FG worried over cybersecurity gaps: NDPC probes payment ecosystem breach - ITREALMS Online

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The Honourable Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, has outlined a coordinated national framework for the establishment of a Cybersecurity Coordination Council, aimed at stripping away the hiding places for cybercriminals within the Nigeria's digital space, reports ITREALMS.

This initiative emerged as a standard prerequisite for national development, prioritizing collective resilience over fragmented, traditional shadows. “Cybersecurity is a shared national responsibility,” Dr. Tijani stated, emphasizing that protecting the digital economy requires an irreducible commitment to trusted collaboration across government, industry, and civil society.

PAFON 2.0 to address customer experience in AI-driven payment ecosystem - ITREALMS

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The highly anticipated Payments Forum Nigeria (PAFON) 2.0 is set to convene industry leaders, policymakers, fintech innovators, and key stakeholders to discuss the evolving landscape of digital payments, with a special focus on cybersecurity, trust, and regulatory compliance in the AI era.

PAFON 2.0, scheduled to take place on April 10, 2025 at the Function Room 1, Oriental Hotel, Lagos, builds on the success of its inaugural edition, solidifying its position as Nigeria’s premier platform for thought leadership in payments innovation.

PAFON 2.0 set to address customer experience in AI-driven payment ecosystem - ITREALMS

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The highly anticipated Payments Forum Nigeria (PAFON) 2.0 is set to convene industry leaders, policymakers, fintech innovators, and key stakeholders to discuss the evolving landscape of digital payments, with a special focus on cybersecurity, trust, and regulatory compliance in the AI era.

PAFON 2.0, scheduled to take place on April 10, 2025 at the Function Room 1, Oriental Hotel, Lagos, builds on the success of its inaugural edition, solidifying its position as Nigeria’s premier platform for thought leadership in payments innovation.

FX backlog: CBN settles all verified claims by airlines - ITREALMS

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... Doles out additional $64.44m

In fulfillment of its earlier pledge to clear the backlog of foreign exchange owed foreign airlines in the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has settled payment of all verified claims by airlines with an additional $64.44 million to the concerned airlines, reports ITREALMS.

In a press statement available to ITREALMS, the Acting Director of Corporate Communications at the CBN, Mrs. Hakama Sidi Ali, confirmed that the latest amount paid to the airlines brought the total verified amount paid to that sector to $136.73 million.

Konga Travels unveils flexible flights payment plan, eyes 20m Nigerians - ITREALMS

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Konga Travels and Tours has announced the launch of a flexible installment payment scheme for prospective travelers, through which the company intends to expand access to affordable travel deals for over 20 million Nigerians.

Tagged Pay As You Earn, the scheme allows customers to hold down and enjoy cheaper travel deals by making a minimum of 20% down payment on the travel cost and paying the balance in convenient installments.

CBN renews Cellulant’s license as payment provider - ITREALMS

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has renewed the license of Cellulant as a payment service provider in the country, reports ITREALMS.

This license, ITREALMS gathered affords Cellulant to continuously provide online and offline payment solutions, including collections, check-out, biller aggregation, and payout services securely to thousands of businesses across Nigeria.

Financial inclusion and rise of payment - ITREALMS

Commentary@ITREALMS: 

Technology is an almost indispensable part of human history. It has however never quite progressed as projected. It almost always manages to beat expectations. The automobile, the television and even the computer all defied expectations. One of the biggest fears about technology was always about job loss. This fear never quite materialised.

Technology always manages to achieve net job gain. Rather than take jobs, technology constantly creates jobs and sometimes even whole new industries thus boosting productivity. After all is said and done, technology is now an ally, an ally to humans, an ally for human development.

On the flip side, a major challenge for development is poverty. it has been described as easily one of the most prevalent and challenging issues in the world. Beyond the definitions and categorisation, however, the stark reality is that poverty is deprivation. According to the United Nations (UN), “To be poor is to be deprived. And the worst kind of deprivation is financial exclusion.”

It is precisely the desire to curb, curtail or else eliminate financial exclusion that has financial inclusion has become a real big deal in the last decade.

And why not, traditional banks have struggled to reach large segments of the population, both in the urban and rural areas. They have struggled to reach the unbanked. They have struggled to provide services beyond the formal settings.

Banks have been unable to achieve financial inclusion. New ideas are needed. New methods are required. New technologies must come to play.

