E-Business
Opinion: Nigeria Strides into Q4
By Lukman Otunuga, Research Analyst at FXTM
Nigeria displayed its resilience in the global arena on repeated occasions this year, by confronting a currency crisis, navigating depressed oil prices and rebounding from an economic deceleration.
With the nation currently in the process of recovering from its worst slump in 25 years, despite the headwinds created from both external and internal risk, the overall outlook remains highly encouraging.
Annual inflation has eased considerably, while core fundamentals suggest that the economic landscape continues to stabilize. With the driver behind Nigeria’s economic rebound fuelled by sustainable sources such as manufacturing, agriculture and trade, it is clear why sentiment is slowly turning bullish.
Now that Nigeria has shown the world that it resilient, the central bank is likely to direct its focus towards mitigating inflation and further supporting the local currency.
The fact that Nigeria managed to grow 0.55% in Q2, despite suffering a painful contraction for five consecutive quarters, highlights the tenacious nature of the nation and prospects for future growth. Consumer prices also eased to 16.01% in August, pointing to signs of improving price stability.
While there is still some distance to go before inflation falls back within the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 6-9% target, improved Dollar supply which has eased inflation by reducing import costs, may play a part in inflationary pressures becoming a theme of the past.
Although the combination of accelerating growth and falling inflation may encourage the CBN to cut benchmark interest rates in the future, it is only one element of the equation. While an interest rate cut is likely to boost business confidence and support the nation further, attention should be directed towards the fiscal side.
Taking a look at the fiscal side of the equation, it can be said that Nigeria is in dire need of a national infrastructure plan. Major roads remain in poor condition, bridges and railways need to be renovated and education needs an overhaul.
It should be kept in mind that a solid and stable infrastructure yields a healthy economy, while a weak foundation limits growth and exposes the nation to downside risks. Rectifying these issues has the ability to not only create employment but it would also support economic growth – ultimately boosting investor confidence.
On a positive note, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently reported that Nigeria recorded an export rise of 73.5% in the second quarter of 2017.
There was a significant rise in non-oil exports with agricultural goods increasing in the country’s foreign exchange earnings. With agriculture remaining the backbone of Nigeria, this report was highly encouraging, especially when you consider how the nation has an ongoing quest to diversify from oil reliance.
Focusing on the foreign exchange outlook, the Naira held its ground against the Dollar in September, with prices trading within a narrow range on the parallel market exchange. The implantation of the Investors and Exporters (FX) Window has bolstered confidence over Nigeria’s outlook and this may be reflected in the Naira’s current stability.
The Naira’s price action also suggests that the increased supply of foreign exchange into the largest economy inAfrica has attracted investors, ultimately creating another wall of stability in the FX markets.
While the outlook for the Naira is starting to look encouraging amid the stabilizing fundamentals, markets will still be observing how Nigeria tackles the system of multiple exchange rates. With the central bank aiming to erase the multiple exchanges, which would require an official devaluation, it becomes a matter of when and how.
Resurgent oil prices have positively impacted the nation’s government revenues and even reinforced the stability of foreign exchange markets. Investors are becoming increasingly optimistic about OPEC’s ability to rebalance the market long-term, as this was reflected in WTI Crude which appreciated towards $52.
With further upside on the cards in the short to medium term amid the optimism, the Nigerian government is likely to receive more revenue. It should be kept in mind that Oil prices still pose a significant external risk to Nigeria in the longer term, especially when considering how fragile the current OPEC supply cut deal really is.
With OPEC requesting Nigeria to cut production by 1.8 million barrels a day, this complicates matters, as the Federal government’s 2017 budget is based on the production of 2.2 million barrels per day at $44.50 per barrel. A situation where Nigeria limits production and oil prices depreciate, could pose a serious threat to the budget, ultimately punishing economic growth.
As the final quarter of 2017 gets underway, markets will be closely watching to see if the stabilizing economic conditions prompt the Central Bank of Nigeria to cut interest rates.
A rate cut will be one the first steps of many the nation takes on in its ongoing mission to recover economically, diversify and continue to rattle the global arena.
Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has approved N242.8m for the procurement of a Microsoft 365 licence for its Internal Revenue Service (FCT-IRS) as part of efforts to digitise the service’s operations.
Mr Michael Ango, acting executive chairman of FCT-IRS, disclosed this after the FCT Executive Committee meeting chaired by Mr Nyesom Wike, the minister of FCTA, in Abuja on Wednesday.
Ango said that the FCTA was making significant investments in technology to enhance revenue generation and collection.
“So, this is also one of those investments in technology that the FCT is undertaking.
“The licence, if procured, will enhance our ability to move most of our manual processes into automated processes.
“It will enhance our ability to communicate within our offices,” he said.
