When Chimezie Emewulu speaks about digital identity, he is not reciting a venture pitch. He is describing a personal wound.

In August 2022, his father was kidnapped. The ransom demand came with a bank account number. The account was functional, active, and had been opened under a stolen identity, belonging to someone who had no knowledge it existed in their name.

The criminals had exploited, with ease, the single most consequential vulnerability in Africa’s financial system: the absence of a trustworthy, verifiable identity infrastructure.

“That experience transformed my professional endeavour into a life mission,” Emewulu said in a wide-ranging interview on Côte d’Ivoire’s national broadcaster, RTI 1.

The targets of that mission, fraudulent SIM swaps, ghost identity registrations, and illicit bank transfers, are not niche technology problems.

They are the daily operating environment of Africa’s financial criminals, and they persist because the foundation beneath Africa’s digital economy remains unfinished.

Emewulu’s company, Seamfix, has spent years building that foundation.

The Infrastructure Beneath the Economy

The argument Emewulu makes is architectural rather than technological. Digital identity, he contends, is not a product or a service, it is the trust layer without which no digital economy can function at scale.

“Moving from analogue to digital systems allows countries to build trust between both sides of any given transaction,” he said.

Without that trust layer, every digital interaction, opening a mobile money account, purchasing a SIM card, receiving agricultural financing, crossing a border, carries an unquantified fraud risk that either raises the cost of the transaction or excludes the poorest participants from it entirely.

In a post-COVID, AI-driven world, he argues, the traditional paper-based identity document is not merely inconvenient; it is structurally incompatible with what digital economies require.

Remote verification is impossible. Tamper-proof enrollment cannot be guaranteed. And the downstream consequences, as his family discovered in 2022, can be catastrophic.

From 10 Million to 100 Million: The Nigerian Scale Story

The scale of Seamfix’s work in Nigeria is one of the more remarkable untold stories in African technology.

Working with the Nigerian government, Seamfix introduced a mobile Android-based enrollment solution that helped scale the national identity database from under 10 million registered citizens to over 100 million, a tenfold expansion that repositioned Nigeria as one of the continent’s most significant digital identity deployments.

The approach was deliberately engineered for African conditions. Rather than replicating Western enrollment models that require citizens to visit fixed urban registration centres, Seamfix designed flexible Android applications that enrollment workers could carry directly into rural communities, ward by ward, village by village.

“You cannot build a national identity system that only works in Lagos,” is the implicit logic of the design. The rural farmer, the market trader three hours from the nearest city, the woman in a community without reliable electricity, their enrollment is not a secondary objective. It is the entire point.

This design philosophy extends to the software architecture itself. Emewulu is pointed in his critique of imported Western platforms that routinely fail in African deployments, not because African users are different, but because the platforms were not built to be resilient against the realities of intermittent power supply, low-bandwidth connectivity, and infrastructure conditions that European or North American engineers have never encountered.

“African problems are best solved by African engineers who possess local context,” he said. It is a position that is gaining ground across the continent’s technology policy community, and Seamfix’s track record provides one of the more substantive arguments for it.

The Passport Renewal Model: A Blueprint for Diaspora Services

Beyond domestic enrollment, Seamfix has demonstrated what sovereign digital identity infrastructure can do for Africa’s vast diaspora populations.

In a partnership with an African government, the company built a system enabling citizens across 83 countries to renew their international passports entirely via mobile phone, including biometric data collection, without visiting an embassy. The cost savings for citizens are significant.

The policy implications are broader: for the millions of Africans living and working abroad who maintain financial and civic ties to their home countries, frictionless remote identity verification is not a convenience, it is a prerequisite for meaningful participation in the digital economy their remittances help fund.

Cross-Border Payments: The PAPSS Integration

Emewulu’s most forward-looking disclosure concerns Seamfix’s work alongside the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System – PAPSS, the infrastructure designed to enable intra-African trade and payments without routing transactions through foreign correspondent banks.

Seamfix is building a governance transaction framework within the PAPSS ecosystem: infrastructure designed to monitor cross-border payments, enforce government transaction quotas, and prevent money laundering and terrorism financing.

In practical terms, this means that the trust layer Seamfix builds domestically, the verified identity underpinning a citizen’s financial profile, becomes portable across borders.

“When citizens travel across borders, their trust profile should securely travel ahead of them,” Emewulu told RTI 1.

The vision is of a continental identity handshake: a system in which a Nigerian entrepreneur doing business in Côte d’Ivoire, a Ghanaian trader clearing goods in Senegal, or a Kenyan professional accessing services in Rwanda carries a verified digital credential that financial and government institutions across the continent can trust.

This is not speculative infrastructure. It is the logical completion of what the African Continental Free Trade Area requires to function at scale.

Trade agreements liberalise market access on paper. Identity infrastructure makes that access real.

Who Owns the Data, and Who Must Protect It

On the question of data sovereignty, one of the most contested dimensions of digital identity deployment globally, Emewulu draws a firm line.

Private companies like Seamfix build the technology. They must never own or hold primary responsibility for citizen data. Data protection laws must be legislated, enforced, and managed entirely by the state. The government is the custodian. The technology company is the contractor.

This distinction matters because the commercial incentives of private data custodianship are structurally misaligned with the public interest in identity protection. Companies monetise data. Governments, when functioning effectively, protect citizens.

Conflating the two roles, as some public-private partnership models have done, creates accountability gaps that criminal networks are very good at exploiting.

The policy message to African governments is clear: commission the infrastructure, own the data, enforce the law.

Financing the Foundation From Within

On the question of capital, Emewulu offers a perspective that diverges from the standard development finance narrative.

Before African nations turn to external development partners for infrastructure investment, he argues, they should look inward, build sustainable business cases, challenge local talent to resolve structural obstacles, and demonstrate that the systems work before inviting external financing on someone else’s terms.

“Internal financing first” is not isolationism. It is a sequencing argument with real strategic logic. Countries that build digital identity infrastructure with domestic capital and domestic engineering talent own the outcome. Countries that build it on donor conditionalities and imported platforms often find that the system serves the financier’s reporting requirements better than the citizen’s needs.

Identity as a Right

Emewulu’s closing argument during the interview returns the conversation from infrastructure and economics to something more fundamental.

“Identity is a fundamental right, not a privilege,” he said. “No one should play god with it.”

