Business
Advent of Technology Assisting Girl-chid to unlock Progress and Empowerment Opportunities
Advent of Technology Assisting Girl-chid to unlock Progress and Empowerment Opportunities
In today’s fast-paced world, technology and digitalization have become indispensable tools for progress and empowerment. While their impact is evident across all aspects of society, one area that has seen remarkable transformation is the education and business sectors, with a specific focus on the girl-child. The advent of technology has opened doors to countless opportunities and benefits for girls worldwide, empowering them to break barriers, excel in tech-related fields, and contribute significantly to their communities and the global economy.
This gave birth to an initiative to sensitize and enlighten young girls in a symposium: Leveraging on Technology and Digitalization for Education and Business; Focusing on the Girl-Child, which took place on the 25th of January, 2024 at CKC, Federal Housing, Kubwa in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Lawrentta Emmanuel a Digital/Business Development Executive, Joy Onya, a Digital Economist and Prisca Chinenye, a Business Technology Expert stepped up to this challenge to educate the girl-child on the benefits of digital technology.
Lawrentta in the organised sensitisation campaign, pointed out that the digital revolution has shattered traditional gender barriers and stereotypes, offering the girl-child a level playing field in education and business. She also noted that one of the most significant benefits of this revolution is increased access to education. The online learning platforms and digital resources have granted more opportunities to receiving quality education to girls all across the globe, breaking down limitations to access conventional schooling model. She encourged every girl-child to take advantage of this age of digital resources and technology to self build towards greater future.
Joy Onya shared her story on how she took advantage of technology to enrich her knowledge which gave her opportunities and improved her intellectual wellbeing. She went back memory lane on how she started from a very humble beginning with limited access to prime education and how within the last few years, she has improved and grown in digital economics. She pointed out that all any girl needs to grow and attain, is available online today. She also admonished every girl to be intentional on what they use the internet for. Joy counseled the young ladies to exert energy on learning which would bring more rewarding future than just the social media presence.
Prisca Chinenye crowned the delivery, focusing on the benefits and various specialisation every girl-child could consider. She detaield that, the benefits of leveraging technology and digitalization for the girl-child are numerous and far-reaching. A few of these are:
1. Equal Access to Education: Technology enables girls from all backgrounds to access quality education and resources, leveling the playing field.
2. Skill Development: Digital tools foster the development of crucial 21st-century skills, including problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity.
3. Career Opportunities: Tech-related fields offer diverse and rewarding career opportunities, empowering girls to pursue their passions and interests.
4. Global Connectivity: Technology connects girls with peers, mentors, and experts worldwide, facilitating collaboration and knowledge sharing.
5. Empowerment: Digital literacy empowers girls to make informed decisions, advocate for their rights, and effect positive change in their communities.
6. Economic Independence: Tech-savvy girls are better equipped to enter the workforce and contribute to economic growth.
Prisca also noted that the digital revolution has ushered in a new era of possibilities for the girl-child, transforming education and business landscapes. By embracing technology, girls can break free from gender stereotypes, excel in tech-related fields, and become leaders and innovators in the digital age. She also mentioned a few notable individuals excelling in tech. Some of those are: Wuraola Oyewusi, Data Scientist & ML Expert; Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Co-founder of Andela and Flutterwave; Ire Aderinokun, a Front-End Developer and Advocate for Web Accessibility; Prosper Otemuyiwa, Developer Relations at Microsoft; Dara Oladosu who created Quoted Replies, a Twitter bot that gained recognition and a job offer from Twitter. Others are Odunayo Eweniyi, Co-founder of PiggyVest; Ire Okupi, Co-founder of BuyCoins Africa; Oluwatobi Akinpelu, Founder of AnjolaTech, a tech company focused on providing solutions in Africa. Irewole Akande, a Software Engineer and Advocate for Women in Tech; Ire Aderinokun, a Google Developer Expert and Teju Ajani, a Product Manager at Google.
