Category: Business Day

A Nigerian property technology startup is betting that one of the biggest problems facing hotels and serviced apartments is not attracting guests, but stopping the silent revenue losses that occur behind the scenes.

NestFlow, a bootstrapped startup founded by Jim Okonma and Moses Owhonda, has secured contracts worth N14 million from its first two commercial deployments by helping property owners identify operational gaps that often go unnoticed, from poor customer follow-up and missing inventory to unresolved maintenance issues and weak staff accountability.

The company, which began commercial operations in February 2026, has signed Pearlsend Apartments and Betos Lounge and Apartments as its first customers without raising venture capital or receiving grants, an early validation that some Nigerian property owners are willing to pay for software that gives them greater visibility into how their businesses operate.

While many hotel technology providers focus on bookings and reservations, NestFlow is targeting a less visible but potentially more expensive problem: revenue leakage caused by disconnected business processes.

‘A property owner can have people handling every part of their business but still not have a complete view of what is really going on. That is where we saw the opportunity because every property owner needs information that connects their entire operation,’ said Moses Owhonda, NestFlow’s technical co-founder and chief technology officer.

For many hotels and serviced apartments across Nigeria, day-to-day operations are spread across multiple disconnected systems. Reservations may be managed with one application, accounting with another, customer enquiries through WhatsApp, while inventory and maintenance records are still kept manually.

The fragmented approach creates blind spots that can quietly erode profits. Potential guests may enquire about rooms but never receive a follow-up. Damaged televisions or missing appliances may only be discovered long after guests have checked out. Maintenance requests can disappear without confirmation that repairs were completed, while absentee owners often rely entirely on staff reports without independent records to verify events.

NestFlow believes these operational gaps represent a growing commercial opportunity.

Its platform combines bookings, payments, maintenance, inspections, inventory management, customer communications and staff activities into a single white-labelled system designed specifically for each client.

Unlike conventional software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms where customers use versions of the same shared product with monthly subscriptions, NestFlow provides each client with a dedicated deployment, customised to reflect the client’s organisational structure, services, workflows and branding.

The approach makes each contract significantly more valuable but also more labour-intensive.

‘The major validation for us was that a business was actually prepared to pay for the platform, work through the implementation and use it in its operations,’ Owhonda said.

The company’s first two deployments have generated N14 million, with both founders financing the business themselves.

Okonma has funded much of the commercial operations while leading customer acquisition, negotiations and partnerships.

Owhonda shaped the platform’s technical architecture and has led its development, AI integration and deployment, translating complex hospitality operations into connected software workflows. Their early success comes as Nigeria’s hospitality industry continues to modernise, even though many small and medium-sized operators still depend heavily on manual processes and disconnected digital tools.

NestFlow’s software attempts to address that problem by creating digital records that connect every operational activity.

‘You are creating a record of who did what, what that thing is related to and what happened after that. It doesn’t remove every risk, but it makes it much harder for things to happen without any explanation,’ Owhonda explained.

Beyond reducing losses, the startup is also positioning the platform as a revenue growth tool. Its customer engagement features integrate WhatsApp communications and AI-assisted campaign calls, allowing property owners to reconnect with prospective guests who abandoned bookings or market promotions to previous customers.

For many smaller hospitality businesses, customer enquiries are handled manually through personal messaging accounts, making follow-up inconsistent and dependent on individual employees.

‘There are businesses losing revenue simply because the follow-up is bad. Someone shows interest, the conversation stops, and nobody has any process for bringing that customer back,’ Owhonda said.

The company’s business model occupies a middle ground between traditional SaaS subscriptions and fully customised software development.

Clients receive dedicated deployments with their own branding and domain names, while NestFlow retains ownership of the core technology platform and development framework. The model allows customers to operate software tailored to their businesses without paying for an entirely bespoke system.

However, scaling that approach presents its own challenges.

As the startup expands beyond its first customers, it must standardise more of its implementation process while maintaining the flexibility that differentiates its offering.

The founders also face the task of proving that the early commercial success can be replicated across Nigeria’s fragmented hospitality sector. That means demonstrating measurable improvements in customer conversion, operational efficiency, asset management and revenue protection after deployment, rather than simply selling software.

For now, NestFlow’s first contracts suggest a market exists for technology that promises more than reservations management. In a hospitality industry where hidden operational failures can quietly drain profits, the startup is betting that property owners will increasingly pay for something more valuable than another booking system, a clearer view of where their money is going.

