👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Lagos to install CCTVs at bus stops

Companies

How do you spell a turnaround? J-U-M-I-A!

Since it launched on the New York Stock Exchange in 2019, the e-commerce giant has undergone different resurgences. 

Jumia stocks debuted at $14.95 per share on the NYSE and closed at $18.90 (up 26.5% from the listing price), showing signs of a warm embrace by the market. Jumia stocks climbed as high as $46.99 in September 2019, showing signs that. What would follow after that was a great decline in the stock price, with the stocks reaching as low as low as $2.22 in March 2023.

Since the year began, Jumia stock prices have begun an upward climb, starting at $3.36 and hitting $8.67 yesterday. While yesterday’s figure falls short of its listing price, it signals increased investors’ confidence. 

So what changed?  Since Francis Durfay took the helm at Jumia in 2023, he has introduced different cost-cutting measures in the company. The company shuttered its food delivery business, Jumia Food, and cut advertising spending. Durfay also ordered staff domiciled in the UAE to the company’s active market. Durfay also rejigged the e-commerce giant’s business model admitting in a chat with TechCabal that the unit economics weren’t sustainable. 

So far, Durfay has done everything right to restore Jumia back to a path for growth and one can only hope that the rally of its stocks continues or perhaps we’ll see it grow in astronomical terms like NVIDIA’s.

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Economy

Are bus stations in Lagos about to become one of the safest places to be? 

“Stand with attention”, “Grip your phone”, “Put your bag at the front ”—These are words of advice anyone standing at junctions or bus stops in Lagos have heard. 

Aside from the association of rickety yellow Danfos with Lagos, many people will advise you to be “smart”, especially at bus parks and markets that invite different people from different parts of Lagos with thieves and criminals disguising as allies. 

In 2022, for example, Oluwabamise Ayanwola, a 22-year-old fashion designer boarded a BRT, one of the most trusted transportation systems, in Lagos but this didn’t save her as she was murdered by the driver.

The surge in crimes like harassment, robbery, kidnapping and even death has eroded public trust in Lagos’s commercial transportation system. 

The Sanwo-Olu-led administration is on to restore the trust in the system and make residents stand at ease as Lagos State has unveiled plans to boost security with CCTV cameras at transport hubs like interchanges, bus stops, freight yards, and taxi parks, over the next two years. This is a part of the Lagos State Transport policy. 

To achieve comprehensive surveillance, local control centers will be established at key junctions across Lagos. These centres will monitor the CCTV camera network. 

The CCTV cameras will also leverage Automatic Incident Detection (AID) technology. This will improve traffic management by enabling faster response times to accidents and other disruptions.

As part of the policy, real-time data from CCTV footage will be instrumental in developing and implementing effective traffic management plans. This data will allow authorities to respond swiftly to changing conditions and address issues as they emerge, ultimately minimising disruptions and ensuring a smoother flow of traffic throughout Lagos.

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FX

Nigeria’s acute dollar shortage is no longer news. Several multinational companies have exited the country on this premise (alongside a downturn in the economy). The government has also introduced new policies to curb the dollar shortage, including pumping $7 billion to clear a backlog of foreign exchange transactions.

It also introduced new rules for Bureau de Change operators, revoking over 4,000 licenses and introducing new guidelines for licensing. Nigeria’s antigraft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), also went on a nationwide rampage, sweeping BDC operators and street traders—believed to be manipulating FX prices—off the streets.

While you might have read about all of these reforms, the news is that despite the dollar shortage, certain rogue BDC operators are still finding ways to game the system and live their best lives. 

Yesterday, the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the final forfeiture of properties purchased by a BDC dealer, Jedidiah Ibrahim Ezenwa. Jedidiah had diverted monies—about ₦1.2 billion ($807,978)—meant for foreign currency exchange to buy personal properties.

How did it happen? Ibrahim Amusan, had approached Ezenwa for the purchase of US dollars, transferring about ₦1.9 billion ($1.2 million) to him in exchange for an equivalent amount in dollars. Instead of honouring the agreement, Ezenwa diverted the funds to other accounts and purchased two 4-bedroom duplexes at different locations, one plot of land, and one Mercedes Benz G-Wagon SUV! 

What’s next? Ibrahim reported the case to the EFCC. Per the antigraft agency, Ezenwa was running afoul of its Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act of 2006. The high court judge also classified the case as a contract scam and ordered the final forfeiture of the properties linked to Jedidiah, the foreign currency trader. 

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Cybercrime

In a matter that could have become a cybercrime landmark case in South Africa, a homebuyer, Judith Hawarden, sent R5.5 million ($295,683) for a property she bought to scammers who impersonated a conveyancing law firm named ENSafrica, via email. The fraudulent email which came from ensafirca.com, Instagram of ENSafrica.com. contained bank details that led the money straight to the scammers’ accounts.

Initially, the High Court ruled ENSafrica liable for the loss and ordered the firm to cover the costs as well stating that it held a duty of care towards its client. However, the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned this decision.

In a unanimous decision held by the Supreme Court of Appeal, Acting Judge Fathima Dawood wrote that sustaining the lower court’s decision will have “profound implications” not just for the law firm but will become a dangerous precedent which will make it a landmark case. 

This could lead to situations where it’s unclear who is responsible for financial losses in email scams. 

It may also lead to unfairly holding businesses and individuals who send their banking information electronically when collecting payments from clients or customers for fraud if it arises. 

Upholding the new decision, Judge Dahwood pointed out that Ms. Judith Hawarden the homebuyer could have prevented the loss by double-checking ENSafrica’s bank details.

Judith had already been warned about email scams (Business Email Compromise fraud) by the real estate agent handling her property purchase and still chose to pay the firm directly with a cash transfer.

Jobs

• Big Cabal Media – Event Production Assistant, Client Account Manager – Nigeria 
• Leadway Assurance – Relationship Officer – Lagos, Nigeria
• Kuda Bank– Content Writer – Lagos, Nigeria
• Quidax – Market Operations Intern, Revenue Assurance Analyst – Lagos, Nigeria
• Carry1st – Growth Manager – Lagos, Nigeria
• Bumpa  – Senior Mobile Engineer, Senior Backend Engineer – Nigeria (Remote)
• Comiblock – SEO Specialist, Data Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer – Lagos, Nigeria

Here’s what we’ve got our eyes on

• Diageo sells majority stake in Guinness Nigeria to Tolaram for around $69 million
• Malawi’s Vice President and nine others have been killed in a plane crash
• The rise and fall of Koo, India’s once-thriving Twitter alternative

Written by: Faith Omoniyi & Towobola Bamgbose

Edited by: Timi Odueso & Muyiwa Olowogboyega

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