Business

Experts Push For Customer-Centric Reforms at BusinessToday Conference

Published

4 weeks ago

April 16, 2026

Preport

From left: Dr Julius Odede, Head of Lagos Operations at National Insurance Commission, (NAICOM), presenting appreciation award plaque to Chief Strategist of MelvinAfrica, Chiamaka Ugo-Obidike, at the just concluded 2026 BusinessToday Annual Conference and Exhibition on Insurance and Pensions held in Lagos , with the Convener of the conference, Mrs. Nkechi Naeche-Esezobor.

Expert in the financial market has called on insurance and pension operators to need for customer-focused innovation and stronger integration across financial services.

The Chief Strategist of MelvinAfrica, Chiamaka Ugo-Obidike, made this call at the 2026 BusinessToday Annual Conference & Exhibition on risk protection and retirement planning, held recently in Lagos.

The MelvinAfrica Chief Strategist, who also delivered the keynote presentation themed “Youth Advantage: Redefining Risk Protection and Retirement Planning for a New Era,” said one of the major challenges in product development is creating solutions without involving the actual end users.

From left: Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Unitrust Insurance Company Limited, Adedayo Arowojolu; Chief Strategist of MelvinAfrica, Chiamaka Ugo-Obidike, past President of Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers Babatunde Oguntade at the event.

She stated, “Customers must be part of the product development process to ensure solutions truly meet their needs.”

She further highlighted the importance of data and seamless connectivity across financial platforms, urging stakeholders in the industry to embrace open finance.

According to her, customers should be able to access banking, coverage services, retirement savings, and investment solutions through a single platform, rather than having to navigate multiple applications.

She noted that although the financial services industry is evolving, it must move more quickly to keep pace with a youthful and increasingly digital population.

“Today’s customers do not want to open different apps to access their financial information. The industry must come together to make this work.”

“The biggest advantage we have is the youth. If the system is not ready for them, they will move on without it,” she said.

Earlier, while addressing participants, the convener of the conference, Nkechi Naeche-Esezobor, reflected on how the initiative began. She described its early phase as demanding but highly significant. According to her, the platform first started as an awards-focused initiative before gradually evolving into a forum designed to drive meaningful industry progress.

She explained that this transition was inspired largely by the late Mrs. Tonia Smart, who advised that recognition should go beyond celebration and contribute directly to measurable industry growth. Her recommendation later led to the introduction of conferences and seminars shortly after the platform’s fifth anniversary.

She said the platform has continued to expand under that vision of sustainable impact and sector advancement.

Speaking on the theme of the event, she said placing young people at the centre of sector reforms would help the insurance and pension industries build a stronger, more inclusive financial protection system.

She explained that the theme seeks to modernise insurance and pension products to reflect the realities of today’s youth-driven economy. With the growth of digital work, entrepreneurship, and the gig economy, the conference aims to promote flexible, affordable, and technology-enabled solutions tailored to young Nigerians.

This approach, she noted, is expected to close existing protection gaps and make insurance and pension products more accessible and relevant.

The event featured over 450 delegates, including regulators, business executives, key stakeholders, and young participants who explored practical ways to increase adoption among the youth.

The post Experts Push For Customer-Centric Reforms at BusinessToday Conference appeared first on Business Today NG.

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Business

How oil mafia fought hard to stop my refinery — Aliko Dangote

Published

1 hour ago

May 15, 2026

Preport

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has revealed how entrenched interests benefiting from Nigeria’s fuel import and subsidy regime tried to frustrate the construction of his $20 billion refinery, describing them as a powerful “mafia” determined to preserve a lucrative subsidy system.

Mr Dangote said the resistance came from traders, shippers and local beneficiaries of Nigeria’s long-running petrol subsidy arrangement who saw the refinery as a threat to billions of naira in profits.

Speaking in an interview with Nicolai Tangen, chief executive officer of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, he said these interests worked to delay access to project land and frustrate the refinery’s take-off.

“All this would have been blocked by what you call the mafia in oil business to make sure that we don’t come and address these issues,” he said.

He said securing land to build his world-class refinery took five years, with one site delayed for three and a half years and another for one and a half years, as vested interests sought to stop the project.

“But we were not deterred at all. We were actually focused. We knew what we were doing,” he added.

Mr Dangote explained that for decades Nigeria spent huge sums importing refined petroleum products despite being a major crude producer, creating a system that enriched a few players at the expense of the wider economy.

He said subsidy payments alone reached nearly $10 billion annually.

“The people who were actually benefiting because Nigeria was giving almost about $10 billion every year as subsidy… there are shippers who are making tonnes of money, there are traders who are making tonnes of money,” he said.