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday, met the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), a major trade union representing junior and production workers in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

Although details of the meeting was not immediately available at the time of this report, BusinessDay sources at the Presidential Villa, said it may not be unconnected with the ongoing restructuring of the petroleum sector by the President.

The NUPENG officials, were on arrival ushered directly into the meeting hall inside the President’s office

The President had recently announced plans to restructure the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited NNPCL to prepare it for listing on the capital market

It was gathered that the President met the Union whose responsibilities include amongst others, to protect workers’ welfare, negotiates employment terms, and handles industrial relations across the country’s energy industry, to prepare them for the new oil and gas sector

The Union advocates for junior staff and petroleum tanker drivers across oil majors and service companies.

Just few days ago, the President also approved a landmark reform that replaces project-by-project negotiations with a transparent investment framework designed to unlock up to US$50 billion in deep offshore investment and restart Nigeria’s large, capital-intensive offshore developments that have remained stalled for decades.

The approval also enables NNPC Limited, as the Government’s nominated counterparty under the Production Sharing Contracts, to proceed with the necessary amendments to eligible Production Sharing Contracts required to implement the framework.

The reform establishes a transparent, rules-based investment framework capable of supporting the next generation of deep offshore developments, beginning with the approximately US$10 billion Bonga South West project, while strengthening Nigeria’s competitiveness for globally mobile investment capital, according to Bayo Onanuga, the President’s Spokesman

Onanuga had stated that the decision builds on President Tinubu’s engagement with the Chief Executive Officer of Shell plc, Wael Sawan, during which the President directed the development of the next wave of measures required to unlock Nigeria’s deep offshore investment pipeline.

‘Rather than pursuing project-specific solutions, the Federal Government transformed that directive into a comprehensive investment framework applicable across multiple categories of qualifying developments.

‘Given effect through the Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Projects Incentives (Tax Remission) Order, 2026, the framework replaces project-by-project negotiations with transparent eligibility criteria, clear implementation processes and a durable investment architecture that provides greater certainty for investors while safeguarding long-term national value’.

For more than a decade, Nigeria’s biggest oil and gas discoveries have sat undeveloped offshore, victims of a fiscal regime that turned every major project into a bespoke, years-long negotiation between government and driller.

On Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu tried to change that narrative by approving the new regime and replacing the project-by-project haggling that has defined Nigeria’s relationship with international oil companies since the country’s last major deepwater sanction.

The Deep Offshore Oil and Gas Projects Incentives (Tax Remission) Order, 2026, signed on August 6 and gazetted on August 10, replaces project-by-project haggling with a fixed, published set of tax credits and profit-sharing terms available to any qualifying developer.

It is, by the government’s own count, the tenth major oil-sector policy directive of Tinubu’s presidency, and potentially the one with the most money attached, as the federal government said the framework could unlock as much as $50 billion in investment, starting with Shell’s roughly $10 billion Bonga South West project.

Why it matters

Nigeria’s deepwater fields, in water depths beyond the reach of most onshore-style contracting, are technically some of the richest in West Africa.

But they are also among the most expensive to develop, and for years majors weighed them against cheaper opportunities in Guyana, Brazil and offshore Namibia. Angola and other regional rivals sweetened their own terms; Nigeria largely didn’t, and investment stalled.

The new order is meant to close that gap by giving companies something negotiations never reliably delivered: certainty.

‘The countries that attract long-term investment are not necessarily those with the greatest natural resources,’ Tinubu said in a statement released through his spokesman, Bayo Onanuga. They are, he added, the ones that offer predictability.

What the order actually does

For Shell, the immediate beneficiary is Bonga South West Aparo, the project the government has repeatedly cited as the framework’s first test case.

But BusinessDay’s analysis showed the tax relief extends across the rest of the deepwater acreage that has sat on operators’ books for years.

For instance, ExxonMobil’s Owowo, Bosi and Uge fields could move now that the fiscal terms are fixed rather than negotiated project by project.

Chevron’s long-delayed Nsiko development is another candidate, as is TotalEnergies’ Ina shallow-water project, which has waited years for a Final Investment Decision.

Eni’s ZabaZaba/Etan field, one of Nigeria’s largest undeveloped deepwater discoveries, is arguably the biggest prize the order could unlock.

