The banks—Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Stanbic IBTC, United Bank for Africa (UBA), and Wema Bank—significantly ramped up spending compared with the previous year, with some doubling their outlays.

Zenith Bank led the pack, allocating N49.88 billion, more than twice its N23.09 billion spend in H1 2024. GTCO followed closely with N37.76 billion, slightly above the N36.60 billion recorded last year, while Stanbic IBTC increased its IT investments to N23.74 billion from N15.86 billion. UBA maintained near-flat spending at N6.72 billion, while Wema Bank posted the sharpest jump, committing N8.65 billion compared with just N1.13 billion a year ago, largely to support its ALAT digital platform.

Access Holdings, which topped the 2024 IT spend league with N93.1 billion, is yet to release its half-year results for 2025. Other financial groups such as First HoldCo and Sterling Holdings released H1 reports without disclosing their technology expenses.

The surge in IT spending is driven by the rapid expansion of cashless transactions, partly accelerated by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) naira redesign policy and cash withdrawal limits introduced in late 2022. Nigerian banks spent N518.5 billion on IT in 2024, more than double the N248 billion spent in 2023.

Analysts say the new investments are targeted at improving operational efficiency, customer experience, and digital security. However, concerns remain over the adequacy of cybersecurity defenses. According to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), banks lost N52.26 billion to fraud in 2024, a 195% increase over the previous year.

Industry experts warn that while banks are moving in the right direction, cybercriminals are evolving even faster. “The evolution of cloud and AI is moving very quickly. This means that bad actors can do things at a rate that is quite high. So, banks need to keep investing,” said Nonso Magulike, Executive Director of Bitscape.

Similarly, Dipo Alabede, CEO of mobile payments firm Clane, stressed that digital infrastructure is key to competitiveness in the payment space but cautioned that current levels of investment may still be inadequate given the rising threat of phishing, ransomware, and data breaches.

The post Nigerian Banks Step Up IT Spending with N126.8bn Outlay in H1 2025 appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – They are moving in large numbers outside the country. We are experiencing a pull of people out of the industry to outside the country and these are the younger ones that we are supposed to hand over to after a period. So succession planning is hindered, productivity is lowered because these guys are the next generation of people. That is also slowing down activity.”

That was the president of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Ken Opara, some weeks ago at an event.

Indeed, the impact of mass resignations of key Information Technology (IT) talents in Nigeria is beginning to tell on many commercial banks, as unresolved technical problems have started affecting service delivery.

READ ALSO: Meet Katsina-Based “Creative Meastro” Tackling Nigeria’s Unemployment, Social Crisis With Digital Solutions

Just recently, a lot of bank customers took to social media to express their frustration, and wondering what is wrong with Nigerian banks.

“Something looks fishy; technical problems; unwarranted charges everywhere. This shows a lot of incompetencies, loop holes, truth and trust in the system,” one of them @jerryonyema tweeted.

Another user, Abdulkahi Turawa said “I’ve been wondering why some banks/fintech apps don’t do transactions with some other banks/fintech apps. Is it a technical problem or usual Nigerian ‘schadenfreude’?”

According to yet another Twitter user with the handle, @_Whogos nothing is wrong rather, all banks in Nigeria lost their key IT staff to ‘japa’ (Canada, UK and other developed countries).

“Nigerians are joking with the aftermath of japa. A top Nigerian bank Is having technical issues for over 30 hours no team to fix it. Most of their tech guys have ‘japa.’

“Not only key staff. I was a relationship manager as at March this year in one of the banks in Nigeria. Currently I’m a credit analyst in the second biggest bank In Canada. My branch manager in Nigeria just arrived Canada three days ago. 12 Aug.”

Specifically, findings reveal that the trend has worsened in August and September due to mass resignations as foreign schools resume academic activities in September 2022 and many of them are traveling with student visa.

Nigeria is currently ravaged by a number of socio-economic issues, some of which include insecurity, high cost of goods and services, and unemployment amongst others.