Thankfully, it is already beginning to happen. It started with payments. In the first instance card and later gradually online payments until eCommerce started to buzz. Interswitch is a pioneer in this space. Now, it has graduated to the level of firms, technology firms, offering the full range of financial services.

Today, these firms, technology firms offering financial services are aptly referred to as fintechs. They are at the root of disruption ravaging the financial services sector and are spreading fast. They are working actively to change the narrative. They seem committed to contributing to efforts to close the financial inclusion gap. They are emerging as the real MVP of financial inclusion.

Fintech, according to Investopedia, is used to describe new tech that seeks to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services.

Fintechs are however not only technology-driven but equally deeply customer-focused, data-powered and service-oriented. They are also currently springing up like mushrooms across the country. This is not surprising as emerging markets, such as Nigeria, are the today the hotbeds for producing smart and simple financial solutions at an incredibly rapid rate. This makes sense in a country where so many are currently financially excluded.

In using modern technologies innovatively to enhance the delivery of financial products and services, fintechs find themselves not just providing alternative finance but in direct competition with banks.

This need not be the case. Yes, for a long time, fintechs offered mobile-only propositions because they lacked the legacy infrastructure and associated costs of the banks. Banks, on the other hand, lack the technology and agility of the fintechs.

But now, the future is in collaboration. No, not a competition, but cooperation and collaboration. At this point, banks and fintech must find a way to shake hands and get things done. There are huge opportunities to bridge the gap if the parties will collaborate. They must go together if the goal is true financial inclusion.

The opportunity is huge. Unconfirmed reports indicate that over 90 per cent of transactions in Nigeria are still cash-based. The opportunity to provide financial services is enormous. Every player in the sector must therefore actively collaborate to bring in a substantial portion of the 90 per cent into the formal system.

Here again, fintechs are showing the way. The driving payments as a strategy to boost financial inclusion. This is precisely why the emergence of new players like Opay is welcomed. A new fintech that entered the market with a completely new business model, one that may just be the way to go.

Opay is ensuring that a growing number of people to use its digital payments solution by offering everyday services. Think ORide, OFood, OBus and others.

Fintechs are enabling payments, increasing the number of people with access to financial services and creating jobs. Consider the massive number of agents that now dots the landscape. It is therefore not far-fetched to think that fintechs are driving financial inclusion and jump-starting efforts to free people from the clutches of poverty.

Besides, fintechs are pushing the frontier. They are rapidly expanding the borders from basic financial service such as payment to lending, savings and insurance among others. They can leverage data analytics to provide personalised loans, improve the loan disbursement timeline and promote prompt, somethings almost same day quick loans.

Firms such as Renmoney are in this space, promoting unprecedented access to quick loans. It is now so easy for anyone that desires quick loans (business or personal) to access it.

Financial inclusion, according to the World Bank, means that “individuals and businesses have access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered responsibly and sustainably.” Fintechs are making this a reality for millions of Nigerians. It is beyond commendable.

Without a doubt, the association between financial inclusion efforts and the reduction of poverty rates is a key driver for the future expansion of digital financial services (DFS).

Progress has been made. Reports indicate that about 50 per cent of adults in the country have access to financial services. It can be better. A lot more still needs to be done.

Thankfully, some banks have seen the light. They are promoting services using USSD, such that customers with the most basic mobile phones can perform essential banking services.

Here, consider Stanbic IBTC’s *909# among others. ALAT by Wema, a first in its class, is also worthy of study. With USSD and other mobile financial solutions, people can access top-notch financial services without stepping into a bank.

Also, now that the telecoms behemoths are getting into mobile money and digital financial services, a huge leap is imminent. They are expected to help advance the quest to reach the unbanked with financial services. this is plausible as there are currently over 150 million connected lines in Nigeria.

The licensing telecoms service providers is a great way to democratise access to financial services in Nigeria. There are reports that MTN plans to roll out over five hundred thousand MoMo Agent across the country, through it Y’ello Digital Financial Services (YDFS) subsidiary.

This is the future. The future is already here.

Undeniably for the benefits of technology to successfully and fully harnessed to improve financial inclusion in Nigeria the right developmental and regulatory framework must be in place.

As the world looks to end poverty, technology and fintechs are in the thick of things. Access to financial services is on the rise. The government should focus on enabling the safe and sustainable development of this critical section of the economy.

Policies that seek penalise for using e-payment must be abolished, regulations that restrain e-commerce must be scrapped and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) must shelf the plan to tax online transactions.