It is a statement that carries weight precisely because he has seen what happens when that principle is violated, not in an abstract policy document, but in a bank account opened in a stranger’s name, used to extort a family, and traced back to a system that had never properly asked who anyone was.

Africa is building its digital economy on soil that, in too many places, has not yet been properly surveyed. Knowing who your citizens are, securely, verifiably, and with their consent, is not the endpoint of a development agenda. It is the starting point of one.

The infrastructure question is not whether Africa can afford to build it. It is whether it can afford not to.

(Chimezie Emewulu is the Group CEO of Seamfix, a Lagos-based digital identity and verification technology company operating across multiple African markets. The interview was conducted on RTI 1, Côte d’Ivoire’s national public broadcaster).

With close to two decades of experience spanning cyber defence, systems analysis, and technology strategy, Ajao’s career has been shaped by direct exposure to how large-scale systems fail when trust and accountability are treated as assumptions rather than design principles.

Before founding Profiled Nigeria, he worked across environments where security frameworks appeared robust on paper but often collapsed under real-world pressure, an experience that deeply influenced his approach to risk, verification, and infrastructure.

A trained cyber defence and forensics analyst, Ajao has spent years observing how fraud, impersonation, and identity abuse persist across Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.

In this interview with Techeconomy, Emmanuel Ajao speaks on his plans to help normalise accountability in digital spaces, reducing fraud, increasing confidence, and enabling Nigerians to participate more fully in the digital economy with less risk and fewer regrets. Excerpt:

TE: You’ve spent nearly two decades working across tech strategy and systems. Looking back, what early experiences impacted how you think about risk, trust, and accountability today?

Emmanuel Ajao (EA): That question assumes I learned these lessons gently. I didn’t.

Most of my early years in tech were spent in rooms where everything looked secure on paper but behaved very differently in real life. Systems passed audits. Dashboards were green. Everyone said “we’re covered.” And then something small would break, and the fallout would be… educational.

One moment that really shaped me was watching a single unchecked assumption cascade into a full system failure. That’s when it clicked for me that trust in tech isn’t about good intentions or seniority or how long someone’s been around. It’s about structure.

If accountability isn’t designed into the system, you’re just borrowing trust and hoping it doesn’t expire at the wrong time.

So those early experiences trained me to be deeply suspicious of anything that relies on “everyone knows what they’re doing.”

Because eventually, someone doesn’t. And when that happens, the system either absorbs the mistake or collapses around it.

That lens has followed me ever since and it’s the foundation of how I think about risk today: not as something dramatic, but as something quietly compounding when no one is paying attention.

TE: Before Profiled, what patterns did you repeatedly see in Nigeria’s digital space that convinced you something fundamental was broken?

EA: Before Profiled Nigeria, three patterns kept showing up.

First, fraud wasn’t happening by chance. It was organised and repeatable. The same scams kept working because information was not shared. If someone was blocked on one platform, they simply moved to another and continued. There was no memory, no real consequence.

Second, verification was treated as a one-time task instead of an ongoing process. Once an ID or phone number was verified, that was it. But people change, behaviours change, and risk changes. Verification should reflect that, not stay frozen in time.

Third, the people doing the right thing were the ones suffering most. Honest users and businesses had to deal with delays, extra checks, and constant suspicion, yet they were still vulnerable. Meanwhile, sophisticated bad people exploited every gap.

When a system makes life harder for honest people and easier for dishonest ones, it’s clear that something is fundamentally wrong.

TE: Many people talk about “innovation.” Very few choose to tackle trust, which is harder. Why did you choose this problem?

EA: Because trust is the problem beneath every other problem. Over the years, I’ve watched very smart people build impressive products, only for them to struggle or completely fall apart.

Not because the idea was bad, but because people simply didn’t trust that system or product enough to use it.

In Nigeria especially, trust is everything. You can build fast products, beautiful apps, and viral platforms, but if people don’t feel safe using them, the growth eventually collapses. Trust forces you to deal with real human behaviour, which is key and foundational.

I chose this problem very deliberately. Trust compounds. Every identity we verify properly, every fraud attempt we prevent, every system we strengthen, it builds on the last one. Over time, that creates something powerful that will last for decades to come.

TE: Just as Nigeria’s digital economy is growing fast, so is fraud and impersonation. From your perspective, what are most platforms and users getting wrong about digital trust?

EA: Most platforms and users still treat trust as something you fix after something goes wrong.

What usually happens is this: teams rush to build the product, push growth, acquire users, and only when fraud starts to hurt do they “add” verification. But that approach is backwards. If trust isn’t part of the foundation from day one, you’re constantly patching holes instead of building something stable.

Users, on the other hand, are also getting something wrong. Many people completely outsource their judgment.

They see a blue tick, a badge, or a star rating and assume someone else has done the hard work of due diligence. The truth is, a lot of today’s verification is very shallow.

It may confirm that a phone number exists or that an email was clicked once, but it tells you nothing about behaviour, history, or risk.

It doesn’t tell you if this person has flagged before, or if they’re operating across multiple identities. And in an environment like Nigeria’s, where digital adoption is moving fast, that gap is dangerous.

What’s missing is intelligent, layered verification. Every user deserves clarity about the level they’re operating at. When people know what or who they’re dealing with, they make better decisions.

TE: Profiled describes itself as preventative, not reactive. Can you share a real example where Profiled helped prevent loss, harm, or reputational damage before it occurred?

EA: First, let me set the context. Profiled Nigeria was built on a very simple idea from criminology: people are not mainly deterred by how harsh punishment is, they’re deterred by how certain it is that they’ll get caught.

So our focus isn’t reacting after damage happens. Our focus is increasing the certainty of exposure early enough that the crime never feels worth attempting in the first place.

Now, let me give you a real example so this doesn’t stay theoretical.

One of our users, a small distributor in Lagos, was about to onboard a new supplier they met through social media. On the surface, it looked clean. CAC documents were shared. A bank account was provided. The conversations were smooth. Timelines were urgent. There was pressure to pay a mobilization fee.

Honestly, the usual performance. Before making any payment, the distributor ran the supplier through Profiled.

What followed wasn’t dramatic, but here’s the important part: nothing illegal had happened yet. The supplier was informed that payment would only proceed after full Profiled verification…then everything changed. The urgency disappeared. The follow-ups stopped. The supplier stopped responding altogether.

