News
Stylist Piazza Debuts, Promises Increased Profit Margins for Beauty Industry Operators

Engr. Chima Obiaka, Founder/Chief Executive Officer of Stylist Piazza (https://stylistpiazza.com/), a platform offering professional online services to service providers in the Beauty industry, has said that the brand is on a mission to make players in the beauty industry be more productive and increase their profit margins.
Chima, a 2022 graduate of Electrical/Electronic Engineering of the Abia State University, Uturu, told journalists at an event announcing the inauguration of the startup that Stylist Piazza aims to promote a sustainable, inclusive, and sustained growth in beauty servicing by professionals in the beauty industry.
“At Stylist Piazza, we believe that you can look beautiful effortlessly and at your convenience. This drives us and keeps us going as we are absolutely committed to ensuring our customers have access to the best hair stylists in Lagos and its environs. And this at minimal cost and absolute convenience.
“We want to be the app our customers think of, for any freelancing job as a skilled beauty service professional. They worry about providing the service, while we worry about regulating the service and moderating the way payment for service is being passed.
“The app is for professionals offering Makeup services, Hairstyling, and barbering services, and nail technicians. All they need to do is create their profile, post their work in the profile category, and write an elevator pitch on their service offerings on their Bio.
“After that, professionals are expected to update their services and home service price propositions and verify their profile with the required KYC information. They can now start accessing a network pool of value-oriented clients,” Chima said.
The budding techpreneur said that Stylist Piazza draws its inspiration from international companies like Style Seat, Booksy and Bolt, helping the girl and boy child find a career in self-employment, with a skill in beauty servicing so they can build on it and grow their reputation.
On what inspired the birth of Stylist Piazza, Chima said that going by the survey his team conducted on the Lagos beauty market, they discovered that professionals who are skilled in beauty services need a beauty app that is for everything beauty and not just a social app like Instagram which is the traditional way they access their customers.
“We discovered through the survey that what players in the beauty market in Lagos need, is an app that solves price disputes in the market and can be a professional career tool that would allow them be more productive in their skill.
“We also discovered that beauty service professionals want access to a network pool of Value-oriented clients while business owners, Nigerians in Diaspora, and Bridal clients want a platform they can trust to access on-demand beauty service experts at their convenience,” he said.
Chima disclosed that as a brand, Stylist Piazza is guided by its values of integrity, innovation and professionalism and would at this stage, want to position itself as the brand every player in the beauty industry would always look up to for maximization of profits because it sees the beauty professionals as its early value chain partners.
“Integrity is important to the company and its employees, as we strive to be honest and do what is right in all dealings. Innovation is also highly valued, as the company is dedicated to finding new and better ways to improve its services and products.
“For us, professionalism is essential to the company’s success, as we take pride in delivering high-quality work and services, committing to continuous improvement and growth. These core values are important to Stylist Piazza brand and help guide our actions and decisions,” Chima said.
He stated that Stylist Piazza has come to contribute its quota to making life a lot easier by creating a seamless and stress-free gateway for beauty service styling, bringing along with it, style and convenience and committed to efficient service delivery.
On what distinguishes the product from others, Chima said that as developers and promoters of the unique app, Stylist Piazza properly understands the needs of their market and partners, adding that this understanding enables them to offer tailored solutions that would yield the much-desired results.
“We have a local competitor, and although we offer some similar services, we differentiate ourselves by providing consultancy, value coaching services, and partnering with beauty schools to create an environment for learning professional services in the beauty space, and acting as Human Resources intermediary, moderating pricing and payment between both service providers and consumers,” Chima said.
He believes that the objective behind the launch of the product has a correlation with the overall mission and brand values of Stylist Piazza because according to him, “with our product, we are making life easy, generating wealth for the unemployed, and socially impacting the world.
“In addition, we provide our target market with a set price technology visible for a service price quotation for their bookings, tailored skilled beauty service experts to provide solutions for their beauty needs, and excellent customer service.”
Chima urged players in the beauty industry to take advantage of the Stylist Piazza app to meet and connect with other beauty enthusiasts, get inspired by their work, and book for service offering at their convenience.
“Our desire is to ensure that our product is not only beneficial to our clients, but also to our end-users by helping them live in the beauty they desire as well as build and solidify their business relationships with others,” Chima concluded.
News
FIRS Rolls out e-invoicing System for Large Corporate Taxpayers