Fintechs and indeed all technology solutions providers deserve a break. They are today driving financial inclusion. They are heroes of Nigeria’s financial inclusion success story. They are helping to end poverty.

*Elvis Eromosele, a Corporate Communication professional and public affairs analyst lives in Lagos.

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Youtap Cloud offers mobile money payment processing platform

ITRealms:

Youtap has launched its cloud which offers a payment processing platform as a service for mobile money and payment providers in developing markets, reports ITRealms.

Peter Meredith, chief marketing officer for Youtap in Kenya, said that Youtap Cloud enables real-time transaction processing for contactless mobile money and bank wallet payments. It supports QR code payments, as well as Near-field communication (NFC) technology, including low-cost micro point-of-sale (POS) devices, companion cards and ‘tap and pay’ using tags or wearables.

“The solution is a white-label service with minimal upfront costs, allowing the provider to focus on go-to-market initiatives and merchant acquisition,” he said.

Meredith also noted that Youtap Cloud connects to banking and traditional payment networks through a range of interfaces and to blockchain for digital payments, interbank, interbranch and cross-border settlement.

“The service is deployed from regional PCI-compliant data centres as a public or private cloud service. Based on Java and Oracle, with a range of Android and Apple OS apps, Youtap Cloud provides banks and payment service providers with open APIs to integrate the next generation of mobile payments into their existing banking and payment applications. It can be integrated with an existing mobile wallet or for new entrant companies requiring a mobile wallet,” he said.

In addition, Meredith, said providing the payment platform as a cloud-based service allows for faster delivery and implementation.

“Mobile money providers can transform their business quickly and gain an edge over the competition in their markets,” he said.

“Other merchant payment platforms may take months to install. Youtap’s cloud-based white label solution can be skinned for mobile money services in a matter of weeks. Merchants with a participating service can download the Android app, register and start processing digital payments in less than 24 hours,” he said.

Youtap Cloud, he said, could be integrated with devices from Verifone, Pax and Ingenico, while also supporting Android and Linux based devices from a variety of manufacturers. Youtap’s encrypted payment processing network ensures that transaction data is safe and secure.

He explained that to use cases for the service include merchant payments, airtime top-up, bill payments, toll-road and transport payments, disbursements and welfare to citizens and refugees, loyalty and promotions, microfinance and international remittances.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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PayU Nigeria introduces payment solution for recurring bills

ITRealms:

The PayU Nigeria has introduced PayU subscription, which it tagged as a convenient payment method which allows merchants to safely and securely collect payments from consumers who have recurring bills or subscription payments in a seamless way, reports ITRealms.

Country Manager of PayU Nigeria, Ms Juliet Nwanguma said “PayU Subscription is an innovative product for businesses who are looking to offer subscription and recurring bill payments to their customers.”

ITRealms gathered that this service provides customers with a simple, safe and secure alternative to regular direct debit payments.

Nwanguma pointed out that using tokenisation as the underlying technology, PayU offers a card based recurring payment method for the payment of any recurring bills or subscriptions.

“Customers who want to setup recurring or subscription payment is inconvenienced as they are required to physically go to their bank and complete a direct debit order form. With PayU Subscription, all of this is avoided. Merchants only need their customers to choose the recurring payment option as well as the period i.e. weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually,” she said.

Nwanguma pointed out that PayU Subscription allows merchants to improve customer satisfaction by offering a more convenient way for their customers to pay for their subscriptions and other recurring bills.

Uj. N. Dominic/GEE

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Pix: Ms Juliet Nwanguma

PayU committed to simplify payment systems in Nigeria -Nwanguma

ITRealms:

The country manager of a global online payment service provider, PayU Payments Nigeria Limited, Juliet Nwaanguma, has reiterated the commitment of the company to simplify payment systems in the country, reports ITRealms.

She also said that PayU is coming to Nigeria with innovations capable of making the market more competitive, as the company is fully approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in line with its initiative to promote cashless economy.

Speaking in Abuja at the end of Committee of e-Banking Heads (CeBIH) meeting, she told ITRealms, PayU is part of the leading and trusted PayU group of companies owned by Naspers.

Noting that globally, PayU group of companies, provides payment processing and related services to merchants and consumers, even as the group’s strength lies in its local approach to payments, anchored on valuing local language and culture.

Nwanguma pointed out that by establishing a local presence in Nigeria, this further underscores the group's values.

"PayU" offers simple and secure online payment services to merchants enabling them to accept payments of goods and services using debit and credit cards from their customers and other alternative payment methods as well,” she said.

