Press spotlights over 200 cyber attacks during Nigeria’s presidential, parliamentary polls, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the Nigerian Government blocked over 200 cyber attacks during the just concluded presidential and the National Assembly Elections is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian newspaper reports that the Nigerian Government blocked over 200 cyber attacks during the just concluded presidential and the National Assembly Elections.
The Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone (GBB), Prof. Muhammad Abubakar, who disclosed this at the opening session of a two-day Ministerial training for GBB Board members and management staff, yesterday, in Abuja, stated that business continuity and cyber space protection committee has been formed to safeguard and regulate digital activities while optimising the GBB’S Technical Services.
He said, “On the election day alone, we were able to block more thank 200 attacks and the next day the attacks geometrically increased to about 1.2 million and all were blocked from our own businesses.”
Abubakar noted that the training with the theme: “Positioning the GBB Team for Effective Management and Leadership in the 4th Industrial Revolution”, was aimed at reviewing the agency’s performance while initiating alternative means of revenue generation.
On his part, the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami urged the agency to think out of the box to discover new areas for government revenue generation.
He said, “We need to be proactive in our thinking, let us not maintain the same process everyday when it comes to revenue generation.”
Pantami stated that the train was geared towards evaluating and recalibrating the Galaxy Backbone Limited in regards to management and leadership for optimal outputs and commended Galaxy Backbone’s approach to digital Infrastructural development while saving cost of governance.
The newspaper says that as aggrieved parties at the just-concluded presidential election approach the court to seek redress, stock market investors at the weekend urged the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to adopt a reconciliatory approach and avoid comments capable of heating up the system with dire consequences for the stock market.
They also stressed the need for groups seeking redress to remain upright and follow due process of law in their pursuit of justice to boost investors’ confidence and sustain the current upbeat in stock market.
The stakeholders maintained that theories of investors’ behaviour have revealed that bad news triggers market panic and investors over-react to such negative sentiments.
They warned that political uncertainties and insecurity that pervaded the country in the past, impacted negatively on investors’ sentiments, asset valuations, country risk profile as well as portfolio allocation decisions.
Recall that alleged political intrigues ahead of the 2019 elections took a severe toll on the nation’s stock market, causing investors to lose over N3.43 trillion in nine months of persistent decline.
Within the period, many blue-chip companies quoted on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) experienced unprecedented losses, contrary to the general expectations of positive earnings in 2018.
Indeed the nation’s stock market had defied election anxiety to record unprecedented improvement in the past few months propelled by investors repositioning ahead of the 2022 full-year earnings and dividend declaration.
For instance, the market reopened on a brighter note on the first trading day in 2023 as investors gained N188 billion in value, while market capitalisation rose to N28.103 trillion from N27.915 trillion at which it closed in 2022.
Also, it was a bullish February on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) as increased bargain hunting in virtually all the blue-chip stocks persisted. Consequently, market capitalisation soared by N1.4 trillion, while the All-Share index returned 8.89 per cent gain Year-To-Date (YTD).
The Punch reports that the fresh move by some Deposit Money Banks to re-circulate old N500 and N1,000 notes suffered a setback on Tuesday as motorists, fuel stations, retailers, traders, and other categories of bank customers rejected the old currencies.
The development came about 48 hours after some commercial banks, particularly Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Sterling Bank, began the disbursements of the controversial N500 and N1,000 notes across their branches in major Nigerian cities.
Commercial banks’ decision to re-circulate the old notes followed last week’s Supreme Court order approving the use of old N1,000 and N500 and N200 notes as legal tender for 10 months.
The Supreme Court had last Friday ordered that the old naira notes should be allowed in circulation along with the new notes until December 31, 2023.
The court had said the Federal Government’s naira redesign policy contravened the 1999 Constitution.
However, findings by The PUNCH on Tuesday revealed that key bank customer groups had started rejecting the re-circulated old N500 and N1,000 notes.
Most of them hinged their arguments on the fact the CBN, the banking sector regulator, had yet to approve the use of the old notes as legal tender, except the old N200 note.
Oil marketers, on Tuesday, refused to collect the old N500 and N1,000 notes from customers in Abuja, Nasarawa and Niger states, insisting that Deposit Money Banks had yet to instruct them to accept the old naira bills.
Some filling stations, particularly those operated by independent oil marketers, and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, refused to accept the old naira notes on Tuesday despite the order of the Supreme Court and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
At the NNPC Limited’s retail outlet in Nyanya, a major border town between Abuja and Nasarawa State, attendants at the filling station said they had yet to receive instructions from their superiors as regards accepting the old notes.
Similarly, at Khalif filling station, operated by an independent marketer in Kubwa, Abuja, the attendants said they would not accept the old naira bills, but asked customers to pay using a Point of Sale Service machine or via bank transfers.
Aside from filling stations, it was also observed that most traders in the capital city and neighbouring states had yet to start accepting the old notes.
“We are waiting for the presidential directive. The President has not spoken. However, if the banks say we should collect the old notes, of course, we will accept the notes,” the Secretary, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abuja-Suleja, Mohammed Shuaibu, stated.
The newspaper says that MTN Nigeria has raised N125bn through issuance of commercial papers to boost its short-term working capital and funding requirements.
In a notice to the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Monday, the company said that it had completed the Series 4 & 5 Commercial Paper issuance under its N150bn Commercial Paper issuance programme.
The notice signed by Company Secretary, Ufo Ukpanat, revealed that MTN Nigeria sought to raise N100bn, and the transaction was 125 per cent subscribed, with N125bn raised.
The commercial papers included a 188-day CP at a yield of 11.00 per cent and 267-day commercial paper at a yield of 12.50 per cent.
The CP Issuance was completed on 1 March 2023.
GIK/APA