BusinessDay’s findings showed the qualifying oil projects get a Standard Production Tax Credit of $3 to $4.50 a barrel, depending on reserve size, plus an additional $1 a barrel for future leases.

Layered with a discretionary Supplementary Production Tax Credit, assessed case by case by the Nigeria Revenue Service, the total can reach $11.50 a barrel for oil and $8 per barrel of oil equivalent for gas.

If oil prices fall below $50 a barrel in a given month, the credits are cut in half. None of it is refundable, transferable or sellable, it only offsets a company’s own tax liability.

Secondly, under Nigeria’s production-sharing contracts, the government’s share of profit oil rises in steps as a field matures.

That has discouraged operators from greenlighting new developments inside already-producing contract areas, since fresh output would instantly be taxed at the higher, later-stage rate.

The reset lets an eligible new project restart that scale at a 70:30 split favouring the contractor, treated separately for cost recovery, effectively letting a new field be taxed like a new field, not an appendage of an old one.

To lock in the standard incentives, BusinessDay findings showed companies must reach a Final Investment Decision by December 31, 2029, a clock explicitly designed to pull forward investment decisions that might otherwise drift for years.

The local-content trade-off

In exchange for the incentives, the order leans harder on domestic content than prior frameworks.

Companies chasing the supplementary credits or the profit-oil reset must perform project activities inside Nigeria unless doing so is more than 10 percent costlier or involves long-lead items on the critical path – and even those exceptions require an approved Nigerian Content Plan.

‘Projects qualifying under the framework will maximise execution within Nigeria wherever commercially and technically feasible, strengthening domestic engineering, fabrication, marine logistics, technical services and project management,’ said Olu Arowolo-Verheijen, the President’s special adviser on oil and gas.

She added, ‘The objective is not only to increase investment and production, but also to create skilled jobs, deepen local supply chains and position Nigeria as Africa’s regional hub for deep offshore project execution.’

What to watch

The Nigeria Revenue Service has 45 days to rule on supplementary-credit applications once a company submits a full open-book economic model, a compliance burden some investors may find as consequential as the credits themselves.

And with Bonga South West cited as the framework’s proof case, its progress toward FID will likely serve as the market’s first read on whether Nigeria has actually solved its credibility problem, or just rebranded it.

I recently read how Artificial Intelligence (AI) programmes became smarter than the programmers. To this end, advanced nations are considering the best way to regulate AI to put the human race in less danger. But back home, nothing is being done towards this. Instead, all we hear on a daily basis are baseless political assaults that profit nothing.

As we know, AI has long been portrayed as the technology that will redefine the future of man, promising faster healthcare, smarter education, efficient governance, precision agriculture and revolutionary industrial productivity. Yet, behind these promises lies a growing concern that many nations, particularly those in Africa, are ill-prepared for the risks accompanying this technology.

The recent reports of advanced AI systems independently escaping testing environments, navigating the internet and launching sophisticated cyberattacks should serve as a wake-up call, not only for the United States, Europe and China, where the technology is being developed, but even more urgently for Nigeria and the rest of Africa.

If the world’s most technologically advanced nations are expressing concern over losing control of their own AI systems, what hope exists for nations still struggling with unreliable electricity, weak digital infrastructure, inadequate cybersecurity and virtually non-existent AI governance?

‘Sadly, Nigeria is hardly prepared, as our nation’s digital infrastructure remains underdeveloped. Electricity supply remains unreliable despite decades of reforms. Data centres capable of supporting AI ecosystems are limited and concentrated in only a few urban locations.’

That is the uncomfortable question Nigeria must answer.

Reports that AI agents powered by advanced language models independently circumvented security restrictions and infiltrated external systems sound like fiction, and the implications are scary. Whether these incidents represent isolated laboratory failures or the beginning of a broader challenge, they demonstrate one critical fact: AI is becoming increasingly independent, capable of making decisions beyond explicit human instructions.

This development introduces what experts call the ‘alignment problem’, which is ensuring AI systems consistently act according to human intentions and ethical boundaries. If even the companies building them struggle to maintain control, nations with fragile digital ecosystems could become the easiest victims.

Sadly, Nigeria is hardly prepared, as our nation’s digital infrastructure remains underdeveloped. Electricity supply remains unreliable despite decades of reforms. Data centres capable of supporting AI ecosystems are limited and concentrated in only a few urban locations. Broadband penetration still leaves millions disconnected, while cybersecurity institutions remain underfunded.