As Nigeria’s tech ecosystem grows, and banks going more digital, its talent shortage especially software engineers is becoming more obvious, such that talent is now being sought from outside Africa to build products used in the country.

This stakeholders believe is a disincentive to the cashless banking initiative, and obstructing seamless operation of electronic and mobile banking systems where every banking transaction is expected to be digitized.

This worry was also expressed by Abubakar Suleiman, chief executive officer of Sterling Bank Plc on April 15, 2022 at the end of a meeting of bank CEOs.

The post Mass Resignation Of Key IT Staff Hit Banks, Face Technical Problems appeared first on Tech Digest News.

TECHDIGEST – Thousands of telecommunication subscribers nationwide seeking to retrieve their lost Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards or acquire new lines temporarily have been left stranded, following a technical glitch in the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) portal that has grounded SIM-related services.

The affected NIMC portal enables telecom firms, the Nigerian Immigration Service, banks and other organisations to verify the National Identity Number of their customers before attending to them, in line with the Federal Government’s directive, according to Punch.

Following the directive by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the inclusion of NIN in the requirements for all new and existing SIM cards, telecom firms are required to synchronize their SIM registration portals with the NIMC portal in order to verify the details of their subscribers.

However, the downtime experienced over the past five days by the NIMC portal has made it almost impossible for telecom firms to sell new SIM cards or retrieve lost lines.

According to a source at MTN who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on the matter, the downtime in the NIMC network which occurred late on Tuesday has brought SIM-related services to a halt.

The source said, “NIMC made it compulsory that before we can register a customer, we have to verify their NIN. The agency gave us a back route to its server. We connect to the server to verify NIN. When we verify, it will bring the record of the customer (the information the customer gave to NIMC while registering for NIN).

“We have to confirm the information the customer gave NIMC against what we have. There’s a way we connect to the NIMC server. It is that server that has been down since Wednesday.

“Before now, we didn’t need NIN to do this. We just use the customer’s valid ID card and SIM pack. If the customer does not have that, a sworn affidavit is okay. However, the introduction of NIN has changed that.”

Speaking on how the development might affect the company’s revenue, the official said, “We have registration stores (centres) that attend to hundreds of customers on a daily basis. In my service centre, we attend to not less than 200 customers in a day.

“We can’t really estimate the amount we are losing. Sometimes, after retrieving their lines, some customers can buy as much as N30,000 airtime. Some can buy as much as N5,000 airtime. So, any day we don’t do business, one service centre can lose up to hundreds of thousands of naira.”

When Punch correspondents visited some service centres of the telcos, officials and customers narrated their ordeals.

When one of Punch correspondents paid a visit to a Glo retail outlet in Lagos, a myriad of frustrated subscribers could be seen inside and outside the premises of the service centre.

Some of the subscribers told our correspondent that they had visited the outlet for days on end but they were not attended to due to the NIMC portal glitch.

“Seriously I don’t understand, and I called them to ask if everything was okay before I came here. I came the other day and they told me the same thing,” a disgruntled subscriber said after being told SIM-related services was yet to be restored due to the NIMC server glitch.

In a chat with one of Punch correspondents, a top official at a Glo retail outlet, who also pleaded anonymity, confirmed that with the new directive by the NCC, all telcos are compulsorily required to verify the NIN details of all subscribers before registering their new SIM cards.

“The problem is with the NIMC server. Their server is down; we can’t connect with them. We don’t know when it will be back. All the telecoms (companies) have network but because of NIN verification, we can’t work. It is a Federal Government directive: without NIN, we can’t do anything. Even if you want to buy SIM and register, without NIN, you can’t do it.”

In the same vein, subscribers were seen at an Airtel office lamenting their inability to retrieve their GSM lines despite repeated attempts to do so during the week.

A subscriber, who identified himself as Tochukwu, said, “This is my second time here and they have been saying the same thing, that they don’t have network. They’re saying it’s because of this NIN something. It’s quite disappointing because, after today which is Saturday, I won’t have a chance to do this again.”