The executive chairman added that the move would also reduce the use of paper and ensure better record-keeping through the storage of information and documents in the cloud.
According to him, “The licence will essentially enhance our operations and assist us in generating revenue for the development of the FCT under Wike’s leadership.”
Rack Centre, West Africa’s Tier III Carrier and Cloud neutral data centre, has welcomed Olla Cloud Service, a new private cloud service by Olla Systems Limited, a leading provider of innovative technology solutions, to its facility.
Hosting at Rack Centre, Olla Cloud Service runs on a state-of-the-art, cloud-enabled infrastructure for enterprise applications across diverse platforms, including mission critical application, web applications as well as containerised applications using Kubernetes.
Lars Johannisson, CEO, Rack Centre, welcoming Olla Systems, noted that the partnership with Olla Systems Limited would reflect the company’s commitment to providing African businesses with high- quality cloud computing services.
He noted that Olla Systems would enjoy Rack Centre’s 13.5MW data centre campus facility, designed to meet the highest international standards and offering scalable solutions to Hyperscalers, Enterprises, and Cloud service providers.
As part of its commitment to sustainability, the facility is equipped with energy-efficient systems, advanced cooling technologies to mitigate environmental impact and an optimally-designed feature to handle high-density workloads with precision.
According to Johannisson, “With Olla Cloud Service hosting at Rack Centre, clients will experience fast performance and low latency, enabling businesses in Africa to access world-class cloud computing services within a secure and compliant local infrastructure.”
Also speaking, Olusola Adenuga, chief executive officer, Olla Systems Limited, expressed enthusiasm about hosting at Rack Centre, noting that Olla Cloud remains a groundbreaking private cloud solution for businesses.
While highlighting the benefits of the partnership between Rack Centre and Olla Systems, Adenuga disclosed that “subscribing to Olla Cloud Service is cost-effective to customers because of its local currency payment advantage.”
She also noted that the partnership between the duo, provides businesses the opportunity to meet regulatory requirements of data residency, while enjoying world-class infrastructure as a service (IaaS) locally.
“Other benefits of hosting with Olla Cloud include: 24/7 support, unparalleled performance, scalability and agility.” she added.
A user’s messaging app account might be of interest not only to jealous spouses and nosy coworkers, but also to cybercriminals.
Stolen WhatsApp accounts are used for various types of criminal activity, ranging from spam distribution to sophisticated scam schemes.
Cybercriminals constantly look for WhatsApp accounts and use various methods to gain access to them.
There are two ways cybercriminals can gain control of a WhatsApp account: they can add another device to an existing account using the “Linked devices” feature, or they can re-register the account on their own device as if the user had bought a new phone.
“In the first case, the user continues to use WhatsApp as usual, but the criminals also have access to all recent conversations. In the second case, the user loses access to their personal account.
“When trying to log in, WhatsApp notifies him that the account is already in use on another device, and the attackers can then control the account but not the past conversations.
“Messengers are a private space, as they often contain personal information about our lives and relationships with family and friends. They can also contain information about work and, in some cases, confidential information.
“If you notice any unusual activity, such as receiving replies to messages that you didn’t send, or if your friends complain about strange messages coming from your account, it’s important to take steps to protect your privacy immediately,” comments Seifallah Jedidi, Head of Consumer Channel, META, at Kaspersky.
While you can check instruction on what to do in case a WhatsApp account was already compromised, here are the key steps on how to avoid a WhatsApp account to be hacked:
- Enable two-step verification in WhatsApp and memorise your PIN — it’s not a one-time code. To do this, go to Settings → Account → Two-step verification.
- Never, ever share your PIN or one-time registration codes with anyone. Only scammers ask for these details.
- WhatsApp recently introduced support for passkeys. If you enable this option (Settings → Account → Passkeys), logging in to your account will require biometric authentication, and instead of PIN codes, your smartphone will store a long cryptographic key. This is a very secure option, but it may not be convenient if you frequently change devices and switch between Android and iOS.
- Set up a backup email address for account recovery: Settings → Account → Email address.
- If you’ve already added an email address, log in to your email account and change your password to a strong, unique one. To store it securely, use a password manager, such as Kaspersky Password Manager.
- Enable two-factor authentication for your email account.
- Make sure you haven’t fallen victim to a SIM swap scam. Contact your mobile carrier — preferably in person — and verify that no duplicate SIM cards have recently been issued for your number. Also, make sure there’s no unauthorised call-forwarding set up on your number. Cancel any suspicious changes and ask the staff about additional security measures for your SIM card. These may include prohibiting SIM-related actions without your being present, an extra password required for authentication, or other protections. Available security measures vary significantly by country and mobile carrier.
Any security measures in WhatsApp will be of little use if your smartphone or computer is infected with malware. Therefore, be sure to install comprehensive protection like Kaspersky Premium on all your devices.
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