Maintenance culture, another chronic weakness, compounds the problem. Across both public and private institutions, critical infrastructure is often allowed to deteriorate due to poor planning, inadequate funding and weak accountability. AI systems, however, are not technologies that can be deployed and forgotten. They require continuous monitoring, regular software updates, constant security patching and highly skilled professionals capable of responding to evolving threats.

Without these fundamentals, AI could become less of an opportunity and more of a national disaster.

While nations like the US, China, Japan and members of the European Union are investing billions of dollars in AI safety research, even planning for human expansion into space, political conversations across Nigeria remain dominated by election calculations, ethnic rivalries and struggles for public office. Leadership contests consume enormous national energy while long-term technological planning receives only passing attention.

This governance deficit could become Nigeria’s greatest technological liability. Imagine a future where AI-driven cyberattacks target Nigeria’s banking system, electricity grid, and airports, hospitals or telecoms infrastructure. The consequences could be disastrous – financial records could disappear overnight, power stations could be remotely manipulated, and healthcare databases could be corrupted. Furthermore, national identity systems could be compromised, and elections could become vulnerable to AI-powered misinformation campaigns capable of influencing millions of voters within hours. Unlike conventional cybercriminals, independent AI agents do not sleep, become tired or require salaries. They learn continuously, adapt rapidly and execute attacks at machine speed.

Nigeria’s current institutional capacity offers little confidence that such threats could be contained quickly. Even today’s relatively simple cybercrimes (bank fraud, identity theft, ransomware and phishing) continue to inflict enormous losses despite existing security frameworks. Introducing independent AI into that environment increases the complexity.

Another challenge Africa faces is dependence, where most AI technologies are developed elsewhere. The continent consumes rather than creates advanced digital infrastructure. Cloud computing platforms, foundational AI models, semiconductor chips and operating systems are overwhelmingly controlled by foreign companies. This dependence means African nations have limited influence over the standards, safety mechanisms and governance principles shaping AI’s future.

The nations that own AI infrastructure will increasingly shape global commerce, defence, education, finance and diplomacy. Nations lacking domestic capabilities risk becoming perpetual consumers of technologies whose rules they neither designed nor fully understand, which should concern policymakers.

Preparing for the AI era requires far more than launching innovation hubs or celebrating tech start-ups. It demands deliberate national investments in reliable electricity, broadband expansion, cybersecurity architecture, research universities, digital skills development and sovereign data infrastructure. It requires updating legal frameworks governing AI ethics, privacy, liability and national security.

Also important is human capital, as Nigeria must begin producing thousands, not hundreds, of AI researchers, software engineers, cybersecurity professionals, robotics specialists and data scientists yearly. Universities must revise curricula to match emerging technological realities rather than continue producing graduates equipped primarily for yesterday’s economy.

Sincerely, government alone cannot shoulder this responsibility. The private sector, academia, regulators and international partners must collaborate to build resilient AI ecosystems that prioritise innovation alongside safety.

Africa cannot afford to wait until AI becomes a crisis before taking action. Nations that missed previous industrial revolutions spent generations attempting to catch up. Missing the AI revolution, or worse, entering it unprepared, could prove even more costly because AI is poised to influence virtually every aspect of modern civilisation.

The danger, therefore, is not that AI will inevitably take over humanity in the dramatic fashion portrayed in films, but the greater and more immediate threat is that societies lacking strong institutions, resilient infrastructure and strategic foresight will become disproportionately vulnerable to technologies they neither control nor fully comprehend.

For Nigeria and much of Africa, the AI question is no longer whether the future is coming. It is whether we will meet it prepared or become its first casualties.

The federal government is rolling out 41 university-based innovation hubs, known as UniPods, as part of a broader strategy to reposition Nigeria from a resource-dependent economy to one powered by knowledge and technology.

Tunji Alausa, minister of education, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, following engagements with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and vice-chancellors of seven universities on the UNDP Innovation Hub programme.

Alausa said the UniPods initiative is designed to push research output beyond academic journals, converting scholarly discoveries into viable businesses, jobs, and quantifiable economic value-an outcome he tied directly to President Bola Tinubu’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.

He described education, technology, and research as central pillars for hitting that target, positioning the university hubs as an economic infrastructure play rather than a purely academic one.

