The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has pledged to support the “Change Begins with Me’’ campaign with corruption-eliminating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools.

The pledge was made by NITDA’s Acting Director-General, Dr Vincent Olatunji, at a two-day sensitisation workshop for management staff of the agency.

A statement issued by Mrs Hadiza Umar, NITDA’s Head of Corporate Affairs Department, quoted Olatunji as saying that “NITDA as an Information Technology (IT) agency will look inward for ICT tools that can be used to help prevent or better still eliminate corrupt practices in the country.’

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari recently launched the “Change Begins with Me’’ campaign in Abuja.

The campaign seeks the support of every Nigerian in eliminating indiscipline in every sphere of life.

In developing nations,  two billion people don’t have access to basic financial services such as savings accounts and credit. That’s almost half of the developing world’s adult population. Giving most of these people access to those services using mobile phones and the internet would increase the GDP of emerging economies by $3.7 trillion by 2025, according to a study by the McKinsey Global Institute. That’s a 6% boost.

The report by McKinsey argues that the benefits of digital finance go beyond unlocking another market for the financial industry. Access to these basic services would reduce inequality, poverty and even government corruption. It would also create 95 million new jobs.

Digital finance can provide access to financial services for 1.6 billion people—880 million of them women—in emerging economies for the first time, McKinsey said. This is within reach because the infrastructure already exists. In 2014, 80% of adults in developing nations had mobile subscriptions. By 2020, 90% of these adults will own a mobile phone.

Nigeria needs a clear strategy to improve its digital finance sector to help improve people’s lives.

This company needs to just go away. It continues to surprise no one with the endless bad news.

Yahoo said on Thursday information associated with at least 500 million user accounts was stolen from its network in 2014 by what it believed was a “state-sponsored actor.”

The data stolen may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and hashed passwords but may not have included unprotected passwords, payment card data, or bank account information, the company said.

Nigeria is owing real money to foreign investors. In a new article by Punch, Lagos, Kaduna and Edo, with a combined foreign debt profile of $1.84bn, are the most indebted states of the federation as far as subnational foreign debts are concerned.

Statistics obtained from the Debt Management Office in Abuja on Wednesday showed that the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory owe $3.65bn in foreign debts as against the $7.61bn owed by the Federal Government as of June 30, 2016; bringing the country’s total foreign debt to $11.26bn.

Lagos, which has the biggest economy in the country, retained its topmost position as the most indebted state of the federation with a total of $1.43bn in foreign debts. Thus, the state holds 39.17 per cent of the country’s total subnational foreign debts.

Kaduna State, with total foreign debt of $225.28m, comes in the second position. It holds 6.16 per cent of the subnational foreign debts.

Edo State, with a total of $179.52m as of June 30, holds 4.91 per cent of the country’s subnational foreign debts.

The highest owing states in the subnational foreign debts include Cross River, $141.47m or 3.87 per cent; and Ogun, $103.55m or 2.83 per cent.

Others are Bauchi, with $97.23m or 2.66 per cent; Osun, $78.93m or 2.16 per cent; Adamawa, $77.14m or 2.11 per cent; Enugu, $74.46m or 2.04 per cent; Katsina, $68.99m or 1.89 per cent; and Oyo, $67.56m or 1.85 per cent.

Some of the least indebted states of the federation are Borno, $21.89m; Taraba, $23.01m; Plateau, $29.24m; Yobe, $29.28m; Jigawa, $32.62m; Kogi, $33.56m; Benue, $34.26; FCT, $34.8m; Zamfara, $35.07m; and Delta, $42.21m.

Our correspondent reported that the 36 states of the federation and the FCT grew their external debts by $1.37bn in five years.

The external indebtedness of the subnational governments as of December 31, 2010 stood at $2bn. However, by December 2015, it had risen to $3.3bn.

This shows that the subnational governments grew their external debts by 68.44 per cent within the five-year period.

Some states, over the period, maintained their top positions in the borrowers’ club, while others jumped onto the list in the period.

With an external debt of $41.19m in 2010, Edo State, for instance, was not among the most indebted states in the country.

However, by the end of December 2015, the state’s external debt profile had leapt to $168.19m, showing a difference of $127m. This means that the state’s external debt rose by 308.34 per cent in five years.