The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has investigated a claim of crime from space. It was an allegation that an astronaut has illegally accessed the bank account of her estranged partner from the International Space Station (ISS). It’s deemed to be the first crime ever from space.

The New York Times reported that former Airforce Intelligence, Summer Worden, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), that NASA astronaut, Anne McClain has accessed her account from the ISS without authorization.

McClain was in a six months’ mission aboard ISS at the time, and vehemently denied any wrongdoing, telling investigators that it was consensual behavior that dated back to the time they were a couple.

McClain and Worden were married in 2014, but got divorced in 2018 when McClain accused Worden of violent behavior. Worden filed for divorce claiming that Anne McClain is only looking for an opportunity to keep custody of her child. Worden had a child from a previous relationship and it somehow happened to be a bone of contention to the gay couple.

Worden’s parents also filed another complaint through NASA’s Office of Inspector General. Claiming that McClain had improperly accessed their daughter’s account, conducting a “highly calculated and manipulative campaign” to gain custody of her son. An allegation McClain, through her lawyer, Rusty Hardin, denied. According to him: McClain was monitoring the account to ensure the well-being of Worden’s son. They had been raising him using the same account and password when they were married.

NASA didn’t comment on the matter, citing its policy on personal and personnel matters, that commands “no comments.”

“Lt Col. Anne McClain has an accomplished military career, flew combat missions in Iraq and is one of NASA’s top astronauts. She did a great job on her most recent NASA mission aboard the International Space station.

“Like with all NASA employees, NASA does not comment on personal or personnel matters.” Said NASA’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Schierholz.

McClain had gone to space a few months after her divorce from worden, in preparation for the all-female spacewalk. She spent six months on the ISS but was later replaced. NASA spokeswoman, Megan Summer said the allegation has nothing to do with McClain replacement from the spacewalk team.

Worden is still waiting for a response from the FTC who she said were still assessing the complaint to the inspector general.

However, NASA officials told the Times that they did not know of any crimes that had been committed on the ISS. And the case has been dismissed.

A common attribute of the financially excluded population is illiteracy; except on few occasions.

According to the Oxford dictionaries; Illiteracy means inability to read or write.

Our society has magnified this inability and made it become an impediment in interacting with the financial sector. We often unconsciously specify the interpretation of illiteracy and then classify anyone that could not read or write in only English language as a complete illiterate.

The financially excluded population in Nigeria could be classified in to categories ‘A’ and ‘B’ as seen below:

A. Those who cannot read or write in any language but could speak fluently in their local languages.

B. Those who cannot read or write in English language but could read or write in their local  languages.

A lot of the people in the category ‘B’ above had been unconsciously excluded from the financial sector in spite of having more capabilities than those in category ‘A’.

Although, very daring few of the population in both categories listed above maintained bank accounts and have active insurance policies by relying solely on a third-party for interpretation. This often made them more to become vulnerable to financial risks.

Unfortunately, I could not quote the statistics of literacy status of the financially excluded population. My assumptions were derived from experience and interactions with the space from south-west to North-West of the country.

We can achieve more success in financial inclusion drive when we pay more attention to the attributes of the target population.

Products represented in local languages should spring up to make interaction easier with the target population.  For instance, banking apps and USSD interactions could come with language options (Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo). This will give the users the opportunity to  permanently set their language preference while signing up.

This will reform the sector as people who are literate only in their local languages but financially excluded will become relevant and eager. Also, those that are already financially included with third-party’s aid will become independent as they will definitely appreciate the new interactive approach more.

Products such as transactions alerts through both SMS and Email could also be made to conform to this proposed language selection for interaction.  This will drastically reduce vulnerability since vital information regarding information security through these channels will certainly be understood by the receivers of this information.

Those in the ‘A’ category that could neither read nor write in any language but could speak their local languages fluently will found documents and interfaces represented in their local languages more reliable and addressable. This will influence their decision to be signed-on with guidance from a selected third-party. Only those who are physically handicapped should need any available third-party’s aid in this process.

A radical or selective financial inclusion drive will not guarantee customer retention even if people are forcefully (made to have bank account to enjoy a favor or opportunity) or deceitfully (made to have a bank account with a promise of incentives) included, if the system does not pay attention to comfort-ability, privacy and simplicity of processes as they concerned the target population.