The country manager further said PayU is a leading online payment service provider in 16 global markets with the objective to provide simple and secure online payment solutions to merchants and consumers.

“This objective is in response to the growing market and regulatory needs to take cash payments online and digitise the economy, whilst at the same time ensuring financial inclusion for all,” she said.

PayU, she said, commenced operations last year in Nigeria, with the aim of looking at the needs of merchants in the country and developing innovative payment solutions that will solve their problems and grow their revenue in the online space.

“And for consumers, offer them a simple and secure means of payments to merchants and businesses,” she declared.

The value proposition of the company, she said, is based on technology which enables provision of superior product offerings and develops innovative payment solutions.

“We offer various services and solutions to enable different sizes of merchants and businesses to receive online payments with or without a website and also provide automated collections of regular payments from their customers,” she said.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Best practices drive interoperability of digital financial services

ITRealms:

The latest study by the International telecommunications Union (ITU) focus group has revealed that access to payments infrastructures and national payments systems drive digital financial services, reports ITRealms.

ITU also said that the interoperability enables users worldwide to make electronic payment transactions with any other user regardless of their service provider – in a convenient, affordable, fast, seamless and secure way via a single transaction account.

ITRealms noted that this remains a challenge in some of the world's poorest countries where very few mobile payment schemes are truly interoperable. Yet, with as many as 2 billion people globally being either un-banked or underbanked, interoperability is a critical factor in the drive to achieve global financial inclusion.

Consequently, interoperability is a key work stream within the ITU's Focus Group on Digital Financial Services, established to develop and disseminate best practice guidelines for policy and decision makers, operators and providers in the digital financial services sector.

ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, said the challenge can be quite complex involving a number of different entities. Today, we have published two reports to help address these interoperability challenges. We want to encourage the development of competitive payment systems that deliver fair access to their services.  We also want to see national payment systems driving collaboration and innovation to benefit a broader range of stakeholders.'

He equally said the first report, analyses access-to-payment-infrastructure issues around the world, and how these can affect the development of safe, efficient, interoperable and financially inclusive payment services. 

The report focuses on non-banks that are playing an increasingly important role in payments, including the provision of payments services directly to end-users. Yet, despite their increasing importance in helping to address financial inclusion, many are still not accepted as direct participants of key payment infrastructures. This often leads to limited interoperability in the services/products they can offer.

The report concludes that if a payment services provider (PSP) adheres to international standards and best practice, and establishes risk-based and objective access criteria, non-banks should be able to join as a direct participant.

Sacha Polverini, Chairman of the Focus Group and Senior Programme Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Financial Services for the Poor programme, said: 'Payment system regulators and policy makers, in particular Central Banks who typically act as the lead payment system overseer in each country, can better support the poorest and most vulnerable segments of the population by promoting a competitive and dynamic payment services industry which includes non-traditional providers'.

The second report, 'Cooperation frameworks between Authorities, Users and Providers for the development of the National Payments System', analyses the role and cooperation process of key stakeholders in the development of national payment systems (NPS), in particular of retail payments. 

NPS have been designed in many countries to increase the overall efficiency of payment systems and to promote financial inclusion. However due to the many different stakeholders involved and the complex nature of NPS, the development of such frameworks can be challenging. This report has therefore identified the role public and private sector actors can play as well as discussed the structure of these cooperation frameworks in order to advance financial inclusion globally.

These reports are the first outputs produced by the Working Group on Interoperability.  They follow six reports which were published earlier this year that focussed on the DFS ecosystem, consumer protection, and on technology, competition and innovation. The Focus Group will publish its remaining results throughout the rest of the year to complete its roadmap.  Its next global meeting will be hosted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania between 19 – 22 September 2016. 

NCC, MTN reach truce with staggered payment, fine reduced to N330bn

ITRealms:

 ... MTN must list on Nigeria Stock Exchange

The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and MTN Communication Nigeria have reached a truce to stagger its fine usage of non-registered Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) cards on MTN into five installments, reports ITRealms.

This is coming as the fine which was N1.04trillion has also been reduced to N330Billion, which must be paid-up with the next three years and enlist as soon as possible on the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE).

ITRealms gathered that after almost six months of negotiation and re-negotiation over the N1.04Trillion fine imposed on MTN, Nigeria by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) a truce was agreed yesterday reducing the fine to N330Billion.

Confirming this, the Director, Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo told ITRealms that this amount includes the “goodwill” payment of N50Billion earlier made by MTN to the government.