Prisca added that the digital technology sector offers a wide range of skills and specializations that girls can acquire to excel in this rapidly evolving field. Here are some skill sets and specializations she mentioned for girls interested in digital technology: Programming and Coding (Python, JavaScript, Java, or C++, Web Development using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript); Data Science and Analytics (Data Analysis & Machine Learning); Cybersecurity (Ethical Hacking & Cybersecurity Management); User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) Design; Cloud Computing (Cloud Platforms & DevOps); Mobile App Development (iOS or Android Development & Cross-Platform Development); Blockchain Development; IoT (Internet of Things); Big Data and Analytics; Digital Marketing (Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing); Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning; Robotics; Game Development (Game Design & Game Programming); Digital Art and Animation (Graphic Design & Animation) and Data Privacy and Compliance. Prisca emphasized that any girl-child could set her mind towards any of these specialisation and achieve them.
Lawrentta brought the sentitisation programme to a close by informing participant that Enroute X, a UK tech organisation is partnering with Article8 Media to establish a STEM education centre with a reasonable percentage reserved for the girl-child. She encouraged all participants to be self motivated towards development in digital technology.
The sentisation programme was supported by NatureVantage, a health research organisation; Article8 Media, a multimedia organisation and Enroute X, a UK Software Development organisation
Business
BUA Foods Records 91% Surge in Profit After Tax, Hits ₦508bn in 2025
BUA Foods Records 91% Surge in Profit After Tax, Hits ₦508bn in 2025
By femi Oyewale
Business
Adron Homes Unveils “Love for Love” Valentine Promo with Exciting Discounts, Luxury Gifts, and Travel Rewards
Adron Homes Unveils “Love for Love” Valentine Promo with Exciting Discounts, Luxury Gifts, and Travel Rewards
In celebration of the season of love, Adron Homes and Properties has announced the launch of its special Valentine campaign, “Love for Love” Promo, a customer-centric initiative designed to reward Nigerians who choose to express love through smart, lasting real estate investments.
The Love for Love Promo offers clients attractive discounts, flexible payment options, and an array of exclusive gift items, reinforcing Adron Homes’ commitment to making property ownership both rewarding and accessible. The campaign runs throughout the Valentine season and applies to the company’s wide portfolio of estates and housing projects strategically located across Nigeria.
Speaking on the promo, the company’s Managing Director, Mrs Adenike Ajobo, stated that the initiative is aimed at encouraging individuals and families to move beyond conventional Valentine gifts by investing in assets that secure their future. According to the company, love is best demonstrated through stability, legacy, and long-term value—principles that real estate ownership represents.
Under the promo structure, clients who make a payment of ₦100,000 receive cake, chocolates, and a bottle of wine, while those who pay ₦200,000 are rewarded with a Love Hamper. Payments of ₦500,000 attract a Love Hamper plus cake, and clients who pay ₦1,000,000 enjoy a choice of a Samsung phone or a Love Hamper with cake.
The rewards become increasingly premium as commitment grows. Clients who pay ₦5,000,000 receive either an iPad or an all-expenses-paid romantic getaway for a couple at one of Nigeria’s finest hotels, which includes two nights’ accommodation, special treats, and a Love Hamper. A payment of ₦10,000,000 comes with a choice of a Samsung Z Fold 7, three nights at a top-tier resort in Nigeria, or a full solar power installation.
For high-value investors, the Love for Love Promo delivers exceptional lifestyle experiences. Clients who pay ₦30,000,000 on land are rewarded with a three-night couple’s trip to Doha, Qatar, or South Africa, while purchasers of any Adron Homes house valued at ₦50,000,000 receive a double-door refrigerator.
The promo covers Adron Homes’ estates located in Lagos, Shimawa, Sagamu, Atan–Ota, Papalanto, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Osun, Ekiti, Abuja, Nasarawa, and Niger States, offering clients the opportunity to invest in fast-growing, strategically positioned communities nationwide.