A member of staff at the Airtel office, who did not want to be named, said the NIMC portal downtime had grounded SIM-related services of telcos across the country.

“You cannot get a new SIM until next week because there is no network. It’s not all network. It is this NIN something. It’s because we have to use your NIN to register the SIM. It affects all the telecommunications (companies),” he said.

As the problem lingered, it was gathered that the NIMC officials held a meeting with telcos and other stakeholders over the development.

It was learnt that NIMC advised telcos to temporarily revert to the vNIN platform until it is able to sort out its technical difficulties.

A top official privy to the development said, “NIMC confirms its service is still down and it doesn’t have an estimated turnaround time from its service provider. Hence, it is looking for alternatives to restore services over the weekend. However, NIMC has proposed that we use vNIN in the interim which the industry kicked against based on technical readiness and process issues.”

However, the meeting held with NIMC resolved that telcos must uphold certain rules while the glitch lingers.

It said, “New registration and SIM swap without a prior verified NIN and linked to our Know Your Customer will not be allowed until full service is restored.

“SIM swap for a previously verified NIN that has been linked to our (telcoms) Know Your Customer will be allowed to proceed based on when approval letter is received from NCC today (Friday).

“New SIM registration (additional SIM for an existing subscriber with a previously verified NIN and linked to our (telcoms) Know Your Customer) will be allowed to proceed based on when approval letter is received from NCC today (Friday).”

As of the time of filing this report, it could not be verified if the approval has been received or not.

According to some telcos’ officials, there is a feeling of discontent among operators due to the technical readiness and bottlenecks that would be required to make the temporary switch to the vNIN.

It was gathered that the telcos had kicked against it when it was suggested initially.

It is understood that the vNIN, which involves generating tokens, is riddled with technical concerns that the telcos are not prepared to commit resources to, particularly given the fact that the switch to the vNIN platform will only be on a temporary basis until the NIMC server glitch is resolved.

Also, officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service told our correspondents on condition of anonymity that the passport application process was delayed in some passport offices because the NIN verification process was stalled.

They said some passport capturing appointments might have to be rebooked over the development.

“The glitch at the NIMC portal affected the passport application process during the week. There was a need to verify applicants NINs. This could not be done. It started late on Tuesday,” an immigration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Also, top officials of some banks said the development affected account opening during the past week as applicants who had NIN as their only means of identification could not be attended to.

“Banks have various portals for verifying IDs. Those with NINs could not be attended to because the portal was down,” an official of FCMB said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the development.

When contacted, the NIMC spokesperson, Kayode Adegoke, who preferred to revert via SMS, had not responded to text messages at the time of filing this report.

However, a public statement issued by the NIMC late on Saturday linked the problem to downtime as a result of a “maintenance service.”

However, checks with some of the telcos reveal that prior information about this maintenance was not communicated to them.

Meanwhile, the NIMC said in a statement that its NIN verification service was down due to maintenance being executed by its service provider.

The statement was titled ‘NIMC NIN verification service temporarily unavailable.”

It read, “The National Identity Management Commission wishes to inform the general public that its NIN Verification Service is temporarily unavailable due to the maintenance service being carried out by one of the Commission’s network service providers.

“The NIMC wants to assure the public that verification and authentication services would be restored once the maintenance is concluded.

“The commission apologises for any inconveniences this might cause our esteemed customers, and all hands are on deck to ensure speedy restoration. Meanwhile, the public can make use of the alternative tokenisation verification platform.”

Adeolu Ogunbanjo, president, of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS)  said the association was aware of the NIMC server downtime and had been duly informed that the situation was being handled.

He said, “I learnt it’s a network issue. It’s something they’re looking at. I called two operators, especially the regulatory officials and they said they were working on it and that it would soon be restored. It’s rather unfortunate, but what do you do? I’m sure NCC knows about it.

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