Of the planned 41 hubs, eight have either been commissioned or are set for inauguration. Three are already running: at the University of Lagos, Nasarawa State University, and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike.

The hubs are being tailored to regional economic strengths, including: Blue Economy UniPod, Akwa Ibom State; AgroTech UniPod, Benue State University; Resilience Tech UniPod, Borno State; GovTech UniPod, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; and Industrial Tech UniPod, Plateau State.

Alausa stressed that the initiative’s success would be judged by the commercial solutions and business opportunities it produces, not by the physical facilities built. He called on tertiary institutions to move away from a research culture geared toward academic promotion, urging a pivot toward commercialising laboratory discoveries.

‘UniPods must turn research and innovation into jobs, investment, and real economic impact,’ the minister said.

Nigeria’s payment and technology industry is heading towards a major data localisation shift as operators prepare for new requirements around the storage and management of payment transaction data generated within the country.

The issue is expected to take centre stage at GrowthX by Techeconomy, a new digital economy conference scheduled for September 24, 2026, in Lagos, as regulators, financial institutions, payment companies, telecommunications firms, data centre operators, cloud providers and cybersecurity businesses converge to examine the implications of the changing digital infrastructure landscape.

The conference, organised by Techeconomy as part of its Business Series, will be held in Lagos, with the morning conference session beginning at 9:00 am, followed by the Technology Innovation and Leadership Awards (TiLAwards) and gala night at 4:00 pm.

The event comes ahead of January 1, 2027, when full compliance is expected with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive requiring payment operators to store and manage payment transaction data generated within Nigeria on local servers.

The policy is set to place greater pressure on payment companies and their technology partners to reassess their data infrastructure, hosting arrangements, cybersecurity systems and operational resilience.

For an industry increasingly dependent on digital payments, the transition raises questions about whether Nigeria has sufficient local data centre and cloud capacity to support growing transaction volumes while maintaining security, reliability and regulatory compliance.

Beyond infrastructure, operators will also have to navigate technical expertise, data protection requirements, cybersecurity risks and the cost of migrating or redesigning systems that may currently depend on infrastructure outside Nigeria.

These concerns are expected to form a major part of discussions at GrowthX, which has adopted the theme, ‘Driving Digital Growth Through Innovation and Collaboration.’

The conference is designed to bring together policymakers, regulators, business executives, investors and technology innovators to examine the opportunities and constraints shaping Nigeria’s digital economy.

According to the organisers, GrowthX will provide a platform for stakeholders to discuss practical responses to changes in digital infrastructure, technology policy and investment, with particular attention to the partnerships required to support sustainable digital growth.

The data localisation debate comes at a critical point for Nigeria’s payments ecosystem, where fintechs, banks, payment service providers and other digital businesses increasingly rely on technology infrastructure to process large volumes of transactions in real time.

As more financial services migrate online, the availability of resilient local infrastructure is becoming increasingly important not only for regulatory compliance but also for business continuity, cybersecurity and control over critical financial data.

Data centre operators and cloud service providers are therefore expected to play a more prominent role as payment companies prepare for the 2027 deadline.

The shift could also create opportunities for investment in local digital infrastructure, including data centres, cloud computing, cybersecurity and specialised technology services, while increasing demand for professionals capable of managing complex financial and digital systems.

GrowthX will feature two keynote speakers, a lead presentation, two panel sessions and a fireside chat. An exhibition will also allow participating companies to showcase their technology products, services and infrastructure solutions.

Peter Oluka, publisher and editor-in-chief of Techeconomy, said the conference was designed to move beyond conventional industry gatherings by creating a platform for meaningful conversations and collaboration.

‘For us at Techeconomy, GrowthX is intended to be more than a one-day industry gathering. We want the platform to bring the right people into the same room, encourage useful conversations and create opportunities for collaboration across sectors,’ Oluka said.

The conference will also provide participants with an opportunity to engage directly with industry leaders on the policies, infrastructure and technologies expected to influence the next phase of Nigeria’s digital economy.

The event coincides with Techeconomy’s ninth anniversary, allowing the digital media platform to bring together regulators, technology companies, innovators and businesses that have contributed to Nigeria’s technology and digital economy ecosystem.

The conference will culminate in the TiLAwards and gala night, where organisations and individuals contributing to the development of Nigeria’s digital economy will be recognised.