They didn’t argue. They didn’t negotiate. They just vanished. So the outcome was simple: No money lost. No dispute. No police report. No reputation damage control.

From a criminology standpoint, that’s exactly how prevention works. Profiled didn’t punish anyone. We didn’t accuse anyone. We simply removed anonymity and made deception too risky to continue.

That’s what we mean when we say preventative. When people know they’re likely to be seen clearly, most bad intentions quietly exit the room.

That’s why Profiled is preventative. Reactive systems wait for damage, then argue about refunds, liability, and regret. Preventative systems change behaviour upstream by signaling accountability early. Criminals do not fear punishment. They fear visibility.

Profiled operationalizes that fear, quietly, before anyone gets hurt. Which, frankly, is far less exciting than scandals and losses, but much better for business continuity, trust capital, and sleep.

TE: What does “verification as infrastructure” mean in practical terms? Explain Profiled to someone outside tech.

EA: I usually explain it with something very simple, ROADS. When you drive from one place to another, you don’t stop every time to ask if the road is safe. You trust that there are standards, rules, inspections, and maintenance behind it. That’s what infrastructure does in making everyday activity possible.

Online, we don’t have that yet. Every time you meet someone new on the internet, whether it’s a vendor, a freelancer, a partner, you’re forced to start from scratch. You check reviews, ask around, stalk profiles, and still end up hoping for the best. It’s tiring, inconsistent, and it doesn’t really scale.

What Profiled Nigeria is doing is building that missing trust infrastructure.

So when you interact with someone verified through Profiled Nigeria, you’re not just seeing “this ID was uploaded once.” You’re seeing a fuller picture, business records where they exist, behavioural patterns, how consistently that identity shows up across platforms, and for higher-risk interactions, even physical verification.

The real change is the starting point. Instead of beginning with “I have no idea who this person is,” you begin with “Here’s what we know, and here’s what we don’t.” That alone changes how people make decisions.

And when that baseline improves, businesses grow faster, individuals transact with more confidence, and platforms can scale without becoming breeding grounds for fraud. That’s what verification as infrastructure means in practical terms.

TE: How does your multi-layer approach of combining data intelligence, technology, and human review reduce blind trust without slowing users down?

EA: We’re very intentional about not slowing people down. The way we do that is by letting technology and humans do what each of them is best at.

Most checks happen in parallel across different data points, not one after the other. In the majority of cases, everything lines up quickly and the result is clear, so users get answers almost immediately without anyone needing to step in.

Where things don’t align, that’s when human review matters. But our team isn’t starting from scratch, they’re looking at already-analysed profiles with specific issues flagged. That makes the review focused and fast, not manual and exhausting.

The goal isn’t to remove trust. It’s to remove blind trust. We give people enough clarity to act confidently, sometimes that means “you’re good to proceed,” and sometimes it means “pause and look closer.” Either way, you’re making a decision, not a guess.

TE: SecureMeet and vendor verification speak to everyday risks Nigerians face. Why was it important for Profiled to address both digital and physical interactions?

EA: Because digital actions often lead to physical consequences. So separating “digital” risk from “physical” risk is artificial. It’s all the same trust problem.

SecureMeet focuses on one of the most dangerous moments, a moment where not just trust is required but safety as well. The transition from chatting online to meeting in person. That’s where information is most uneven, and where people are most vulnerable.

Vendor verification addresses the business side. In our informal economy, people are making serious financial commitments to vendors they barely know, often with little documentation to rely on.

We built both because trust infrastructure has to cover the full journey. And honestly, because reach matters. Not everyone is doing large corporate deals, but almost everyone is meeting strangers online or buying from unknown vendors. If we only focused on enterprise, we’d be solving a small part of a much bigger problem.

TE: Verification and security are crowded fields globally. What makes Profiled Nigeria fundamentally different?

EA: Three things: context, coverage, and commitment to prevention. First is context. Most global verification tools are built for countries with clean, centralised records and mostly formal employment. Nigeria doesn’t work like that. A large part of our economy is informal, and we built Profiled Nigeria for that reality. We understand that someone without a registered business can still be legitimate, and that a shiny website and fresh registration don’t automatically mean low risk.

Second is coverage. Many tools solve just one piece of the puzzle, KYC for fintech, background checks for hiring, or a one-time ID check. That’s not enough. Identity in Nigeria is layered.

Even something like a NIN doesn’t always reflect where someone actually lives or operates from. We look across individual identity, business legitimacy, behaviour over time, and even physical interaction safety.

And finally, prevention. A lot of companies call themselves verification platforms, but they’re really reacting after something goes wrong. Our focus is stopping harm before it happens. That requires a different way of thinking and a different kind of system.

We’re not a global company trying to adjust for Nigeria. We’re a Nigerian company solving Nigerian problems, with the goal of setting the standard for trust in emerging markets.

TE: How do you design trust signals that speak to Nigeria’s unique social and economic context, rather than copied from foreign models?

EA: You start by understanding what trust actually looks like here, not what it looks like in textbooks.

In many Western systems, trust is very institutional: credit scores, payroll records, formal employment history. In Nigeria, trust is more relational and network-based. People judge reliability by consistency, reputation, and patterns over time, not just paperwork.

So we design our signals around what actually predicts behaviour here. Things like how long someone has operated in the same physical location, whether they’ve used the same name and phone number across platforms for years.

We also pay close attention to context. For example, having more than one phone number isn’t unusual in Nigeria because of network issues. But there’s a clear difference between someone who has two stable lines and someone who’s used eight different numbers in three months under different names. Our system understands that difference.

TE: In informal markets and peer-to-peer spaces, trust is usually based on instinct. How does Profiled replace instinct with insight, without removing human judgment?

EA: We don’t replace instinct, we inform it.

Instinct is really just pattern recognition based on personal experience. The challenge is that any one person’s experience is limited. What we bring is a much wider lens, drawn from patterns across thousands of interactions.

You might meet someone who feels a bit off, but you can’t explain why. Profiled Nigeria helps put context around that feeling. Sometimes the data shows there’s no real risk and what you’re sensing is unfamiliarity. Other times, it surfaces clear warning signs and suddenly that instinct has evidence behind it.