Adron Homes reiterated that beyond the incentives, the campaign underscores the company’s strong reputation for secure land titles, affordable pricing, strategic locations, and a proven legacy in real estate development.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, Adron Homes encourages Nigerians at home and in the diaspora to take advantage of the Love for Love Promo to enjoy exceptional value, exclusive rewards, and the opportunity to build a future rooted in love, security, and prosperity.
Business
Why Nigeria’s Banks Still on Shaky Ground with Big Profits, Weak Capital
*Why Nigeria’s Banks Still on Shaky Ground with Big Profits, Weak Capital*
*BY BLAISE UDUNZE*
Despite the fragile 2024 economy grappling with inflation, currency volatility, and weak growth, Nigeria’s banking industry was widely portrayed as successful and strong amid triumphal headlines. The figures appeared to signal strength, resilience, and superior management as the Tier-1 banks such as Access Bank, Zenith Bank, GTBank, UBA, and First Bank of Nigeria, collectively reported profits approaching, and in some cases exceeding, N1 trillion. Surprisingly, a year later, these same banks touted as sound and solid are locked in a frenetic race to the capital markets, issuing rights offers and public placements back-to-back to meet the Central Bank of Nigeria’s N500 billion recapitalisation thresholds.
The contradiction is glaring. If Nigeria’s biggest banks are so profitable, why are they unable to internally fund their new capital requirements? Why have no fewer than 27 banks tapped the capital market in quick succession despite repeated assurances of balance-sheet robustness? And more fundamentally, what do these record profits actually say about the real health of the banking system?
The recapitalisation directive announced by the CBN in 2024 was ambitious by design. Banks with international licences were required to raise minimum capital to N500 billion by March 2026, while national and regional banks faced lower but still substantial thresholds ranging from N200 billion to N50 billion, respectively. Looking at the policy, it was sold as a modern reform meant to make banks stronger, more resilient in tough times, and better able to support major long-term economic development. In theory, strong banks should welcome such reforms. In practice, the scramble that followed has exposed uncomfortable truths about the structure of bank profitability in Nigeria.
At the heart of the inconsistency is a fundamental misunderstanding often encouraged by the banks themselves between profits and capital. Unknown to many, profitability, no matter how impressive, does not automatically translate into regulatory capital. Primarily, the CBN’s recapitalisation framework actually focuses on money paid in by shareholders when buying shares, fresh equity injected by investors over retained earnings or profits that exist mainly on paper.
This distinction matters because much of the profit surge recorded in 2024 and early 2025 was neither cash-generative nor sustainably repeatable. A significant portion of those headline banks’ profits reported actually came from foreign exchange revaluation gains following the sharp fall of the naira after exchange-rate unification. The industry witnessed that banks’ holding dollar-denominated assets their books showed bigger numbers as their balance sheets swell in naira terms, creating enormous paper profits without a corresponding improvement in underlying operational strength. These gains inflated income statements but did little to strengthen core capital, especially after the CBN barred banks from using FX revaluation gains for dividends or routine operations. In effect, banks looked richer without becoming stronger.
Beyond FX effects, Nigerian banks have increasingly relied on non-interest income fees, charges, and transaction levies to drive profitability. While this model is lucrative, it does not necessarily deepen financial intermediation or expand productive lending. High profits built on customer charges rather than loan growth offer limited support for long-term balance-sheet expansion. They also leave banks vulnerable when macroeconomic conditions shift, as is now happening.
Indeed, the recapitalisation exercise coincides with a turning point in the monetary cycle. The extraordinary conditions that supported bank earnings in 2024 and 2025 are beginning to unwind. Analysts now warn that Nigerian banks are approaching earnings reset, as net interest margins the backbone of traditional banking profitability, come under sustained pressure.
Renaissance Capital, in a January note, projects that major banks including Zenith, GTCO, Access Holdings, and UBA will struggle to deliver earnings growth in 2026 comparable to recent performance.
