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Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Issues Warning On The Illicit Conversion Of The Naira

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With the exchange rate between the naira and dollar merged with huge volatility, which is currently at N665/$1, this has no doubt prompted bank customers and high-profile individuals to withdraw the naira and convert it to dollar for keeps.

Displeased with this act, the Central Bank Of Nigeria (CBN), through its Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele has issued a warning to bank customers, most especially politicians and high profile individuals to desist from withdrawing Naira with the purpose of converting money into Dollars just for keeps. 

He described such an act as illegal which he disclosed was capable of wrecking the nation’s economy as the naira is consistently making efforts to resolve the lingering foreign exchange (Forex) scarcity, which is depleting the value of the naira at a rapid rate against the greenback in the currency market.

Mr. Godwin Emefiele disclosed the plan of the Central Bank to put in place a formidable surveillance system that will track the illicit conversion of the Naira in Nigerian banks. He revealed that anyone caught in such an act would be prevented from making use of the banking system in the country, as a post no debit (PND)would be placed on the account of customers who default.

This means that with PND, such customers will never be able to conduct banking transactions in any of the financial systems in Nigeria. The CBN governor also stated that any Nigerian bank found to be aiding such an illegal act would be sanctioned by the country’s banking industry watchdog.

It has been reported that such a warning from the Central Bank became more necessary due to the huge volatility of the Naira that forces people to illegally convert it, and also with the preparations for the upcoming 2023 Presidential election in top gear, it is believed that a lot of politicians in Nigeria would seek to mop up FX from the system by stacking up dollars for electoral purposes which will no doubt cause the Naira to lose its value.

The effect was felt in May and June when different political parties in the country, conducted their primary elections to choose their preferred presidential candidate. It was reported that the dollar became scarce in the parallel market which saw it rise to N600/$1 as the dollar was used by these politicians to woo delegates.

Due to panic amongst Nigerians, after it was predicted that the naira would possibly crash to N700 before the end of this year, a lot of them have started converting their naira to dollars for keeps. This is why the CBN has set out to monitor liquidity in the subsystem, as anyone involved would be sanctioned and handed over to the security agencies.

The Central Bank has therefore admonished bank customers in the country to desist from getting involved in such illicit conversion in order not to fall victim to the CBN order. He also urged them not to panic despite the fact that the naira and dollar have been merged with high volatility, noting that every citizen has to support the CBN in preserving the value of the naira from further depreciating.

T-Mobile Reaches $350m Settlement Agreement for 2021 Data Breach

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T-Mobile has reached an $350 million settlement agreement for a class action lawsuit over cyberattack that resulted in loss of private data of millions of customers.

In August 2021, hackers infiltrated the telecom company in a “highly sophisticated cyberattack” that exposed data from more than 40 million former or prospective customers who had applied for credit with the company, as well as 7.8 million current postpaid subscribers.

“On July 22, 2022, T-Mobile US, Inc. entered into an agreement to settle a consolidated class action lawsuit asserting claims related to a 2021 criminal cyberattack involving unauthorized access to the Company’s systems in which certain information about a number of the Company’s current, former, and prospective customers was compromised,” a statement contained in the SEC filing said.

The filing said in addition to the settlement agreement, also agreed to make an additional $150 million investment in data security and related technologies this year and next.

GeekWire who spotted the filing reported among other things, that the proposed class consists of more than 76 million customers, according to a copy of the proposed settlement filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, where several related cases were consolidated. The $350 million payout will fund claims submitted by class members, plaintiffs’ legal fees, and administrative costs, the settlement file said.

If the court approves the settlement, it “will resolve substantially all of the claims brought by the Company’s current, former and prospective customers who were impacted by the 2021 cyberattack,” T-Mobile said in its SEC filing.

The company continues to cooperate with various regulators who are separately investigating the incident, according to a T-Mobile spokesperson.

T-Mobile issued a statement Friday about the settlement on its website. “As we continue to invest time, energy, and resources in addressing this challenge, we are pleased to have resolved this consumer class action filing,” the company said.