He said, the balance of N280Billion will be made in six tranches in the following order. By the terms of agreement, MTN will pay N30Billion into NCC’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 30 days from the date of the agreement dated June 10, 2016.

Other dates of payments include:

·  March 31, 2017          -       N30Billion;

·  March 31, 2018          -       N55Billion;

·  December 31, 2018  -       N55Billion;

·  March 31, 2019          -       N55Billion and the balance will be in

·  May 31, 2019              -       N55Billion

He explained that the agreement and resolutions were signed by Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Prof. Umar G. Danbatta, NCC Commission Secretary, Mr. Felix Adeoye, Chief Executive of MTN, Fredinand (Fredi) Moolman and MTN’s Company Secretary, Mrs. Uto Ukpanah, and witnessed by Mr. Tony Ojobo, NCC, Director, Public Affairs; Mr. Usman Malah, Chief of Staff to the EVC, NCC; Ms Helen Obi, Assistant Director, Legal, NCC and Ms. Amina Oyagbola, Corporate Executive, MTN.

It was also agreed that MTN shall undertake the followings:

·  Tender an apology in line with the apology previously tendered in correspondences relating to this matter to the Government of Nigeria and Nigerians within the one month of the execution of this Agreement;

·  Subscribe to the voluntary observance of the Code of Corporate Governance for the Telecoms Industry and would ensure compulsory compliance when the said Code is made mandatory for the telecommunications industry; and

·  Undertake to take immediate steps to ensure the listing of its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as soon as commercially and legally possible after the date of execution of this Settlement Agreement.

Both parties agreed that these terms of settlement cannot be altered, varied, annulled or modified in any respect, except by writing duly executed by both parties; and the terms of settlement constitute all the terms and conditions of the settlement and supersede and replace any previous offers, representations and terms.

ITRealms recalled that the NCC on October 20, 2015, imposed a fine of N1.04Trillion on MTN for infraction of the provisions of the Nigerian Communication Commission (Registration of the telephone subscribers) Regulations, 2011; for failure to disconnect 5.1million improperly registered lines within the prescribed deadline.

However, ITRealms reports that in arriving at the agreement, the EVC said the decision was taken based on professionalism and global best practices, and in line with the NCC core value “to be fair, firm and forthright.”

The EVC was further quoted as saying that the Commission has always carried industry and stakeholders along in taking transparent regulatory actions, adding that at no point will the regulator do anything to jeopardise the business health of the entire sector.

“We were careful not to take decisions that were likely to cripple the business interest of the operators we regulate.  Besides, the downturn of the global economy is biting hard on everybody and every sector, so we must therefore be sensitive and flexible in our decisions”

This perhaps is one of the attractions of the global communities to the activities of the Commission through multiple awards recently.

A week ago, the NCC got the European Award for Best Practices by the European Society for Quality Research (ESQR) based in Switzerland.  The award ceremony involved over 63 Countries and global business giants like United Air-lines, Cathay Pacific airlines amongst others took place in Brussels, Belgium.

+Remmy 

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PHED explains why MDAs must pay debt to avoid disconnection

ITRealms:

The Port-Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) has explained that payment of outstanding debt by government’s ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) is of paramount importance if the electricity supply industry is to survive in Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

The Chief Executive Officer, PHED, Mr. Jay McCoskey, in a press statement made available to ITRealms by Manager, Corporate Communications, Mr. Jonah Iboma, said the country’s electricity industry has remained in dire straits due to huge unpaid debt, which informed the decision to publish disconnection notices to all MDAs indebted to it.

He also said that the refusal of MDAs to pay their long-standing debts represented the biggest worry of the distribution companies in the country today, maintaining that distribution companies were already grappling with too many issues such that adding MDAs would constitute a burden too big for the industry to bear.

“As a distribution company, PHED inherited a weak network, a relatively small customer base compared to the population, massive electricity theft and several other social ills related to electricity supply. For MDAs therefore to join these barrages of problems by continuously refusing bills payment is like a death sentence to the industry,” he said.

Also, McCoskey said that given the huge revenue shortfall that PHED like other distribution companies were experiencing, mass disconnection would have to be done to force a change in the payment habits of consumers.

“We have issued disconnection notices to all MDAs while at the same time engaging all other indebted customers to ensure that they paid their bills. The industry no longer runs on government subvention,” he noted.