We’re careful not to present this as instructions. We don’t say “trust” or “don’t trust.” We say, “Here’s what we know, here’s what’s unclear, and here’s what to pay attention to.” The decision always stays with the person.

TE: What has been the hardest leadership decision you’ve had to make while building Profiled, and what did it teach you?

EA: That’s an easy one. Painful, but easy. The hardest leadership decision I’ve had to make while building Profiled was realizing that not everyone who believes in the mission should be on the team. Some people believe in the idea. Fewer people can survive the discipline required to build it.

Early on, I made the classic mistake. I optimized for passion instead of execution. If someone sounded excited, aligned, and said all the right things about “changing the system,” I assumed we were good. We were not good.

At some point, I had to make the call to slow down momentum, have uncomfortable conversations, and let go of people who were good humans but wrong operators. That’s never fun. There’s no leadership manual that makes those conversations pleasant. You just sit there thinking, this is going to ruin my day and theirs.

What it taught me was simple and slightly annoying: leadership isn’t about being liked, it’s about being clear. Mission without standards turns into chaos. And clarity, even when it hurts, is a form of respect.

Building Profiled forced me to learn that protecting the integrity of the system matters more than protecting my own comfort. If we’re serious about trust, accountability, and prevention, then those values have to start internally, not just in the product.

So yes, letting people go slowed things down in the short term. But it’s also the reason Profiled can move forward without breaking itself. And I sleep better, which is an underrated leadership KPI.

TE: What is the single biggest threat to digital safety in Nigeria today that most people underestimate?

EA: Normalization of fraud. When people start expecting loss as part of digital life, the system has already failed.

Ten years ago, scams were easier to spot, poor grammar, obvious lies, crude tactics. Today, many of these operations are run like real businesses. They have polished websites, proper branding, customer-service scripts, and they study how people think and respond. Some even use AI to personalise their approach.

The problem is that they’re professionalising faster than platforms are securing. These networks share information, adapt quickly, and refine their methods. You see it in long-term romance scams, in emails that perfectly mimic real vendors, and in fake investment platforms that look more convincing than legitimate ones.

What makes this especially dangerous is that it’s often invisible until it’s too late. People believe they’re being cautious, but they’re using outdated defences against much more advanced threats.

If we don’t build trust infrastructure that matches the sophistication of today’s fraud, the gap will only continue to widen.

TE: What opportunities exist for startups that don’t treat trust as a feature, but as economic infrastructure?

EA: Massive ones because almost every growth sector in Nigeria is trust-constrained right now.

Trust unlocks commerce, collaboration, and growth. Digital lending is a perfect example. The limiting factor isn’t capital or demand, it’s knowing who to trust.

When you solve trust as infrastructure, you’re not just building a product, you’re removing a constraint on economic growth. The market size isn’t your direct revenue, it’s the total value of economic activity your infrastructure enables.

TE: Looking back on your journey, what keeps you anchored to this mission, what lessons would you approach differently if starting again, what advice would you give young innovators building technology for social impact, and what legacy do you hope to leave through your work and through Profiled?

EA: Interesting! That question sounds like four questions dressed up in one, but let’s do this properly.

• What keeps me anchored to the mission?

Honestly, it’s the cost of failure I’ve already seen. I’ve watched trust collapse in real time and take businesses, relationships, and confidence down with it. Once you see how one bad actor can set someone back years, you stop treating “digital risk” like a theoretical problem. This work stays personal because the consequences are very real, and they don’t announce themselves politely before they hit.

• What would I do differently if I were starting again?

I’d move slower at the beginning and be far more intentional about foundations. I underestimated how much energy it takes to unbuild bad assumptions. I’d also stop trying to explain the vision to everyone. Not everyone is your audience, and not everyone deserves a front-row seat while you’re still figuring things out.

• What is my advice to young innovators building for social impact?

Two things. First, stop confusing intention with impact. Wanting to help is not the same as helping. Measure outcomes, not applause. Second, build systems that work even when you’re tired, broke, or not in the room. If your solution only functions when you’re present, you didn’t build infrastructure, you built dependence.

• What is the legacy I hope to leave?

I want Profiled to normalize accountability. I want people to look back and say, “This is where blind trust started to feel irresponsible.” If the legacy is that fewer people lose money, fewer businesses stall out of fear, and verification becomes a default instead of an afterthought, I’ll take that win.

At the end of the day, I’m not trying to build a loud company. I’m trying to build one that quietly changes how people move through digital spaces with a little more confidence and a lot less regret.

TE: It was nice speaking to you.

EA: Thanks very much and appreciations to your team for the great work you do at Techeconomy.

Each one serves a different purpose in banking, identity verification, and taxation.

BVN (Bank Verification Number)

The BVN is an 11-digit biometric ID used across the banking industry. It helps banks confirm a customer’s identity and protects accounts from fraud.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) regulates the BVN system, while commercial banks issue the numbers to their customers.

Benefits to Business Owners

• Opening Accounts: Every individual who owns or signs on a bank account must have a BVN.
• Credit Access: Banks rely on BVN records to verify identities and review credit history. The CBN also requires BVN before any credit facility is approved.

NIN (National Identification Number)

The NIN is issued by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to all Nigerian citizens and legal residents. It is the primary national identity number and is now linked to many government services.

It is also mandatory for registering new businesses with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and doubles as an individual’s TIN.

Benefits to Business Owners

• Business Registration: CAC requires a valid NIN for verifying the details of all directors, shareholders, and proprietors.
• Linked to TIN: For sole proprietors, the NIN automatically becomes the Taxpayer Identification Number.

TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number)

The TIN is issued by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Joint Tax Board (JTB). It is used for tax administration and is compulsory for businesses that want to stay compliant.

Benefits to Business Owners

• Tax Compliance: You need a TIN to file tax returns, deal with FIRS, and secure a tax clearance certificate.
• Corporate Accounts: No corporate bank account can be opened without a TIN.
• For Individuals: Sole proprietors do not need a separate TIN; it is automatically generated from their NIN and verified through their NIN/BVN.
• For Registered Companies: A company’s CAC registration number (RC Number) doubles as its corporate TIN, and this number appears on the CAC certificate.

For business owners in Nigeria, securing your NIN and BVN should be the first step, since both numbers work together for banking, identification, and basic tax registration.