He added that a small group also profited from local product allocations under the subsidy regime.

“So these are the people that are not agreeing for us to settle down because they believe that no, we are coming here to displace them. Of course, that’s what we have done now,” he said.

The refinery, which required the construction of an entirely new port, roads and water infrastructure, employed 67,000 people during construction, the African billionaire said.

Mr Dangote said the project became far larger and more difficult than initially imagined, but abandoning it was never an option.

“When you get to the middle of the ocean, you realise that the tide was bad. When you go forward, it’s bad. When you go backwards, it’s bad. So you have to work forward,” he said, using the analogy to paint a broader picture of the difficulties he encountered while building the refinery.

He said the refinery has now changed the market structure and significantly reduced the influence of those who depended on imports and subsidy payments.

The plant currently sources over half of its crude from Nigeria while also importing from Angola, Libya and the United States.

“We source about 56 per cent from Nigeria and some from Angola. We buy quite a bit from Angola, we buy from Libya, and we buy from the US. At one point, we were doing about seven to eight cargoes of WTI from the US. But we’re getting more of Nigeria’s crude now, he said.

Mr Dangote explained that the refinery is currently buying 21 cargoes every month in Nigeria. “That’s how big we are,” he added, stating that they are more than doubling the refinery.

“You know, in the next 30 months, we will be at 1.4 million barrels per day, which is huge,” he noted.

Business

SEC positions AI, data-driven regulation to attract investments

Published

11 hours ago

May 14, 2026

Preport

BY NECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR—The Securities and Exchange Commission has said it is placing artificial intelligence, data analytics and technology-driven regulation at the centre of Nigeria’s capital market reforms to attract both local and foreign investments.

Speaking at the FSDH Investor Conference 2026 in Lagos, the Director-General of the SEC, Emomotimi Agama, said the future of global investing would increasingly depend on the quality of intelligence, data and technology supporting investment decisions rather than the size of capital alone.

According to him, the era of “intelligent investing” has already arrived, driven by artificial intelligence, real-time analytics, distributed ledger technology and algorithmic systems that are reshaping how investments are priced, allocated and protected globally.

He said, “We are at the threshold of what scholars and practitioners are calling the era of intelligent investing — a paradigm in which data does not merely inform decisions, but actively participates in them.”

Agama noted that the SEC had embarked on what he described as the most comprehensive regulatory reform agenda in its history to ensure Nigeria remains competitive in the evolving global investment environment.

He explained that the Commission’s reforms were aimed at creating a forward-looking market structure capable of supporting intelligent investing through faster settlement systems, tokenised securities and deeper derivatives markets.

According to him, the Commission’s seven-pillar capital market infrastructure vision includes plans to achieve T+1 settlement cycles, expand digital assets regulation and build a comprehensive framework for tokenised securities.

The SEC boss said the Commission was also developing governance frameworks for artificial intelligence applications in the capital market to ensure transparency, accountability and investor confidence.

“We are developing AI governance frameworks for capital market participants — frameworks that demand explainability, accountability and algorithmic fairness. An investor in Nigeria deserves to know not only what decisions were made on their behalf, but how those decisions were reached,” he said.

Agama stated that intelligent investing must be inclusive and accessible to ordinary Nigerians, adding that the SEC’s fintech-bank integration strategy targets about 20 million retail investors across the country.

He said technology and data-driven investing tools could democratise access to wealth creation opportunities for small businesses, artisans and low-income earners who had previously been excluded from formal investment systems.

The SEC DG also stressed the importance of collaboration between regulators, financial institutions, fintech firms and investors in building a resilient and technology-driven market ecosystem.

According to him, Nigeria’s capital market reforms and adoption of intelligent investing frameworks would strengthen investor confidence, improve market transparency and position the country as a leading investment destination in Africa.

He added that the Commission was strengthening investor protection through enhanced enforcement mechanisms, financial literacy programmes and the establishment of a dedicated Investor Protection Department.

Agama said, “Confidence is the ultimate asset in a capital market. Every disclosure we enforce, every fraud we prosecute, every investor we educate adds to the stock of market confidence.”

He further noted that Nigeria’s growing role in African capital market integration and digital finance initiatives would help channel long-term investments into infrastructure, gender finance and other critical sectors of the economy.

The SEC DG commended FSDH Merchant Bank for creating a platform for stakeholders to discuss the future of intelligent investing, adding that collaboration and data-sharing among market participants would be critical to building globally competitive financial markets in Nigeria.

The post SEC positions AI, data-driven regulation to attract investments appeared first on Business Today NG.