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OPay Nigeria’s CEO, Olu Akanmu, resigns amid company’s 5th Anniversary celebration

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10 months ago

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The CEO of OPay Nigeria, Olu Akanmu, has announced his resignation from the company after two years of assuming the position.

This is coming amid an ongoing celebration of the company’s 5th anniversary in Nigeria. Akanmu, who announced his exit from the company via a Twitter post on Monday morning did not state any reason but centered his message on the need to do more to get more Nigerians financially included.

While thanking stakeholders that had supported him at OPay, Akanmu specifically challenged the fintech community in Nigeria to deepen financial inclusion.

According to him, collaborations, public-private partnerships, and more deliberate coordination at the digital public infrastructure ecosystem layers would be critical to ensure the fintechs succeed in doing the next heavy lifting to extend the digital financial rail to the next 20 million.

Starting with gratitude to all who had supported him while he was the CEO of OPay, Akanmu said:

  • “My Gratitude to all my colleagues at Opay for the good work we did together in deepening financial inclusion in Nigeria, ensuring that fewer and fewer number of our people are left behind in partaking out of the opportunities of the digital financial system.
  • “Many thanks also to all our ecosystem partners and enablers who complimented us, without which we would not have been able to deliver on the lofty mission of OPay which is to “deepen financial inclusion through technology.
  • “Yet there is still so much to be done collectively by us as all to ensure that no one is left behind by the modern digital financial system.
  • “The lesson of the cashless or limited Cash period earlier in the year is that millions are not yet included despite the progress we have made collectively as an ecosystem.
  • “For the Nigeria Fintech community, the imperative of ensuring that we serve not only the banked and underserved, but also the completely excluded which still represents at least 45% of our people should be our collective and greater patriotic mission, complementing the historic efforts of traditional players.
  • “Collaborations, public-private partnerships, and more deliberate coordination at the digital public infrastructure (#dpi) ecosystem layers would be critical to ensure we succeed in doing the next heavy lifting to extend the digital financial rail to the next 20 million.”
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Emirates Airlines return to Nigeria October 1

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23 hours ago

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May 16, 2024 12:45 pm

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Emirates Airlines has confirmed its return to operations in Nigeria starting October 1, 2024.

The airline disclosed this via its official X handle Thursday.

“We’re back, Nigeria! We’ll be resuming services to Lagos from 1 October 2024, and we can’t wait to offer unrivalled connectivity to Dubai and beyond to over 140 cities,” the tweet read.

The airline will be operating a daily service between Lagos State and Dubai, and will offer customers more choice and connectivity from Nigeria’s largest city to, and through, Dubai.

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Business

Naira appreciates at official window, depreciates at parallel market

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1 day ago

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May 16, 2024 8:33 am

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The naira depreciated to N1,550 against the dollar at the parallel section of the foreign exchange (FX) market on Wednesday.

The current FX rate signifies a decline of 1.95 percent from the N1,520/$ reported on May 13.

Currency traders, also known as street traders, in Lagos, quoted the buying rate of the local currency at N1,510/$ and the selling rate at N1,550/$ — leaving a profit margin of N40.

At the official window, the local currency appreciated by 4.21 percent against the dollar from N1,520.4/$ on May 14 to close at N1,459.02 on Wednesday.

According to FMDQ Exchange, a platform that oversees the official window, a dollar was sold as high as N1,593 and at a low rate of N1,401 during trading hours.

The daily foreign exchange market turnover was $289.14 million.

On May 14, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said foreign missions based in Nigeria use third parties to transact in foreign currencies.

Speaking during an interview, Wilson Uwujaren, EFCC’s acting director of public affairs, said the commission has a task force whose duty is to fight the abuse of the naira and discourage transactions in dollars within Nigeria — which is against the law.

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Business

To spur liquidity’ — CBN grants approval in principle to 14 new IMTOs

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1 day ago

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May 16, 2024 8:26 am

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has granted approval in principle (AIP) to 14 new international money transfer operators (IMTOs).

IMTOs carry out cross-border fund transfer services for individuals and entities residing abroad to recipients in Nigeria.

Approval in principle is a conditional acceptance of a proposal subject to meeting other requirements for final approval.

CBN granted the AIP amid plans to double foreign currency remittance flows through formal channels.

Hakama Sidi Ali, CBN’s acting director of corporate communications, spoke in Abuja on Wednesday.

Ali said the approval will help increase the sustained supply of foreign exchange in the official market by promoting greater competition and innovation among IMTOs to lower the cost of remittance transactions and boost financial inclusion.

“This will spur liquidity in Nigeria’s Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX), augmenting price discovery to enable a market-driven fair value for the naira,” she said.

Ali also said the move by the apex bank is a means of reducing the historical volatility in Nigeria’s exchange rate caused by external factors, such as fluctuations in foreign investment and oil export proceeds.

On April 20, Olayemi Cardoso, CBN governor, said the financial regulator collaborated with IMTOs to collectively commit to doubling remittance flows through formal channels into Nigeria.

“We’ve had very productive discussions with leading IMTOs where we collectively committed to doubling remittance flows through formal channels into Nigeria in the immediate short to medium term,” Cardoso said.

He said CBN has also set up a task force to address bottlenecks hindering flows through formal channels.

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Bodex F. Hungbo, SPMIIM is a multiple award-winning Nigerian Digital Media Practitioner, Digital Strategist, PR consultant, Brand and Event Expert, Tv Presenter, Tier-A Blogger/Influencer, and a top cobbler in Nigeria.

She has widespread experiences across different professions and skills, which includes experiences in; Marketing, Media, Broadcasting, Brand and Event Management, Administration and Management with prior stints at MTN, NAPIMS-NNPC, GLOBAL FLEET OIL AND GAS, LTV, Silverbird and a host of others

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