According to the SEC filing, T-Mobile expects to record a pre-tax charge of about $400 million in the second quarter as a result of the settlement. The filing notes that the charge and the $150 million investment in security were anticipated in its prior financial guidance to investors.

Final court approval of the terms of the settlement is expected as early as December 2022 but could be delayed by appeals or other proceedings. The Company has the right to terminate the agreement under certain conditions, the filing further said.

Egoras Unveils New Factory in Nigeria – Will Buy, Refurbish and Resell Household Items

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Fellow Citizens, I am very happy to share that in the next few months, more than 2,000 young people will have jobs in Nigeria. Egoras has opened for operations in a big factory. We looked at ways to help Naira and we concluded on one thing: if we can refurbish all the imported electronics, furniture, etc into Nigeria, and resell them, Naira will have freedom to dance atilogwu, koroso, bata, etc.

We trialed the business model in Port Harcourt, filled our supermarket with items and projected to sell them within 3 weeks. To our surprise, everything sold off in 90 mins! Then, we invested to build a bigger factory. That factory was launched this weekend.

Now, we are reaching Nigerians and companies, and I want to connect you with CEO Ugoji Harry. Egoras will buy your unused or old household items, electronics, radio, phones, dishwashers, generators, TVs, furniture, etc – and refurbish and resell them in our supermarkets, the only ones we know that sell only refurbished items.

Team has a process with valuers, risk managers, etc making sure people are selling items that belong to them.  Let’s keep everything clean. If you do not have the receipts, they require you to get a police report for lost receipt.

Ugoji is executing the mission – he is hiring technicians, etc. But for this business to thrive, we actually need those old items, so that we can get them back to “new states”. All items sold in Egoras supermarkets are guaranteed for up to 6 months. Email support@egoras.com

Send us your unused items, forget the new ones made in US, Asia and Europe; our trained engineers will get them back to “new states”.

Egoras Team
Selected Egoras Team

Locations

Oyigbo Branch:
#25 Clemedy Plaza, PH/ABA Express way, Oyigbo Express Junction, Rivers State

Rumuokwrushi Branch:
No 282 Aba road by Rumukoroshi Junction, Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Agip Branch:
kilometer 7 Ikwerre Rd, Rumueme, beside Rivers State College of Health Science and Technology
Port Harcourt.

Mr. President, Let’s Help: Zero leakage, Zero Diversion Guaranteed on Fuel Subsidy and Fuel Distribution

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Dear President Buhari, we write to offer to fix the leakages in Nigeria’s fuel subsidy program especially now that our national currency is struggling; any help will go a long way. Our technology has been tested by filing stations and other players in the downstream oil & gas sector. We have accomplished the capability of reconciling fuel volume/Naira from depots via trucks to pumps and shifts.

Mr. President, if contracted and within 3 months, we will make it possible for you to know the fuel volume in Nigeria, and the exact location, across trucks (parked or on the go), depots, and stations, on your smartphone, and LCD monitor in the Presidency.  Zero leakage, zero diversion guaranteed. No wuruwu in subsidy payment. Naira will dance atilogwu, koroso, bata, etc.

We will answer the call. Please share this with President Buhari; I just feel that we can help the nation, considering that many of us went on largely free education in Nigeria. We’re 100% Nigerians-owned and the founders are grads of the Nigerian university system (FUT, Owerri) – give us a challenge!

We will create total (direct/indirect) jobs of 50,000 and save at least $2 billion for Nigeria.

Update: Intermittent network availability is not a problem when the trucks are moving across cities. Our sensors have in-memory microprocessors which have capacities to retain information and then push them via different gateways once a network is established. The data transmitted is “text” [not video, not image]  and the cost is negligible.

Response to questions on possible cloud latency on my post yesterday.

Some questions on our technology which ensures 100% revenue assurance with zero financial leakage in the downstream oil & gas sector. A key one is network issues where say an attendant completes a shift at 1pm and his supervisor is closing it, reconciling money at hand and total fuel dispensed in the pump. We have intelligent software agents which ensure that you are reconciling well. 