For Nigeria’s payment industry, however, the most immediate challenge remains the approaching local data requirement, with less than five months between the GrowthX conference and the January 2027 compliance deadline.

The discussions at GrowthX could therefore provide an important industry checkpoint as payment operators, regulators and infrastructure providers assess the readiness of Nigeria’s digital ecosystem for a more locally anchored financial data architecture.

Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest bank by assets, has reported stronger half year earnings as rising fee and trading income, lower credit losses and steady banking activity helped offset pressure on interest income.

The South African lender said headline earnings increased 10 percent to R26.1 billion ($1.62 billion) for the six months ended June 30, up from the same period a year earlier.

The performance came as the bank benefited from stronger activity across its corporate, investment, business and personal banking operations, while lower credit impairment charges provided further support to the bottom line.

Standard Bank declared an interim dividend of 902 cents per share, an increase of 10 percent and its highest on record.

Net interest income from the group’s banking operations rose 4 percent to R53.6 billion. The increase was supported by healthy deal activity in its Corporate and Investment Banking division and modest loan growth across its business and personal banking operations.

However, the bank’s net interest margin narrowed to 472 basis points from 489 basis points previously, reflecting lower interest rates and continued pricing pressure in some retail and business banking portfolios.

‘Competitive pricing pressures’ in parts of the bank’s retail and business portfolios contributed to the decline in the margin, Standard Bank said.

The impact was partly offset by stronger income from services and financial market activities.

Net fee and commission revenue increased 7 percent to R18.4 billion, supported by stronger corporate debt financing activity, higher transaction volumes among business and personal banking customers and increased client activity.

Trading revenue also rose 8 percent during the period, adding to the bank’s non interest income and helping to cushion the effect of weaker margins.

Credit performance also improved significantly. Credit impairment charges fell 12 percent to R7.1 billion, reflecting an improvement across the bank’s loan portfolio.

As a result, Standard Bank’s credit loss ratio, which measures credit losses against its total lending, improved to 73 basis points from 93 basis points in 2025.

The decline in credit losses points to a more favourable lending environment for the bank, even as consumers and businesses continue to operate under varying economic pressures across its markets.

The results show that Standard Bank’s earnings are becoming increasingly supported by a broader mix of banking activities, rather than relying solely on interest income.

For the lender, stronger fees, trading income and improved credit performance have helped sustain profitability at a time when lower interest rates are putting pressure on lending margins.

The bank’s latest results therefore underline the importance of diversified revenue streams as African banks navigate changing interest rates, competitive lending markets and uneven economic conditions.

Nigeria’s country-code internet domain, .ng, is nearing a major milestone after the namespace recorded its strongest monthly performance of the year in July 2026, driven by higher registrations, renewals and improved domain retention.

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), which manages the .ng domain, said its registry closed July with 249,897 domains under management, up from 243,953 in June. The figure placed the .ng namespace just 103 domains short of the 250,000 threshold.

According to NiRA’s July 2026 Registrar Ecosystem Update, the registry recorded 11,044 new registrations and 6,766 renewals during the month, bringing total registration and renewal activity to 17,810, the highest monthly volume recorded in 2026.

NiRA said registrars had already recorded more than 3,000 additional new registrations in the early days of August, pushing the namespace past the 250,000-domain mark.

Adesola Akinsanya, NiRA president, described the milestone as evidence of growing recognition of .ng as an important component of Nigeria’s digital identity.

‘Crossing the 250,000-domain milestone is an important achievement for the .ng community,’ Akinsanya said, adding that the growth reflected the collective efforts of NiRA, accredited registrars and Nigerians building businesses and services online.

He said NiRA would continue working with industry stakeholders to make the domain more accessible, secure and relevant to businesses, institutions and individuals.

The July performance was supported not only by new registrations but also by a decline in domain deletions.

NiRA recorded 5,646 deletions in July, the lowest monthly deletion figure of the year. Deletions accounted for 31.7 percent of total growth, compared with 42.7 percent in June and more than 50 percent during the first five months of 2026.

The development suggests that improved renewal and retention efforts are beginning to support the expansion of the .ng namespace.

Seyi Onasanya, NiRA’s chief operating officer, said the figures showed that growth was being supported by existing registrants maintaining their domains.

‘Our priority is to build on this momentum by helping registrars engage customers proactively, encourage timely renewals and promote the long-term value of maintaining a .ng digital identity,’ she said.

