carriers must take two key actions, which include “Make inflight or pre-landing announcements informing passengers of their legal obligation to declare any currency or Bearer Negotiable Instruments exceeding $10,000 USD or its equivalent upon arrival in Nigeria.
“Distribute currency declaration forms onboard for passengers to complete before landing. The NCAA has received reports indicating that some airlines are yet to comply with this directive”, the statement read.
The NCAA said these requirements are consistent with international best practices and are vital to preventing the illegal movement of large sums of money across borders.
The Authority warned that full cooperation from international airlines is essential, saying, “Please note that the cooperation of all international airlines operating in Nigeria is critical to supporting the country’s efforts to align with global financial standards.”
Accordingly, the authority emphasised that full implementation of this directive, particularly as it concerns inbound passenger declarations, is of utmost importance.
“Compliance will be closely monitored, and non-compliant airlines will face appropriate sanctions,” it added.
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.
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.
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