Once you register a Limited Liability Company (LLC), it is issued its own corporate TIN through its CAC registration number.

Staying compliant with these requirements ensures your business runs smoothly and avoids unnecessary regulatory issues.

Speaking at the unveiling recently in Lagos, Yetunde Faulkner, acting managing director of Fast Credit Finance Company Ltd., said the essence of the partnership is to ensure that micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) become scalable and sustainable through improved access to affordable finance.

“We are here to engage with EDC’s partners, who are SMEs, and provide them the opportunity to access single-digit interest-rate financing through Fast Credit.

“We are offering any amount of loan, starting with N5 million, under a partnership with one of our developmental finance partners, BOI, at a flat monthly interest rate of 0.75 percent, which amounts to nine percent per annum,” she explained.

Faulkner noted that Fast Credit has committed N2 billion to the SME financing partnership, to help entrepreneurs grow revenues faster than costs and remain sustainable.

She added that the loan offering is expected to enable MSMEs to create more jobs, something the Nigerian economy urgently requires.

“We will be touching lives and families, and that, in itself, is one of the goals of Fast Credit, to make a tangible impact in the lives of everyday Nigerians, especially those in Lagos,” she added.

Dr. Nneka Okekearu, director of EDC, described the partnership as a historic step in bridging the funding gap confronting entrepreneurs.

“We have collaborations with several commercial banks, but the double-digit interest rates at which loans are offered have made it tough for entrepreneurs.

“Today, we are doing something historic. We are signing an agreement with Fast Credit for single-digit loans for our members,” she said.

Dr. Okekearu emphasised that access to single-digit credit will significantly boost business productivity.

According to her, manufacturers, for instance, will be able to expand output, while many MSMEs will create more dignified and fulfilling jobs for young Nigerians as they scale up.

“Someone who previously had just N2 million to transact business now has access to N10 million, and that means increased production capacity and healthier margins,” she explained.

She disclosed that entrepreneurs within EDC’s network who meet the requirements will be able to access N5 million at a single-digit rate of nine percent per annum.

Aviomoh Daniel, executive director at Fast Credit, outlined some of the criteria that finance firms consider before extending loans to MSMEs.

“We look out for business worthiness, profitability, and the character of the entrepreneur. Collateral is the last thing any credit firm considers. To be business-credible requires structure, and for security, it is better to register as a limited liability company,” he said.

Feyikemi Odunuga, a business consultant, applauded the collaboration between EDC and Fast Credit for creating easier access to capital for entrepreneurs.

“I feel very good about it. I actually came to represent several of my mentees who always need funding.

“I will help them put things together so they can access the loan. I am a service provider, so this is particularly important for those in the manufacturing sector,” she said.

Kachi Salvation, an EDC alumnus, also described the initiative as “amazing,” noting that it will benefit a large number of businesses.

“A lot of businesses are going to take advantage of this initiative. They will also train women on how to manage their businesses, and this will be done monthly.

“The single-digit interest rate is a huge relief for businesses,” she added.

To access the single-digit loan, applicants are required to provide documents, including a 12-month bank statement, BVN, NIN, TIN of key directors, company profile, valid identification, passport photograph, and verifiable credit history.

Other requirements include a direct debit mandate, utility bill, guarantor details, vendor invoice, as well as collateral valuation and perfection.

Over three landmark events, ICEGOV 2025, the West African Digital Governance Forum (WADGov), and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) E-Governance Expert Meeting, Inuwa emphasised that Africa’s digital transformation must be driven by trust, collaboration, and a strong commitment to data sovereignty.

Hosted for the first time in West Africa, ICEGOV 2025 brought together ministers, regulators, development partners, and digital innovators from over 50 countries under the theme “Shaping the Future of Digital Governance through Cooperation, Innovation, and Inclusion.”

Speaking at the opening ceremony at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, he described digital governance as a social contract built on accountability and shared progress.

“Digital is not an accessory to development – it is its backbone,” he stated. “Africa’s digital sovereignty must be built on systems that protect our data, empower our people, and strengthen our capacity to innovate locally and compete globally.”

Despite accounting for nearly 18% of the world’s population, Africa contributes less than 1% to global data center capacity and cloud infrastructure – a gap that poses significant risks to the continent’s digital independence.

Inuwa emphasized that data sovereignty cannot exist without local infrastructure capable of hosting, processing, and securing Africa’s data.

He noted that strengthening domestic cloud capacity, encouraging local data hosting, and promoting regional interconnection are essential for achieving true sovereignty in the digital era. He underscored that Africa must build the systems to govern and protect its own data, rather than outsourcing its digital destiny to external actors.

At the West African Digital Governance Forum (WADGov), he called on member states to adopt shared frameworks that align with the African Union Digital Transformation Strategy (2020–2030).

He underscored the need for interoperable systems, cross-border collaboration, and open digital ecosystems that reflect Africa’s unique realities.

“When our services interconnect, our nations progress together. The real power of digital governance lies not in competition, but in cooperation,” Inuwa told regional delegates.

At the APRM E-Governance Expert Meeting, Inuwa urged African leaders to co-create a continental framework for measuring digital governance maturity that is uniquely African, people-centred, and grounded in transparency, inclusion, and accountability.

“E-Governance is not about automating bureaucracy; it is about humanising public service,” he said. “Citizens should experience government as moments of trust, registering a business in hours, accessing healthcare securely, or paying for services without barriers. When those moments work, trust grows; when they don’t, trust erodes.”

Throughout the week, Inuwa also showcased Nigeria’s achievements in building Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) – spanning identity, payments, and data exchange, and highlighted the Data Protection Act 2023, which institutionalises digital trust.

He cited over 126 million Nigerians now enrolled in the National Identification Number (NIN) system and referenced the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) and Digital Literacy for All (DL4ALL) programmes as examples of Nigeria’s commitment to inclusive digital capacity building.

Inuwa concluded his remarks across the events by reiterating that Africa’s digital future will be written by Africans through collaboration, innovation, and shared responsibility.

“The future of governance will be co-created, not imported. When we connect our systems and our hearts, we can deliver a generation-defining transformation in governance – one that citizens everywhere can see, feel, and trust.”

In reaffirming NITDA’s commitment to digital sovereignty, Inuwa noted that the Agency continues to work closely with regulators, operators, and development partners to localise data sustainably in Nigeria and across Africa.

