Nigeria: Residual Reputational Cost(s) everywhere ...

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 10 years, you would have learned that Nigeria does not enjoy a good business reputation. It is considered to be full of scammers. No one knows how this came to be precisely only that the instances of 'advance fee fraud schemes', the production of scam letters (of the kind that promise to leave you a fraction of sums in suspended accounts or escrows after you might have helped to spring such funds) and the down out-right brazen technique of wheedling you out of your funds (usually by offering to help directly with some 'fintech' problem or the other and tricking unsuspecting persons out of their funds) seems rampant.

Currently all kinds of ponzi schemes are masquerading around the Nigerian countrysides promising 100x and 200x returns on any investment. High profile arrests, well-publicised and often involving the incidence and co-operation of Interpol agents are a growth industry.
Last year, US FBI put out a long list of persons hailing from Nigeria who were involved in high financial crimes, wire fraud and other '419' scams and made several arrests. This year, the arrest of popular social media blogger, influencer-'big-boy' popularly called 'Hushpuppi' almost broke the internet. Details are sketchy but Hushpuppi was rumoured to have defrauded whole governments and to have stashed away part of the proceeds using transactions denominated in BTC (Bitcoin)

This trend is making it somewhat difficult to trust young Nigerians or young Nigerian startups looking to become active in fintech across the globe. This might manifest itself in any number of ways. For instance, Wallets which appear to offer services to Kenyans and the Kenyan Dollar, may refuse to extend this facility to Nigerians.

Paul Walsh is CEO of a company with a very innovative 'security project'. He chairs a product, which is a peer-reviewed warning system in the shape of a shield that glows green whenever someone visits a site (website) that has been pre-vetted and judged to be safe and friendly. By the same token it is blackened when a site is either malicious or has not been vetted. Paul is aiming his product at everyone including the crypto-going and the crypto-using society or community. When surveyed, the reason for this is not hard. Most of the hacks occurring currently in the crypto-space (at least those reported) seem to have taken place at the level of the browser. Usually, this is a browser hijack or a looting of funds through a compromised hash or secret key revealed during a harmless server request. A browser applet (Paul's shield) can glow green to reassure any callers about safety.

Well, I called at my legitimate Nigerian Bank Website the other day and MetaCert (Paul's product/service) positively went wild. It warned me of all sorts of mayhem to be had by proceeding to use the site. I am sure that someone had fixed the backend or product APIs to respond to things Nigerian in such a very different and hyperactive way. If that proves to be true (I am currently investigating), it would be a case of one's reputation preceding them.

At the just concluded 'fintech summit' held by First Bank Nigeria, we had the honour of being treated to a beautiful keynote address by Mr Chinedu Echeruo of Hopstop fame. He spoke about how Nigeria was on the brink of adopting cutting-edge technology in the shape of proliferating blockchain services and offerings. He touted all the massive potential efficiencies and efficacies soon to be realised. At the Q&A session following however, respondents had a tonne of questions about safety, transparency, regulation and crime. In other words, blockchain technologies may well be the be-all and end-all, holy grail that societies need in order to deliver next-level efficiencies, but will it cure scams? The questions went begging. Will Nigeria's reputation be bettered? Surely, that is a 'use-case-in-waiting' for somebody, somewhere. Arrh what would the winning project be like?