Further, McCoskey said that there would be marked improvement in service delivery once there is better revenue collection from customers, especially MDAs, stressing that PHED had already demonstrated this by recent initiatives that it has embarked upon.

“Our goal is to provide our customers reliable service in terms of power supply and overall customer experience. That is why we recently launched a 24x7 call centre and invested heavily in several building commercial lines that provide dedicated power to commercial users.

“We believe that by giving power to companies, factories and industrial outfits, such organisations will be able to continue to produce their goods and offer services competitively and keep people employed. We hope that we will get government support through prompt payment of bills and historical debts by MDAs,” McCoskey submitted.

Uboshe Uboshe/GEE

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Alert! Gov. Ayade surprises, pays May salary on workers day

ITRealms:

The politics of May Day workers celebration climaxed this year with the Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade surprised workers on the 1st of May, Workers Day, when he announced the payment of salaries for the month of May on the first day of the month, reports ITRealms.

This was obviously affirmed a slight drama when workers at the U.J. Esuene Stadium for the May Day celebration began to receive salary payment alert from their various banks.

Additional reports showed that the workers out of excitement started shouting 'alert, alert' as they commended the governor.

ITRealms gathered that hitherto, the governor had paid salaries between the 13th and 20th day of each month since assuming office.

Governor Ayade also told the workers, who named him the 'Best Labour Friendly Governor in Nigeria' that his administration had a duty to give workers a sense of dignity.

“We must create opportunities for labour to feel a sense of dignity. If you are truly a Christian, you must know that as you care for your kids, you must care for labour,” he said.

ITRealms equally reports that another goodnews is that workers in the Edo State civil and public got cheering news during the May Day celebration as their salaries were increased.

It was further gathered that workers' salaries were increased by 45 per cent, which is the minimum wage is now N25,000.

Vincent Okoli with additional reports by EkitiOnline/GEE

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Senator Ben Bruce accused of defrauding suppliers

ITRealms:

A senator representing Bayelsa State in the 8th National Assembly, Mr. Ben Murray-Bruce has been alleged of defaulting in the payment of suppliers worth millions of Naira, reports ITRealms.

Correspondent also reports that this is coming a few years after the closure of Lifestyle, owned by the Ben Bruce family.

Lifestyle, ITRealms gathered, is a nationwide-based chain store which engages in marketing of books, gift items, toys to name a few and owed in the process of supplying the various goods for sell in their Victoria Island, Lagos galleria and other locations across the country.

ITRealms also learnt that some suppliers who borrowed huge money from banks to procure, import or produce the items before supplying them to Lifestyle were frustrated on learning that key officials of the company supposedly attending to them had been ‘compelled’ to resign their appointments, even as it was difficult to meet Ben Bruce and his brothers on the matter.

“We have made several efforts, including visits, phone calls and text messages to officials of the company without success,” one of the victims, Mr. Udeme Akpan said.

Mr. Akpan who is a Lagos-based journalist and author of the book “Niger Delta and Oil Politics,” reiterated in a telephone chat that he was not paid even after Lifestyle completed the marketing of his books.

“It is true that Lifestyle owed many suppliers, including myself before closing shop a few years ago. The officials of the company have not made any efforts to settle the debts which amount to some millions of Naira. I have been paying interest because the funds we used in producing the book were raised from a bank,” Udeme decried.

Udeme told ITRealms that when he discovered that the usual reassuring messages were no longer coming, he decided to visit the office and again, the lady she met promised that his own payment would be made within weeks.

Consequently, he said, other “staff of Ben Bruce have been very hostile to everyone who goes there to ask for payment. This is to say least most unfair, fraudulent and discourteous, especially coming from Ben Bruce who gives impression that he is committed to building a new Nigeria.”

Further, Udeme said that a company known as Balogun Badejo Consulting Limited, was contracted to liquidate Nu Metro assets in Nigeria and used the proceeds to settle its liabilities or debts. Stressing that at a stage, creditors made up of authors and suppliers were invited to file their claims and provide necessary documents for eventual payment. 

“I supplied all documents requested to process my payment and followed up with several visits. Its consultant, Ibrahim Showa kept on promising that I, and others would be paid. But the company never did despite several visits and calls. It beats my imagination why a company like Balogun Badejo that should have respect for ethics and professionalism should have accepted to execute the task if it was not going to leave up to expectation,” Udeme stressed.

Efforts to contact Senator Bruce proved abortive at the time of filing this story.

 

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Pix: Courtesy: Silverbird.com - Senator Ben Murray Bruce