General News
Osun Invests in Biometric, Smart ID Card for Public School Students
In line with the commitment of the government of the State of Osun to use technology to improve planning, allocation of resources and service delivery in its education sector, a first-of-its-kind Smart Identity Card with biometric features was launched for all public school students in the state recently at Salvation Army School, Alekuwodo, Oshogbo, Osun State.
An initiative of Chams Plc, the Smart ID Card is linked back to a central database which provides the government of the State of Osun with accurate and reliable data on the identity and number students attending public schools in the state.
Launching the Smart ID Card for Osun students, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, governor, State of Osun said, “In the history of human inventions, there are not too many inventions that are as useful as technology in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness at providing solutions to human problems. This is the reason why the government of the State of Osun adopted and is deploying technology as the solution to the legacy of inefficiency bequeathed to the civil service by past inept leaders. The Osun Student Smart ID card which is embedded with biometric features is also an ingenious technology solution that we have adopted to further raise the service delivery levels in the education sector.”
Aregbesola added that with the card, each student is a unique and identifiable individual that cannot be mistaken for another person.
“Effortlessly, government can identify all students in public schools, and have access to their information at the push of a button. It improves the effectiveness of life enriching programmes such as the O’Meals, O’Schools and Opon Imo, among other other innovations put in place for the welfare of students. The Smart Card makes tracking possible, implying that we are provided with more accurate information on the exact number of beneficiaries which eliminates fraud and accounting error of any type,” he said
Commenting on the project, Mrs. Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, deputy governor, State of Osun, who doubles as the commissioner for Education said, “This is indeed a significant milestone for the State of Osun because without accurate data, a holistic transformation of the education sector in Osun may remain elusive. Issuance of smart identity cards to all public school students will ensure that we have accurate data for use in updating our education strategy and sustain our pragmatic work-plan to ensure overall policy success. In no small measure, the smart identity card will also ensure accountability to government by students of public school as it makes it possible for schools to track attendance.”
She added that the government of the State of Osun will continue to upscale its investment in education across the state because it regards education of children and youths as one of the prime investments that can guarantee the exponential growth and development of the state in the 21st century’s maturing knowledge economy which places very high premium on human capital.
On his part, Mr. Demola Aladekomo, managing director, Chams Plc said, “The Osun Smart ID card provides biographical and biometric identification of public school children from elementary schools to middle schools and high schools, equipping government relaible demographic data of the student population in the State. This certainly improves planning, distribution and allocation of educational resources in alignment with population size, and the unique needs of students and schools across the 30 local government areas of the state. It will also aid the judicious use of government resources and improve budgeting, while also providing accurate data that will lead to the enunciation of more transformative policies.”
Aladekomo added that Chams is proud to be associated with the giant strides achieved by the government of the State of Osun as its continuously deploys Information and Communications Technology to improve governance and service delivery to the people of the state, irrespective of their location and status.
“Without doubt, the State of Osun is indeed becoming a model in e-governance that is worthy of emulation by other state governments because of its shrewdness and foresightedness in using technology to reduce the high incidence of fraud and wastage often associated with the public sector programmes. We can only promise the government of the State of Osun that we will continue to work with you to use Information and Communication Technology to make governance more inclusive in alignment with the realities of contemporary times,” the Chams Plc MD said.
Similarly, in April, Chams Plc and First Bank of Nigeria partnered the government of the state to provide civil servants in the State of Osun with smart identity cards embedded with MasterCard prepaid capabilities – which is also the first of its kind by any state government in Nigeria.
The card with biometric features can be used by the civil servants outside the country and is accepted by over 16 million merchants worldwide.
Full deployment of the Osun School Smart ID Card scheme points to the government of the State of Osun’s commitment to its 2011 education policy which sought an integrative and ICT enabled approach to the education of children and youth in the State.
The policy evolved from the Osun Education Summit held also in 2011, and it has been described by local and international stakeholders and education regulatory bodies as a comprehensive and holistic response to the deterioration of public school system in the state.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has busted a Ponzi Scheme Academy and arrested 133 suspects in Abuja.
They were arrested at the Compensation Layout in Gwagwalada area of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, following actionable intelligence on the existence of the Academy.