NiRA is also encouraging multi-year registrations and greater adoption of second-level domains, which it considers premium digital identities with potential search-engine optimisation benefits.

Second-level domains recorded 4,659 new registrations and 2,357 renewals in July, generating a net growth of 5,668 domains.

Third-level domains accounted for the larger share of activity, with 6,385 new registrations and 4,409 renewals, resulting in net growth of 6,496 domains.

NiRA said customer education, proactive renewal reminders, expiry notifications and incentives for multi-year registrations would be important in sustaining the growth and reducing avoidable deletions.

Despite the growth in domain registrations, NiRA said security adoption across the registrar ecosystem remains an area requiring greater attention.

The association’s July report showed that only 15 of Nigeria’s 164 accredited registrars had implemented DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), representing an adoption rate of 9.15 percent

DNSSEC is designed to help protect internet users from certain forms of domain-name manipulation by adding cryptographic authentication to the Domain Name System.

NiRA urged more registrars to adopt DNSSEC as part of efforts to strengthen security and digital trust across the .ng ecosystem.

The latest milestone reinforces NiRA’s efforts to position the .ng domain as a strategic national digital asset as more Nigerian businesses, entrepreneurs, institutions and individuals establish an online presence.

With the 250,000-domain threshold now crossed, the focus will shift from registration growth to sustaining retention, improving security and encouraging wider adoption of .ng as Nigeria’s preferred national digital identity.

As Nigeria grapples with a deepening out-of-school crisis, billions of naira earmarked to improve access to education have gone unclaimed by the very states facing some of the country’s biggest learning challenges.

Despite the availability of N97.5 billion with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), 21 states failed to access the money, raising fresh questions about funding gaps, administrative bottlenecks and the commitment of state governments to tackling the growing number of children out of school.

According to information released by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) following a Freedom of Information request by Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, Abia State left N7.109 billion, Adamawa State N3.554 billion, Akwa Ibom N3.554 billion, and Anambra State N3.554 billion.

Bayelsa State left N3.554 billion, Cross River N3.554 billion, Ebonyi State N3.554 billion, Edo State N3.555 billion, Zamfara State N197.6 million, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) N5.077 billion, Gombe State N1.876 billion, Imo State N10.6 billion (highest defaulter), Kano State, Katsina State, Kebbi State, Kwara State N197.6 million, Lagos State N3.554 billion. Nasarawa State N3.554 billion, Niger State N7.109 billion, Ogun State N9.7 billion (second highest defaulter), Oyo State N7.109 billion, and Rivers State N7.809 billion.

The grant amounting to about N98 billion is earmarked specifically to build schools, train teachers, and get children into classrooms is sitting idle in government accounts while those children sit on bare floors or do not sit anywhere at all because there is no school within reach of their homes.

A report from a UBEC publication indicates that the matching grant is aimed at supporting every state and FCT on an equal basis to provide the much-needed infrastructure for UBE implementation.

‘It is a conditional grant which requires states’ counterpart contribution. The total share for each state is computed on the basis of the amount received by UBEC, upon which the state is required to contribute at least 50 percent of the total cost of any given project as its own counterpart fund.

‘To access the matching grant allocation, every state and FCT is required to provide an equal amount as counterpart fund contribution, in compliance with Section 11(2) of the Universal Basic Education Commission Act, 2004,’ the UBEC report reveals.

Besides, there is a $552 million World Bank-supported HOPE Education Programme fund that the federal government unlocked in March 2026, and is available to all 36 states as performance-based financing to boost basic education.

Tunji Alausa, the minister of education, revealed that several states are yet to sign subsidiary loan agreements or fulfil mandatory data reporting obligations to access the funds.

Alausa disclosed this during a five-day executive retreat for state commissioners of education held in July, where he used the occasion to publicly plead with the states to come and collect the money.

In December 2024, 34 states and the FCT left N263 billion inaccessible with UBEC. By March 2026, the cumulative unaccessed figure stood at N98 billion, with 2025 recording another high default of N68.1 billion.

Stakeholders argue that the reason states consistently fail to access education grants with conditions attached is precisely because of the conditions.

The HOPE-EDU programme requires that states sign loan agreements, designate accounts, and provide verified data on enrolment, teacher deployment, and learning outcomes. Signing the subsidiary loan agreements or fulfilling mandatory data reporting obligations are the administrative equivalent of opening a bank account and submitting a report.

