This transaction marks one of the largest private infrastructure capital raises in Africa to date, with both primary and secondary components.

The capital will support ARISE IIP’s continued expansion across the continent and the development of green, inclusive, and sustainable industrial ecosystems.

The institutional shareholder base of ARISE IIP comprises the founding shareholders Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Equitane, along with the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the development impact platform of Afreximbank, and, with this transaction, Vision Invest the newest shareholder.

“ARISE has always believed in Africa’s promise and the talent driving its growth. The partnership with Vision Invest and the continued support of our institutional shareholders will help us build resilient, self-sustaining industrial ecosystems that deliver long-term value,” said Gagan Gupta, founder and CEO of ARISE IIP, highlighting the strategic significance of the new investment.

Commenting on the transaction, Samaila Zubairu, President & CEO of Africa Finance Corporation and Chairman of ARISE IIP, emphasized the alignment between capital and continental development goals:

“ARISE IIP has demonstrated what is possible when global capital aligns with Africa’s ambitions. We are proud to deepen our partnership and support ARISE IIP as it scales industrial transformation across the continent.”

In support of the milestone, Professor Benedict Oramah, president and chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, shared his congratulations, stating:

“Afreximbank congratulates Arise IIP management on this landmark deal. With this capital increase, Arise IIP will become an even stronger partner of Afreximbank in the drive to promote export manufacturing and industrialization in Africa.”

Echoing this optimism, Marlene Ngoyi, CEO of FEDA, added:

“We are pleased to reaffirm our commitment to ARISE IIP by participating in this historic capital raise. ARISE IIP exemplifies the kind of platform that drives sustainable growth and regional integration across Africa.”

From Vision Invest, Mohammad A. Abunayyan, chairman of Vision Invest, reflected on the alignment of values:

“This marks our first direct investment in Africa and a natural extension of our values and impact investment philosophy, which centres on the socio-economic development of the communities in which we invest. We are proud to partner with AFC, FEDA, and Equitane to support economic diversification and local development.”

Building on this, Omar N. Al-Midani, president and CEO of Vision Invest, concluded:

“ARISE IIP represents the ideal platform for Vision Invest’s entry into Africa, combining world-class execution, an institutional shareholder base, and an operating model that focuses on in-country beneficiation. We look forward to building long-term value together.”

Standard Chartered Bank and Norton Rose Fulbright acted as exclusive advisors to ARISE IIP. EFG Hermes and Linklaters advised Vision Invest.

This announcement underscores the continued confidence of global and regional institutions in ARISE IIP’s ability to deliver infrastructure that drives industrialisation, enhances local value chains, and creates shared prosperity across the continent.

In a statement, Globacom said that “by providing the best roaming solution where customers can make voice calls and browse using a single bundle, they are assured of getting the best value for money while on pilgrimage or on any other visit to Saudi Arabia”.

A breakdown of the packages showed that the subscriber gets 5 minutes of Voice plus 100MB of Data with a validity of one day for N2,500, while for N5,000, a customer gets 10 minutes of Voice calls and 250MB Data.

Equally, 1 GB Data, which is valid for 10 days, is available for N10,000 and for N25,000, the customer gets 2.5 GB of Data with a validity of 30 days.

In addition, 6GB of roaming data, with a validity period of 60 days is available for N50,000. These bundles enable travellers to easily share their experiences in Saudi Arabia with family and friends globally.

To activate any of these roaming bundles, customers simply need to dial *312#, select option 8 for Roaming, and follow the prompts.

A key convenience is the ability to purchase a bundle in Nigeria, which will automatically activate upon arrival in Saudi Arabia.

For customers who prefer not to commit to a bundle, Glo offers a pay-as-you-go option with competitive rate of N30 per MB for data browsing, N350 per minute for calls back to Nigeria and N270 for local calls within Saudi Arabia as well as N50 to send local SMS.

These bundles ensure the customer can capture memorable moments in Saudi Arabia and share with family, friends and loved ones either back home in Nigeria or in any part of the world.

Researchers discovered that victims were infected when they downloaded the software from the official website, indicating that this is a possible supply chain attack.

Variants of the malware used in this campaign were first identified in 2013. Victims are based in various countries, including Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia, and Russia.

Kaspersky experts identified a new malicious campaign targeting Linux systems, where threat actors deployed a backdoor – a type of Trojan – onto victims’ devices using infected version of a popular free software: Free Download Manager.

Once the device is infected, the attackers’ goal is to steal information such as details about system, browsing history, saved passwords, cryptocurrency wallet files, and even credentials for cloud services like Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud.