He highlighted that NITDA’s efforts are guided by a vision of responsible data stewardship, one that ensures national data assets remain under sovereign control while enabling innovation, investment, and efficiency.

Through initiatives supporting local cloud adoption, compliance with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, and the development of Digital Public Infrastructure, NITDA is laying the groundwork for a trusted and self-reliant data ecosystem that advances both national resilience and continental integration.

The successful hosting of ICEGOV 2025 in Abuja not only cements Nigeria’s position as a continental leader in digital governance but also signals a renewed commitment across West Africa to work together toward a digitally sovereign, inclusive, and trusted future.

Introduction

“Moniepoint don finish this market, Dayo. I am shutting down my agency banking division. Na just Opex dey there, I no see business. In fact, I need a foreign investor or startup to take it out of my hands before the end of the year. Plus, the recent CBN circular capping cash withdrawals at ₦100,000, you better focus on merchant payment collections. It has a higher margin sef.”

Ha! I exclaimed in response as I listened to a mentor over a cup of tea around Ikoyi. I was in Lagos in April to pitch our payment terminal solutions to few commercial banks, so I took some time out to meet my mentor who is an industry veteran with an active fintech in Nigeria with more licenses than we do.

But how did we get here? This POS agent turned pure water situation that we now find ourselves in.

Where there is so many POS agents that it would be considerable if the Central Bank of Nigeria stop issuing the license citing market saturation.

Where it is not unthinkable to cease customer acquisition for the business. Where getting a super-agent license is almost laughable.

To understand this situation or even chart a way forward for what agency banking could and should look like going forward, we need to understand where it’s coming from.

You see before POS Agents were ATMs. Yes, ATMs. ATMs that have now become building props; analogue jewelry serving as mere objects of decor to the bank’s building than as the store box of financial transactions they used to be.

Sometime in 2012, I got invited to a conference by Keystone Bank as one of their banking partners. This was thirteen years ago when I started my foray into the Nigerian Banking/Fintech space after taking over my father’s real estate business; one of the divisions of the business focused on finding high traffic and secured pedestrian locations where ATMs can be installed for commercial banks.

“We need 120,000 ATMs nationwide to serve the cash needs of Nigerians”. Seventeen-year-old me listened attentively to a representative of the CBN as he gave a lecture on Why banks need to improve their ATM Spread and Service Availability.

Around this time, a lot of the fast payment services we are now accustomed to were still at a nascent stage. In fact, few Banks could boast of internet banking or the quick mobile banking capabilities that are now synonymous with financial service delivery in Nigeria.

Today, the extent to which ATMs serve our cash needs is almost non-existent and the well-dreaded long ATM queues are now memories of a past replaced by POS Agents on every roadside peddling cash to Nigerians to care for it or should I say who can afford it.

Earlier this year (2025), banks borrowed over ₦8.2 trillion from the CBN in just 17 days to address cash shortages. Yet, the cash scarcity persisted. Customers, frustrated by long queues and empty ATMs, turned into a more accessible alternative: PoS agents.

If we needed 100,000 ATMs to serve Nigerian Cash Needs in 2012, surely over two million POS Agents peddling cash on the streets would be enough. I digress. Back to the topic at hand. A little trip down memory lane.

Agency Banking in the Beginning – A Vision for financial Inclusion

My AI Copilot tells me Agency Banking kicked off in 2013 with the first set of entrants such as Interswitch, Paga, and First Bank’s FirstMonie.

During this epoch (2013-2020), agency banking was strictly the purview of cybercafes – oh cybercafes – and business centers – primarily hubs for servicing document needs such as typing, printing, laminating, and photocopying – became the unlikely pioneers of Nigeria’s agency banking revolution.

These centers, somewhat trusted fixtures in their communities, were well-positioned to take on the additional role of financial service providers. And it made sense. With their existing infrastructure – computers, internet access, and a steady stream of foot traffic – they seamlessly integrated agency banking into their operations.

I recall multiple instances back at the University of Ilorin where I was faced with the difficult choice of trading N100 Paga Charge at the cybercafe or taking a N30 Taxi to face GTBank’s fluctuating ATMs at Tanke Junction.

According to Regulatory Framework for Agency Banking in Nigeria. The following entities are eligible for appointment as agents: Limited liability companies, sole proprietorships, Partnerships, Cooperative Societies, public entities, educational institutions, Trusts and any other entity which the CBN may prescribe.

If you asked anyone who cares, what the primary purpose of AGENCY BANKING Framework is in Nigeria? They’d say Financial Inclusion.

What is financial inclusion? Simply put, access to financial services.

But to what extent do agents provide access to financial services?

Do Agents provide access to financial services or access to cash? This brings us to where we are now.

Agency Banking as it is today – The New Pure Water Business

Originally intended to serve rural and underserved areas, these agents, often operating from roadside kiosks, shops, under umbrellas, or with as little as a table have now become the primary cash distributors in both urban and rural Nigeria.

With over 2.7 million PoS terminals compared to fewer than 21,500 ATMs nationwide, the imbalance is stark.

But for many Nigerians including myself, the convenience outweighs the cost. Unlike ATMs, PoS agents are everywhere, and they rarely run out of cash. Even for banks, the investment cost of a POS terminal is preferable to that of an ATM.

This shift has birthed a parallel cash economy. Some agents source cash through informal means—withdrawing large sums from ATMs meant for the public or buying cash from cash heavy businesses like fuel stations in exchange for digital transfers. This has created a shadow market where cash is a commodity, and access depends on who you know and how much you’re willing to pay. It is now common to find any shop offering PoS agent services.

The result? A system where cash is no longer free, and the poorest often pay the highest price.

So, the CBN responded with a mix of penalties and policy reforms. Most recent is the circular limiting cash withdrawal per day to N100,000, compulsory registration of PoS agents as businesses, and mandatory transaction routing through the right channel. At PayZeep, we have compliance checks in place for clients who rely on our agency’s banking APIs and white label PoS and mobile applications.

So, What’s next?

The future of agency banking – Giving the Agents Agency

As I think about the future of our agency banking business, one thing is clear: the future of banking in Nigeria will not be defined by marble halls or steel machines. It will be shaped by the people—by agents who bring financial services to the doorsteps of millions. But for this future to be sustainable, agency banking must evolve beyond the informal, cash-peddling model it has become.