The payment part is always up to date but you can have small delays from the tank sensors. If that happens, you will see a notification on the dashboard, telling you the last volume records and informing you that sensors in the pump have that data in the memory and will update them once the network connection is re-established. And once that happens, you will see data before the 1pm as in-memory chips keep data and ensure you have solid system integrity.

This process will not affect the next shift as the technology is bi-directional which has intelligence in both directions. From productive sites

Our technology has the ability to reconcile in seconds all subsidy volume delivery, payments with where the diesel, petrol, kerosene, etc are located across Nigeria within 5 minutes on Mr. President’s desk. 

 

Building the Operating System for Payment in Nigeria’s Downstream Sector

Tracking on Smartphone

With our technology, when that truck loads in the depot, and moves across your locations, to drop petrol, via your smartphone, you can see the path, the volume, where the next stop is programmed to be, and more. We’re bringing uncommon transparency in Nigeria’s downstream oil and gas sector. We do not just track trucks, we also track the liquid content. As everything is happening, we are reconciling payment transactions!

Certifications Vs Competence (Skills, Knowledge and Attitude)

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Towards the close of 2021, a mentor reached out to me to join him in developing a training curriculum housing about 12 courses.

Most of the courses were on topics that were far removed from my experience or education. My major pass mark in that conversation was that I understood what a curriculum is. Yes, I am a trained Education graduate. I have a double major in Education and English Language.

In two weeks I was done. It could have been earlier but because other things were also calling for my attention. His expert guidance as a management consultant and human resource guru was instrumental. This is how I learn from the brightest and the finest in various industries. Though he knew I didn’t have an HR certification, he knew I could do it and he engaged me. Now I know better.

If that conversation were between a recruitment manager and me, what would my fate have been on that project knowing that I had not developed a curriculum before plus the fact that I had no certification yet from any HR professional body? 

Certifications should be seen as a tool for advancement into industry leadership and must not take the place of education. I don’t think it should be favoured over competence or potential. Certifications can be acquired.

This brings me to the idea that potential talents with requisite skills should be allowed to grow in practice as long as hiring managers have spotted the capacity for the job. The Hi-Po can become certified on the journey.

Agreed, some Hi-Pos (High Potentials) have the capacity to do some jobs and excel at certain careers but may initially lack some specific know-how about the particular task or project. That is one of the best training need indicators.

Our human resources management gurus are doing a great job. In addition to their checklists, I ask that they favour skills or capacity even when there’s no paper proofs to that effect so that they will not cause their organisations some pains from talent-triggered costs.

Many organisations have lost many promising Hi-Pos while looking for the best qualified. Remember, the best qualified, too, have aspirations.

It should be noted that this post is not to discount the critical place of certifications. It is to call attention to competence too.

A good number of recruiters still think professional certifications are a place where you can formulate theories. Where one can load the head with knowledge. No! It should be a place where a professional can master solutions. It should be a crucible where industry (potential) leaders are molded and queried with practical case studies to ascertain their capacities and capabilities for the tasks ahead. It is also a place where one can learn more on how a task is done in a certain profession or industry.

Certifications issued by professional bodies are not primarily designed to teach candidates the theoretical ‘how to’ but to certify that they know what they claim they know or to certify them that they have truly mastered their crafts which they claim they have been doing and certify them for trust building and professional networking.

The education system is doing its own bit already by delivering many from the stronghold of primordial thinking and refining diamonds in the rough to make them fit for social relevance. This is why a PhD holder still needs to learn on the job. The PhD is in the head. There’s a need to translate the head knowledge into results and solutions to real problems in the workplace.

Professional certifications shouldn’t take after our university or polytechnic systems. They should take a better turn to make it a real workplace simulation. So that, upon certification, there won’t be any doubt about the capabilities of and expectations from the certified.

Because of the trend of attention to paper claims, many professionals now have extended their tertiary education behaviour to the corporate environment with the thinking that brandishing a professional certificate is a sure ticket to advancement. Many bookworms among them can reel out palpable knowledge without the ability to translate the knowledge into real results or solutions.

No professional is immune to this tempting reality. A decision to be different is the antidote. A deliberate attention to building capacity and capability for problem solving is part of the price. And when capacity is built and being built, we hope that our recruiters won’t discount our efforts.