These requirements are designed to ensure that money reaches classrooms rather than disappearing into the procurement ecosystem. And that is precisely what makes them unpalatable to state governments, who prefer to manage public resources without external verification.

Nubi Achebo, director of academic planning at Nigerian University of Technology and Management (NUTM), described the development as basically money sitting on the table while classrooms fall apart.

‘It’s a governance problem, not a money problem. It’s a ‘systemic failure of sub-national governance,’ and many of the defaulters have fiscal capacity; so, it’s less ‘we don’t have money’ and more we don’t want the conditions,’ he said.

Achebo advocates deducting states’ counterpart funds at source as was done with Paris Club refunds, but tie release strictly to verified action plans.

‘Treat basic education as non-negotiable in budgets. The 50 percent counterpart is not a gift; it’s their legal obligation under the UBE Act 2004.

‘We can’t keep separating ‘federal money’ from ‘state responsibility.’ Until there are real consequences for leaving education funds idle, states will keep treating UBEC grants as optional,’ he said.

Jessica Osuere, CEO at RubiesHub Educational Services, said, ‘Weak planning systems, poor record-keeping, and a reluctance to embrace transparency are the main issues here.’

Osuere urges states to invest in reliable education management information systems (EMIS), build the capacity of their education ministries and SUBEB officials in data collection and reporting, among others.

Gift Osikoya, an educator, emphasised that accountability and transparency are essential in the management of public funds. ‘External verification should not be seen as a punishment but as a necessary process to ensure that resources are used appropriately and that the intended beneficiaries receive the full value of the investment,’ she said.

Meanwhile, Lagos State has taken steps to access the federal government’s UBE matching grant with a workshop to strategically position itself to benefit maximally from the funding operational framework of the proposed federal government-World Bank UBE matching grant.

dmg events, an international organiser of business-to-business exhibitions, is launching the West Africa Warehousing and Logistics Expo in Lagos as growing e-commerce, manufacturing, urbanisation and regional trade drive demand for logistics infrastructure across the region.

The inaugural three-day exhibition is scheduled for April 6-8, 2027, at the Landmark Centre in Lagos.

The launch comes as West Africa’s freight and logistics market expands, with its value estimated at $27.58 billion in 2025 and projected to reach $37.17 billion by 2030, according to Mordor Intelligence.

The growth is expected to increase demand for warehousing, distribution networks and logistics technologies capable of improving the movement and storage of goods across the region.

‘West Africa’s evolving supply chains are accelerating investment in warehousing, distribution networks and logistics technologies,’ dmg events said in a statement on Thursday.

Matt Denton, president of dmg events, said Nigeria was a natural location for the new exhibition given the country’s expanding e-commerce sector, industrial development and increasingly sophisticated supply chains.

‘Nigeria is a natural home for West Africa Warehousing and Logistics Expo. Driven by the rapid expansion of e-commerce, industrial development and increasingly sophisticated supply chains, Nigeria’s logistics sector reflects the wider transformation taking place across West Africa,’ Denton said.

He added that dmg events would leverage its experience from organising warehousing and logistics exhibitions, including Saudi Warehousing and Logistics Expo, to create opportunities for collaboration, knowledge exchange and business growth.

The exhibition will bring together logistics solution providers, buyers and industry professionals to showcase technologies covering warehouse automation, storage, inventory management, identification and labelling, loading and distribution.

The event will be co-located with HVACR Nigeria, reflecting the growing link between logistics infrastructure and climate-controlled facilities such as distribution centres and cold-storage warehouses.

According to dmg events, the expansion of logistics parks, industrial hubs and free zones across West Africa is increasing demand for infrastructure that can improve operational efficiency, energy performance and supply-chain resilience.

The co-location is expected to provide opportunities for businesses in warehousing, logistics, manufacturing and refrigeration to explore solutions for energy efficiency, product integrity and reliable operations.

Dmg events has operated in Africa since 2015, with offices in Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa. Its portfolio includes Big 5 Construct Egypt, Transport Evolution Africa, EGYPES, Big 5 Construct Nigeria, Nigeria Energy Week, Big 5 Construct Ethiopia, WAMPEX and Big 5 Construct South Africa.

The company organises more than 115 large-scale events annually across more than 25 countries, attracting over 650,000 professionals and delegates.

The West Africa Warehousing and Logistics Expo is expected to be open to trade professionals aged 21 and above at no cost.