The Academy, named Q University (a.k.a Q-Net) is in the business of recruiting gullible young Nigerians who are trained to recruit more gullible citizens into the scheme with the promise of getting unrealistic profit returns.
The suspects are enrolled into a training codenamed: “Special Training for New Generation Billionaire” and brainwashed to believe that they would graduate into the league of billionaires.
They got into the training by obtaining a form the promoters called “Independent Representative Application Form” with promotional slogans such as: “I’m a Champion” “I’m Unstoppable”, “I’m Infinity”, among others.
The EFCC carried out the operation in collaboration with officers and men of 176 Guards Battalion, Nigerian Army.
Items recovered from the suspects include phones, computers and other electronic gadgets.
They will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.
Big companies are leaving Nigeria are leaving Nigeria because of what Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum resources described as “middlemanism”.
So called “middlemanism” is slack form of middleman, which is an intermediary who facilitates transactions between a buyer and a seller, often taking on roles like wholesaling, distribution, or brokering, and earning a commission or fee for their services.
The minister made this known during the opening of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria’s Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Conference.
Heineken Lokpobiri disclosed that a lot of intermediaries who entered the oil industry caused its damage.
According to the minister, due to middlemen and intermediaries, some big and multinational oil service giant such as Schlumberger, Halliburton, McDermott, and others left Nigeria.
“We have made mistakes. And I’m saying this specifically so that all African countries here today will not make the mistake that Nigeria made. When I became minister, one of the issues I was confronted with had to do with the multinational service companies all exiting Nigeria. They’ve all gone, except, maybe this Italian company, Saipem. That was the only one that was around. So we had a situation where there was a monopoly.
“The other big boys—the Schlumberger, Halliburton, the McDermotts—all of them have gone. All of you here in PETAN have your good days in these companies. That was where you started from. That was where you actually developed your capacity,” Lokpobiri said.
Authorities in seven African countries have arrested 306 suspects and seized 1842 devices in a sweeping international operation targeting cyber-enabled fraud and scams.
Dubbed Operation Red Card, the effort ran from November 2024 to February 2025, focusing on dismantling cybercrime networks that defrauded over 5000 victims through mobile banking fraud, investment scams and malicious messaging app schemes., according to infosecurity-magazine.com
In Nigeria, police arrested 130 suspects, including 113 foreign nationals, for running fraudulent investment schemes and online casinos.
Authorities found that criminals funneled illicit proceeds into digital assets to obscure their financial trails.
Investigations also uncovered signs of human trafficking, with some individuals coerced into participating in the scams.
Law enforcement seized: 26 vehicles; 16 houses; 39 plots of land; and 685 electronic devices
In Rwanda, 45 individuals were arrested for orchestrating a social engineering scam that defrauded victims of more than $305,000 in 2024.
Scammers posed as telecommunications employees and falsely claimed victims had won lotteries to extract sensitive information.
Others impersonated injured family members to request emergency financial assistance.
Authorities recovered $103,043 and seized 292 devices.
South African authorities arrested 40 individuals and confiscated over 1000 SIM cards, along with 53 desktop computers and towers linked to a sophisticated SIM box fraud scheme.
This setup allowed cybercriminals to disguise international calls as local ones, facilitating large-scale SMS phishing attacks.
In Zambia, law enforcement apprehended 14 members of a cyber syndicate specializing in malware attacks.
The criminals sent phishing messages containing malicious links, infecting victims’ devices and taking control of messaging and banking apps. This enabled them to access financial accounts and further spread fraudulent links.
The operation was carried out through INTERPOL’s African Joint Operation against Cybercrime (AFJOC) initiative, which supports law enforcement efforts in combating cyber-threats.
The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office funded Operation Red Card under the AFJOC initiative, allocating £2.6m to enhance Africa’s law enforcement capabilities in detecting and preventing cybercrime.
The seven participating countries – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, To and Zambia – continue to collaborate on intelligence-led cybercrime investigations.
“The success of Operation Red Card demonstrates the power of international cooperation in combating cybercrime, which knows no borders and can have devastating effects on individuals and communities,” commented Neal Jetton, Interpol’s director of the cybercrime directorate.
“The recovery of significant assets and devices, as well as the arrest of key suspects, sends a strong message to cyber-criminals that their activities will not go unpunished.”
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