Glo hit hard

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Hackers hit Nigeria’s third largest telco

Some of the biggest technology stories this year have been around cybersecurity. 

In May, a First Bank employee diverted over ₦40 billion ($24.4 million) to 98 bank accounts he controlled. In July, Hope PSB, a Nigerian microfinance bank, was hit by a ₦6.5 billion ($3.9 million) cyberattack. Several Nigerian fintechs were also hit by attacks this year. 

Nigeria cloud providers were not spared from the onslaught. In July, a Nigerian cloud provider was hit with a ransomware attack.

And now, in what might be one of the most significant cybersecurity stories this year, Nigeria’s third-biggest mobile network provider Globacom was hacked, with staff members denied access to emails and other internal communication tools for months.

In a year-long investigation, a scenario emerged showing hackers likely gained access to Globacom’s Domain Name System (DNS) in July 2023.

Read about it here.

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In his 2023 letter to shareholders, Segun Agbaje, the CEO of GTCO, boasted about the bank's cost-effectiveness. 

After raising staff salaries by 40% across the board in September, the bank will still spend less on salaries than its other Tier-1 peers. 

If we apply a 40% increase to the bank’s 2023 personnel expenses, GTBank’s new wage will be around ₦63.1 billion ($38.7 million) annually. That is still at least ₦100 billion ($61 million) less than First Bank, Access Bank, and UBA spent on salaries last year. 

Much of this cost efficiency is due to GT's fewer employees—3,300—which is less than half of First Bank and Zenith Bank's employees. 

An assistant banking officer (ABO), only one level above entry-level, now earns ₦720,000 ($442), ten times the country’s new minimum wage. 

I spoke to four GT employees for this story, and while they were surprised about the raise, they were all happy to tell me about the increase. One even promised me a round of drinks at any bar. 

GTBank’s recent salary raise could spark a ripple effect across Nigeria's banking sector, prompting other Tier-1 banks to consider similar raises. In an industry where employees often move between banks for better pay, competitors may feel pressured to adjust their compensation packages to retain top talent and remain competitive.

OmniRetail, a B2B e-commerce startup, has acquired Traction Apps, a payment provider for small businesses. Both parties did not disclose the terms of the acquisition.

Traction co-founders Mayowa Alli and Dolapo Adejuyigbe will stay on as Director of Technology for Payments and Director of Operations for Payments respectively. The integration of both companies is expected to be completed by 2025.

OmniRetail offers informal retailers access to cheaper inventory through its partnerships with fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers and collecting bulk orders from retailers. With the acquisition of Traction Apps, OmniRetail will be eyeing a soft expansion into more SME markets.

Traction Apps provides business management services for SMEs. Retailers that want to accept cashless payments can use the company's software point-of-sale (softPOS) technology or order a hardware POS. By integrating Traction Apps’ softPOS technology with its own embedded finance app, OmniPay, OmniRetail can better serve the SME market by offering cashless payment solutions while upselling its e-commerce platform to help retailers manage inventory and get loans.

Traction Apps has over 19,000 users and charges about 4–8% on transactions that customers make across its payments, lending, and software products. Acquiring Traction will also provide OmniRetail with another source of revenue.

While issuing hardware POS could lead to an overlap with Moniepoint, OmniRetail will likely consider pushing Traction Apps’ softPOS technology, which could give it an edge to reach more SME markets. However, this will require customer education to ensure adoption.

IHS Towers, which keeps over 16,000 cell towers buzzing across Africa, has secured a $439 million loan to refinance its debt and expand operations across key markets. 58% of the funding is in US dollars while the rest is in South African Rand.

The cell tower operator will use the cash to pay off a $430 million IOU from October 2022 which is not due until 2025. But by refinancing early, IHS is hoping to snag a better deal and dodge higher interest rates down the line when it goes looking for another loan.

IHS is also reworking deals with MTN Nigeria, getting the telco to pay for its tower contracts in local currencies and US dollars. IHS is safeguarding itself against further financial hits that have seen the company lay off employees this year.

This is part of IHS's ongoing effort to reduce its reliance on dollar-denominated debt, a key move considering how Nigeria's currency devaluation tanked their profits in 2023.

Yet, the IHS is still walking a tightrope. This new loan comes with a floating interest rate that is tied to unpredictable financial benchmarks like Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) and Johannesburg Interbank Average Rate (JIBAR), meaning costs could fluctuate depending on the market.