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Nigeria’s central bank issues guidelines to oversee digital platforms in financial institutions

Published

2 months ago

February 28, 2024

Nigeria’s central bank, the CBN, has released new regulations dubbed ‘Exposure Draft of the Risk-based Cyber Cyber-security Framework and Guidelines for Deposit Money Banks, or DMBs, and Payment Service Banks, or PSBs,’ as part of responses to recent demand to stabilise the Naira.

The guidelines are essentially an attempt to control the infrastructure and technological platforms that banks and other financial institutions utilise to execute their financial activities.

This was revealed by the top bank in a letter sent to all DMBs and PSBs along with the framework and guidelines that were signed by Dr. Adetona Adedeji, the acting director of banking supervision at the CBN.

In light of the nation’s increasing lack of foreign currency, the CBN last week forbade governments, commercial banks, merchant banks, other financial institutions (OFIs), and public officials from directly or indirectly owning Bureaus de Change (BDCs).

CBN said: “The Nigerian financial system has grown remarkably in recent years with increases in products, services, institutions and stakeholders.

“Financial Institutions have increasingly leveraged Information Technology to serve their customers and this has led to rapid evolution in the threat landscape.

“It is necessary that the technology infrastructure and platforms that support financial institutions operations should be managed effectively to promote a sound financial system.

“Consequently, the CBN has revised the Risk-Based Cyber-security Framework and Guidelines for DMBs and Payment Service Banks (PSBs) to provide guidance in the implementation of cyber-security programmes and enhance resilience.

“The revised framework addresses the gaps that have arisen due to the passage of time and outlines the minimum cyber-security controls to be put in place.”

With matured foreign exchange forwards worth over $7 billion, the largest economy in Africa is a huge source of anxiety for investors as the naira continues to weaken due to cash shortages, even though the CBN has assured them that the backlog will be cleared.

Related Topics:CBN CBN guidelines Featured Nigeria

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VenturesNow

World Bank grants Malawi $57.6 million for food crisis

Published

4 hours ago

April 27, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

As a response to its food crisis, the World Bank said on Friday that it would give Malawi $57.6 million in “quick release” grants.

“This support comes in the context of the severe food crisis the country is suffering due to El Niño conditions in the wider southern Africa region,” the World Bank said in a statement.

“A series of intense disaster events over the last few years has left almost no time for the country to recover and has resulted in a severe erosion of food security at the national level.”

Malawi is one of the least developed countries in the world. It is ranked 170 out of 187 countries in the 2010 Human Development Index. Almost 16 million people live there, and 90% of them make less than $2 a day. That’s 53% of the total population.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says that 46,000 children in Malawi are seriously malnourished. In 2023, UNICEF said that more than 500,000 Malawian children were at risk of not getting enough food.

Now, Malawi has a lot of programs in place to deal with things like poverty, and climate change, and to make the business and agriculture more diverse.

VenturesNow

Nigerian oil regulator implements regional fuel standards

Published

1 day ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Nigeria’s oil authority has clarified that the recent changes to diesel fuel sulphur content standards are part of a regional effort to make things more uniform and are not meant to loosen rules for local refineries.

A report from S&P Global last week said that the West African fuel market had changed a lot after Nigeria raised the maximum diesel sulphur content from 200 parts per million (ppm) to around 650 ppm. This caused worries that the country might be lowering its standards to allow diesel made in Nigeria that is higher than the 200 ppm limit.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), on the other hand, said it was only following a 2020 decision by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that all of the regions had to slowly switch to better fuels.

Fuels that have a lot of sulfur can hurt engines and make the air dirty. As of right now, the ECOWAS rule lets locally-made fuel have more sulfur until January 2025. After that, a standard of less than 5 parts per million will be used for all oil, whether it is refined in West Africa or brought in from another country.

Farouk Ahmed, the head of the NMDPRA, told Reuters that the new limits are in line with ECOWAS’s choice to require stricter fuel specifications. The new rules will go into effect in January 2021 for non-ECOWAS imports and January 2025 for ECOWAS refineries.

“We are merely implementing the ECOWAS decision adopted in 2020,” Ahmed said.

“So a local refinery with a 650 ppm sulphur in its product is permissible and safe under the ECOWAS rule until January next year where a uniform standard would apply to both the locally refined and imported products outside West Africa”, Ahmed said.

Ahmed said that importers were told that the amount of sulphur allowed was going down, from 300 parts per million in February to 200 parts per million this month. This was done long before the huge Dangote refinery started providing diesel.

Diesel with a sulphur level of between 1,500 ppm and 3,000 ppm could be brought in by importers before.

The switch to cleaner fuels is in line with efforts to protect the environment around the world and makes sure that all area refiners have the same chances.

Nigeria recently had its worst blackout in decades because of a problem with its energy supply. The high cost of alternative energy sources has been a huge problem for both businesses and individuals, with the price of diesel being the most affordable choice for businesses.