How can we do this?

Understand that the Market Is Not Saturated—The Cities Are

Contrary to popular belief, the agency banking market is far from saturated. What’s saturated with are the cities. Rural and peri-urban areas remain underserved, and that’s where the next wave of growth lies. By strategically expanding into these regions, we can unlock new customer segments and deepen financial inclusion.

Expanding the Offerings and Looking the Part

The current landscape is dominated by makeshift setups, agents operating under umbrellas or in roadside stalls. While functional, these setups lack permanence, security, and professionalism. The next phase must prioritize structure and dignity and this role falls on the financial institutions.

Let’s eliminate the umbrellas and stick with the kiosks. Agency banking must move beyond cash-in/cash-out.

These agents can become low-cost real estate for selling a wide range of financial products and services:

Account Opening: Empowering Agents with Open Banking Tools

Super Agents can now leverage SANEF APIs to onboard customers directly at agent locations. These APIs allow agents to:

• Create Tier 1 and Tier 2 accounts instantly for individuals.
• Capture KYC data and submit it securely to banks.
• Issue digital wallets linked to mobile numbers.

If APIs like “Create Wallet by Bank” evolve to include broader access, such as linking to savings, loans, or insurance products, agents could become true frontliners of open banking. This would allow them to offer a full suite of financial services, not just basic transactions.

The Open Banking Nigeria API Standard supports this vision by enabling secure, consent-based data sharing between banks and third-party providers.

This means agents could eventually help customers compare products, switch banks, or access tailored financial tools, all from a kiosk. Imagine a super-agent location where you can open any bank account and get a debit/credit card immediately.

BVN & NIN Enrollment: Biometric Identity at the Last Mile

The Bank Verification Number (BVN) is a critical component of Nigeria’s financial identity system. Today, many rural dwellers still lack BVNs due to the distance from enrollment centers.

The National Identification Number (NIN) is also mandatory for SIM registration, banking, and government services.

Yet, many Nigerians, especially in rural areas, remain unregistered. By integrating biometric registration kits into agent locations, agents can:

• Enroll citizens for NINs.
• Update or verify existing NINs.
• Link NINs to BVNs and bank accounts.

This decentralization would drastically reduce onboarding friction and bring millions more into the formal financial system.

Card Issuance: Instant Access to Digital Payments

Some FinTech’s have already demonstrated the feasibility of instant card issuance at agent locations. This empowers customers with immediate access to digital payments, reducing reliance on cash. Imagine again, a situation where you can just walk into a bank’s agent location to replace your ATM card or file a transaction dispute.

Bill Payments & Tax Collection: Agents as Government Touchpoints

Agents already facilitate airtime top-ups and utility bill payments, but their role can expand to include:

• Tax collection for local and state governments.
• License renewals (e.g., driver’s licenses, business permits).
• Business Registration
• Social welfare disbursements and pension payments.

This turns agents into multi-service hubs, reducing the need for citizens to visit government offices and improving compliance through convenience.

One of our latest service offerings is targeted at local and state governments to empower youths in certain locations like markets and parks to deliver agency banking services and serves as Tax agents.

By expanding their capabilities and formalizing their infrastructure, agents can evolve from informal cash peddlers into true community bankers, trusted, tech-enabled, and deeply embedded in the financial lives of everyday Nigerians.

*Adedayo Awojobi is currently the COO of payZeep by Paymi Solutions ( a fintech company with pssp, ptsp and agency banking licenses). He is a seasoned entrepreneur and product management leader with over a decade of experience delivering impactful digital solutions across the fintech and enterprise software sectors.

A Bank Verification Number (BVN) to open an account; a National Identification Number (NIN) to access public services; a Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) to perform your civic duty; and if you’re behind a wheel, a VIO clearance or risk fines. Now, even the NDLEA wants a biometric record. 

Unlike many developed countries where identification systems are integrated and citizen data is protected by strong privacy laws, Nigeria’s identity space is fragmented and duplicative. 

Countries like Estonia and Sweden use a single digital ID for banking, healthcare, and voting, while others like the UK, leveraging National Insurance Number, and the U.S. limit biometric collection and ensure data transparency.

In Nigeria, however, citizens must enrol separately for multiple IDs, usually submitting the same biometric data to different agencies with little coordination or oversight. 

This lack of interoperability creates inefficiency and also exposes personal data to greater risks, without giving citizens control over how their information is used.

Welcome to Nigeria’s identity maze, where every agency wants your face, but none can protect or guarantee what happens to it. There is saturation without structure.

A Nation of IDs, Not Citizens

Nigeria’s identity industry is an administrative overgrowth. Thirteen major identity systems currently operate across the country, each usually overlapping, and rarely integrated. 

As of July 2025, over 121 million Nigerians have registered for the NIN. But fewer than 60% of them enjoy reliable access to the public services that required registration in the first place.

The BVN, launched by the Central Bank of Nigeria and managed by NIBSS, has reached 64.8 million enrolments, despite Nigeria having over 231 million active bank accounts. 

The logic behind BVN was straightforward; tie every account to a unique identity. Yet banking access in rural communities is still sporadic at best and exploitative at worst.

The problem isn’t a lack of data, it’s that the data isn’t working.

The Cost of Being Counted

Every agency now wants to scan your fingerprint, snap your photo, and save your biodata. But when Nigerians need help, from resolving SIM reactivation to correcting a simple name mismatch, they face endless queues, crashing systems, and opaque processes.

Between 2023 and 2025, more than 430 cases of identity mismatches were reported, many leading to lost access to funds or public benefits. Even more troubling, over 6,000 foreign nationals, mainly from Niger, were found in the NIN database, leading to both security concerns and doubts about data accuracy and oversight.

In contrast, the NDLEA has taken biometric data collection to a new level, establishing a registry of over 59,000 inmates while simultaneously reporting 14 million Nigerians as drug abuse victims. The question arises: is the growing pool of personal data being used to rehabilitate and support people or simply to monitor and catalogue them?

Where is the Protection?

Despite the enormous volume of sensitive data being collected, Nigeria’s Data Protection Act is still largely toothless. The NDPR, the earlier framework, was a step in the right direction, but enforcement has been inconsistent. 