According to Kaspersky’s telemetry, victims of this campaign are located all over the world, including Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Kaspersky experts believe it is likely that this is a supply chain attack. During the investigation into Free Download Manager installation guides on YouTube for Linux computers, the company’s experts found instances where video creators inadvertently showcased the initial infection process: clicking the download button on the official website resulted in a malicious version of Free Download Manager being downloaded. In contrast, in another video, a legitimate version of the software was downloaded.

It is possible that the malware developers scripted the malicious redirection to appear with some degree of probability or based on digital fingerprint of the potential victim. As a result, some users encountered a malicious package, while others obtained a clean one.

According to Kaspersky’s findings, the campaign lasted for at least three years – from 2020 to 2022. The malicious package installed the Free Download Manager version released in 2020.

Moreover, over the course of this timeframe, there were discussions on websites such as StackOverflow and Reddit about problems caused by the infected software distribution. However, the users were unaware that these issues were caused by malicious activity.

“Variants of the analysed backdoor have been detectable by Kaspersky solutions for Linux since 2013. However, there is a widespread misconception that Linux is immune to malware, leaving many of these systems without adequate cybersecurity protection. This lack of protection makes these systems attractive targets for cybercriminals. Essentially, the Free Download Manager case highlights the challenge of spotting an ongoing cyberattack on a Linux system with the naked eye. Therefore, it’s essential for Linux-based computers, including both desktops and servers, to implement reliable and effective security measures”, says Georgy Kucherin, a security expert at GReAT, Kaspersky.

To avoid Linux-based and other types of threats, it is worth implementing the following security measures:

• Choose a proven endpoint security solution such as Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business that is equipped with behaviour-based detection and anomaly control capabilities for effective protection against known and unknown threats.
• Use Kaspersky Embedded Systems Security This adaptable, multi-layered solution provides optimised security for embedded Linux-based systems, devices and scenarios, in compliance with the rigorous regulatory standards so often applicable to these systems.
• Since the stolen credentials may be put up for sale on the dark web, use Kaspersky Digital Footprint Intelligence to monitor shadow resources and promptly identify related threats.

Reverse engineering implies detailed examination of a software product or web application to detect vulnerabilities or hidden features. It covers a broad range of areas, including decompiling and disassembling executable files and libraries, and analysis of system data.

According to the external research, the vast majority of cyber professionals state that the cybersecurity skills shortage and skills gap have not improved over the past few years and even got worse. To help InfoSec practitioners enhance their skills, Kaspersky has been continuously running expert trainings both online and offline, organising bootcamps and workshops. 

In June 2023, Kaspersky conducted the Codebreakers cybersecurity competition with over 550 participants from 35 countries¹ including France, Germany, USA, Brazil, China, India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, South Africa, and others.

It was designed to test different hard skills of InfoSec professionals in a limited timeframe and reveal strengths and weaknesses in their expertise. 

Experts from Kaspersky Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) set a number of cybersecurity challenges in three different tracks: Threat Hunting with Yara², Reverse Engineering, and Incident Response. Participants were given such tasks as analуsing an attack scenario on a corporate network and collecting evidence; writing Yara rules for detecting malware; reverse engineering a program and uncovering its secrets by cracking the APK obfuscator; training a machine learning model.

Only 18 participants were able to solve all the tasks. The best results were shown by InfoSec practitioners from the Czech Republic and South Korea.

According to the competition results, the tasks that were most complicated for the participants were related to reverse engineering as they required specific knowledge of system programming, features of x86 and ARM architecture and practical skills in working with disassemblers (e.g., IDA Pro, Ghidra) and debuggers (e.g., x64dbg/WinDBG/OllyDbg).

The tasks that were solved fastest were associated with Yara, one of the most familiar and popular tools among those that analyse malicious code. These tasks were the easiest to perform. 

“We tried to make the CTF tasks as close as possible to the real-world challenges InfoSec professionals face every day. Participants were required to apply their knowledge in a variety of situations, ranging from beginner-friendly to expert level, testing their readiness to deal with advanced cyber threats in future scenarios. Congratulations to the finalists who managed to solve all challenges and I am confident they will fully benefit from the free training offered by Kaspersky,”

says Dan Demeter, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky.

“We are trying to keep up with the times and contribute to better professional background of InfoSec practitioners. Our Expert Training portfolio provides courses covering different cybersecurity topics, from basic knowledge in reverse engineering and writing Yara rules to advanced methods of finding threats and malware analysis. We believe that our cybersecurity competition will help participants to reveal and work on the areas that need improvements to be able to cope with even the most complex threats in the future,”

comments Yuliya Dashchenko, Team Lead of Expert Trainings at Kaspersky.

The winner of Codebreakers received free access to one of Kaspersky’s Expert Trainings. Others were given a big discount for training programs.

“I enjoyed that the competition was well balanced and contained good challenges. I loved the scoring system as well and was happy to play with Klara,”

says one of the participants under the nickname Termopan.