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has launched a national electronic invoicing system, seen as a significant step toward digitising the country’s tax infrastructure and boosting compliance among large corporate taxpayers.
The system, known as the Merchant-Buyer Solution (MBS), officially went live on August 1 after a successful pilot phase that began in November 2024. It is being rolled out in phases, starting with companies that have an annual turnover of at least ₦5 billion. According to FIRS, these large taxpayers represent over 5,000 businesses nationwide.
More than 1,000 companies — roughly 20% of eligible firms — have already integrated with the platform, including telecoms giant MTN Nigeria, which became the first to transmit live electronic invoices to the tax authority. Other major players such as Huawei Nigeria and IHS Towers are completing their onboarding and are expected to go live in the coming days.
“The launch of the e-invoicing regime ushers in a new era of transparency, accuracy, and real-time monitoring of commercial transactions,” Dare Adekanmbi, who is the spokesperson for Zacch Adedeji, FIRS Chairman, said in a statement on Sunday.
The e-invoicing solution forms part of the agency’s broader Electronic Fiscal System (EFS), which is designed to ensure authenticity and completeness of invoice data and limit opportunities for tax evasion. It also aligns with Nigeria’s Revenue Services Reform Act — a legislative framework aimed at harmonising revenue collection and providing a single source of truth for government receipts.
The FIRS said it is working in collaboration with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to incorporate system integrators and access point providers into the onboarding ecosystem. These providers are tasked with supporting the integration process and helping companies manage their transition onto the e-invoicing platform.
While the original deadline for onboarding was set for August 1, the tax agency has granted a three-month grace period to allow companies facing operational challenges to comply. The new deadline for mandatory integration is November 1, 2025.
“In the spirit of encouraging voluntary compliance, the FIRS management has graciously approved a three-month extension of the deadline,” the agency said. “We also acknowledge the genuine efforts of many taxpayers who strove to meet the 1st of August 2025 deadline but encountered operational constraints.”
The system will eventually be extended to medium and smaller enterprises, but for now, the focus remains on onboarding the largest players, who contribute a significant share of Nigeria’s corporate tax base.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest population, has been ramping up efforts to boost non-oil revenues amid volatile crude prices and growing fiscal pressures. Tax-to-GDP ratio remains among the lowest globally, estimated at just over 10%, according to official figures.
The FIRS has increasingly leaned on technology to expand the tax net and reduce leakages.
“The e-invoicing platform gives us real-time visibility into the business-to-business segment, which has historically been under-reported,” a senior FIRS official familiar with the rollout said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. “It significantly enhances our ability to track transactions and enforce compliance.”
To facilitate onboarding, the FIRS e-Invoicing Implementation Team is conducting webinars, workshops, and town hall sessions across the country, targeting tax consultants, financial controllers, and compliance officers within affected firms.
The Federal Government expects the digitisation effort to streamline tax administration, reduce disputes and simplify audit processes for both taxpayers and regulators.
The FIRS has not disclosed projected revenue gains from the e-invoicing rollout, but industry experts believe it could yield significant medium-term improvements in tax efficiency and administration.
News
Google Hit by AI-driven Cyber Attack

Google has become the latest company to fall victim to cyber criminals increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to bypass security measures and trick users with highly-realistic documents that install malware on networks.
This Google attack, following a similar incident targeting Microsoft SharePoint servers globally, was confirmed earlier this week.
Google, one of the so-called “Magnificent Seven” US tech companies, revealed that one of its corporate Salesforce instances was compromised by a financially-motivated threat cluster known as UNC6040.
AI is rapidly becoming hackers’ tool of choice for crafting convincing e-mails and phone calls that mimic familiar voices or sound authentically human. E-mails often include attachments that appear legitimate, prompting recipients to click and unwittingly allow malware to infiltrate networks. Meanwhile, phone calls push targets to click links sent via SMS or WhatsApp.
Richard Cassidy, Europe, Middle East and Africa chief information security officer at Rubrik, says: “We are definitely seeing these incidents become more prevalent. What’s driving this surge is a combination of rapidly-evolving AI-enabled attack tools, and the ever-expanding attack surfaces created by widespread digitalisation, without proportional investment in cyber resilience.”
The UNC6040 group targets Salesforce environments by impersonating IT support to deceive employees into installing malicious connected apps, often disguised as Salesforce’s Data Loader. This enables the attackers to covertly access networks and extract sensitive data.
Quick response
In the most recent attack, Google said it “responded to the activity, performed an impact analysis and began mitigations”. The breach affected systems storing contact information and related notes for small and medium businesses.
“Analysis revealed that data was retrieved by the threat actor during a small window before access was cut off. The data retrieved was confined to basic and largely publicly available business information, such as business names and contact details,” Google said.
Google also reported that the extortion involved calls or e-mails to victim organisation employees demanding Bitcoin payments within 72 hours. During these communications, the threat actors have consistently claimed to be the group known as ShinyHunters.
Large-scale attacks
SentinelLABS and Beazley Security recently uncovered and analysed a rapidly-evolving series of infostealer campaigns delivering the Python-based PXA Stealer. This malware uses Telegram bots to sell stolen data in a manner that is nearly undetectable.
The actors, reportedly Vietnamese hackers, have compromised more than 4 000 unique victim IP addresses across at least 62 countries, including South Korea, the United States, the Netherlands, Hungary and Austria.
News
‘Fraudsters Have Cloned my Voice’- Akume

George Akume, secretary to the Government of the Federation, has raised alarm over the activities of a criminal syndicate allegedly cloning his voice and using it to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians with promises of Federal Government appointments.

George Akume, SGF
In a statement issued by Yomi Odunuga, his special adviser on Media and Publicity, on Thursday, Akume said the fraudsters have impersonated him in audio calls and text messages, targeting high-profile individuals and soliciting payments ranging from ₦5 million to ₦15 million in exchange for phantom political positions.
“From information available to the office, the fraudsters cloned the voice of the SGF, using it to solicit money in return for federal appointments,” the statement read.
The SGF further revealed that the scammers not only cloned his voice but also spoofed the phone numbers of other high-profile individuals to give credibility to their fraudulent scheme.
“These scammers attach bank account details to messages sent to victims and request them to send their CVs to cloned emails,” Odunuga added.
The statement noted that the fraudsters have been operating through both traditional bank accounts and fintech mobile wallets, complicating efforts to trace the financial trails.
Distancing himself from the illicit scheme, Akume stressed that appointments to Federal Government boards and parastatals are transparent and not for sale under any guise.
The statement noted, “Senator Akume emphasized that the appointment processes for Nigerians into boards and parastatals are transparent and verifiable, urging individuals not to pay any money in expectation of securing a position.”
The Office of the SGF confirmed that it has notified relevant security agencies, urging members of the public to report suspicious calls or messages to law enforcement.
“The Office of the SGF strongly advises Nigerians to report the activities of these fraudulent people to the authorities while taking all precautionary steps necessary to avoid being victims of th
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