Citizens have no clear right to see, correct, or delete their own records. Inter-agency data sharing happens without transparency. Cybersecurity protocols are either absent or rudimentary.

We’re storing millions of records, but infrastructure is still vulnerable to basic breaches. Most systems lack end-to-end encryption. User passwords are often poorly protected. Some databases are hosted on outdated servers. It’s like building a bank vault with cardboard and asking citizens to trust it.

The Human Impact: A New Kind of Exclusion

When people are denied access to healthcare, banking, or education because their biometric records are “not found,” that’s not just a technical failure, but institutional abandonment. 

People are being locked out of essential services simply because data silos don’t talk to each other, and there’s no central accountability.

The most vulnerable groups, those in rural areas, the elderly, and women in informal economies, are being excluded from a digital society that claims to be inclusive. The language of technology hides the truth: you can now be poor, invisible, and digitally invalid.

From Data Capture to Digital Control

There’s a deeper issue at play. Nigeria’s identity obsession is starting to look less like governance and more like control. Identity is no longer a right, it’s a barrier. 

Government agencies claim they need these systems to improve service delivery, tackle crime, or manage welfare. But without integration, transparency, and security, what we have instead is a massive surveillance infrastructure, waiting to be abused.

We’re not just becoming citizens of a data state, we’re becoming profiles, without the power to decide how we’re represented or what happens to our information.

What Needs to Change?

Nigeria’s current course is unsustainable. We need more than another government committee or press release.

• A unified identity architecture must be built, where one ID can serve multiple purposes across verified agencies.
• Data security regulations must be enforced with real consequences for leaks or misuse.
• A fully empowered, independent Data Protection Authority should be in place to oversee how information is collected, stored, and shared.
• Citizens must be given data access rights, including the right to correct, challenge, or delete personal information.
• Most importantly, digital systems should enhance access, not deny it.

Conclusion: The Person Is the Point

We cannot continue to build an identity system where the data matters more than the people it’s meant to serve. Nigerians are not spreadsheets. We are not QR codes or fingerprints or poorly formatted PDFs. We are individuals who deserve dignity, privacy, and trust in our institutions.

Until the government stops treating digital identity as a checkbox and starts treating it as a responsibility, we will continue to live in a country where you exist only if the system agrees, and the system is sometimes wrong.

This figure is based on a total of 80,879 inmates across 256 custodial centres across the country.

Abubakar Umar, spokesman, Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Deputy Controller of Corrections, who made this disclosure in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja, dismissed recent media reports alleging that the NIN registration had yet to begin in custodial centres.

Umar described such report as misleading, inaccurate, and not representative of the current situation.

According to Umar, the NIN registration exercise within the correctional facilities was ongoing and has achieved substantial progress.

He credited the achievement to collaboration between the NCoS and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), which has enabled successful enrollment of majority of inmates into the national identity database.

According to him,

“As of June 7, 2025, a total of 59,786 inmates, roughly 74 percent cent of the total inmate population have been captured on the NIMC platform,” Umar said.

“Efforts are ongoing to register the remaining inmates, and necessary mechanisms have been established to ensure the seamless completion of the process.”

He emphasised that the assertion that NIN registration has not started in custodial centres was factually incorrect and overlooks the extensive work already carried out.

The Service reaffirmed its commitment to integrating all inmates into national data systems, including NIN registration, as part of broader efforts to support rehabilitation, reintegration, and digital inclusion for individuals in custody.

Umar also urged media outlets to confirm their information with appropriate authorities before publication to prevent the spread of misinformation that could undermine the Service’s progress and public understanding.

A statement available to Techeconomy, signed by Dr. Kayode Adegoke, head, Corporate Communications Unit at NIMC, the Commission said that all its verification service platforms are functional and accessible to all partners including all security agencies.

“Furthermore, the Commission is aware of the purported ‘inability of the Police Service Commission (PSC) to access the NIMC verification server.’ This information is not only misleading but also inaccurate”.

“To set the record straight, the NIMC granted verification access to all Nigerian Police formations for the verification of the National Identification Number (NIN).

The NPF, PSC and other security agencies have been enjoying uninterrupted verification services for over five years.

“NIMC has provided top-notch verification services for recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force, as conducted by the PSC and at no time have there been any complaints or issues regarding NIN Verification by the NPF or PSC.

“The Commission has a robust and harmonious working relationship with the Nigerian Police Force and the Police Service Commission.

“The Information Communications and Technology (ICT) department of the Nigeria Police Force is actively managing the long-standing verification and integration service between the NIMC and all Nigeria Police formations. NIMC will continue to provide flawless verification services for the purpose of recruitment, security mapping, cybercrime control, and any other security matters”.

He said that the framework by which NIMC provides services to the security agencies was recently restructured for standardization and effective implementation, following consultation with the Office of the National Security Adviser, and NPF has confirmed the verification services have continued to be available.

“We therefore believe that any service interruption experienced by PSC may be due to internal matters.

“NIMC is committed to providing excellent verification services to the PSC, NPF and all its partners but the terms and conditions inherent must be adhered to for uninterrupted flow of service”, Dr. Adegoke, said.

Confirming the development, Dr. Kayode Adegoke, head, Corporate Communications Unit at NIMC, said that upon receiving the information on the activities of the unscrupulous individuals, NIMC, in conjunction with the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), swiftly arrested the culprits behind the illegal collection of the NIN.

“They are currently being interrogated and would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

“The Commission, therefore, advises Anambra State residents and Nigerians to avoid submitting their NINs to unauthorized individuals, organizations, or platforms, as the Federal Government and NIMC have not authorized this. Anyone caught will be sanctioned appropriately.

“At no time should NIN holders give out their NINs for monetary compensation. This is against the laws of the Federation. Anyone caught will be dealt with appropriately”.

The Commission had earlier issued a statement warning Nigerians against sharing their NIN or Data with anyone or on any fictitious sites. The NIN can only be used by the holders to access government or private sector services, and it must be verified.

Adegoke added that the Commission has taken necessary measures to curb the activities of these unscrupulous individuals.

“The general public is hereby advised to reach out to the Commission whenever they notice the indiscriminate collection of NIN via: nimccustomercare@nimc.gov.ng; 07002255646; 01923000010

“NIMC wishes to thank all security agencies for their support towards the credibility and success of the NIN enrolment project”, Adegoke added.