In a real sense, the CBN is expected to lower interest rates by 400 to 500 basis points because inflation is slowing down, and this means that banks will earn less on loans and government bonds, but they may not be able to quickly lower the interest they pay on deposits or other debts. The cash reserve requirements are still elevated, which does not earn interest; banks can’t easily increase or expand lending investments to make up for lower returns. The implications are significant. Net interest margin, the difference between what banks earn on loans and investments and what they pay on deposits, is poised to contract. Deposit competition is intensifying as lenders fight to shore up liquidity ahead of recapitalisation deadlines, pushing up funding costs. At the same time, yields on treasury bills and bonds, long a safe and lucrative haven for banks are expected to soften in a lower-rate environment. The result is a narrowing profit cushion just as banks are being asked to carry far larger equity bases.
Compounding this challenge is the fading of FX revaluation windfalls. With the naira relatively more stable in early 2026, the non-cash gains that once flattered bank earnings have largely evaporated. What remains is the less glamorous reality of core banking operations: credit risk management, cost efficiency, and genuine loan growth in a sluggish economy. In this new environment, maintaining headline profits will be far harder, even before accounting for the dilutive impact of recapitalisation.
That dilution is another underappreciated consequence of the capital rush. Massive share issuances mean that even if banks manage to sustain absolute profit levels, earnings per share and return on equity are likely to decline. Zenith, Access, UBA, and others are dramatically increasing their share counts. The same earnings pie is now being divided among many more shareholders, making individual returns leaner than during the pre-recapitalisation boom. For investors, the optics of strong profits may soon give way to the reality of weaker per-share performance.
Yet banks have pressed ahead, not only out of regulatory necessity but also strategic calculation.
During this period of recapitalization, investors are interested in the stock market with optimism, especially about bank shares, as banks are raising fresh capital, and this makes it easier to attract investments. This has become a season for the management teams to seize the moment to raise funds at relatively attractive valuations, strengthen ownership positions, and position themselves for post-recapitalisation dominance. In several cases, major shareholders and insiders have increased their stakes, as projected in the media, signalling confidence in long-term prospects even as near-term returns face pressure.
There is also a broader structural ambition at play. Well-capitalised banks can take on larger single obligor exposures, finance infrastructure projects, expand regionally, and compete more credibly with pan-African and global peers. From this perspective, recapitalisation is not merely about compliance but about reshaping the competitive hierarchy of Nigerian banking. What will be witnessed in the industry is that those who succeed will emerge larger, fewer, and more powerful. Those that fail will be forced into consolidation, retreat, or irrelevance.
For the wider economy, the outcome is ambiguous. Stronger banks with deeper capital buffers could improve systemic stability and enhance Nigeria’s ability to fund long-term development. The point is that while merging or consolidating banks may make them safer, it can also harm the market and the economy because it will reduce competition, let a few banks dominate, and encourage them to earn easy money from bonds and fees instead of funding real businesses. The truth be told, injecting more capital into the banks without complementary reforms in credit infrastructure, risk-sharing mechanisms, and fiscal discipline, isn’t enough as the aforementioned reforms are also needed.
The rush as exposed in this period, is that the moment Nigerian banks started raising new capital, the glaring reality behind their reported profits became clearer, that profits weren’t purely from good management, while the financial industry is not as sound and strong as its headline figures. The fact that trillion-naira profit banks must return repeatedly to shareholders for fresh capital is not a sign of excess strength, but of structural imbalance.
With the deadline for banks to raise new capital coming soon, by 31 March 2026, the focus has shifted from just raising N500 billion. N200 billion or N50 billion to think about the future shape and quality of Nigeria’s financial industry, or what it will actually look like afterward. Will recapitalisation mark a turning point toward deeper intermediation, lower dependence on speculative gains, and stronger support for economic growth? Or will it simply reset the numbers while leaving underlying incentives unchanged?
The answer will define the next chapter of Nigerian banking long after the capital market roadshows have ended and the profit headlines have faded.
Blaise, a journalist and PR professional, writes from Lagos and can be reached via: [email protected]
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