Author: precious

The Central Bank of Nigeria has imposed a substantial ₦250 million fine on Paystack, one of Nigeria’s leading fintech companies, following regulatory violations related to the company’s new consumer product, Zap. The fine, approximately $190,000, stems from allegations that paystack operated its peer-to-peer money transfer app without proper licensing requirements. The CBN claims Zap functions essentially as a deposit-taking product, which under Nigerian financial regulations is strictly reserved for institutions holding either a microfinance or banking license, which Paystack is neither a part of. Paystack currently holds only a switching and processing license, which permits the company to route financial…

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, recently disclosed a significant data breach affecting approximately 1% of its customers. The company has since the attack taken an aggressive stance against the hackers by refusing to pay ransom demands while implementing thorough remediation policies. On May 11, 2025, Coinbase reported that they got an email from an unknown threat actor, claiming to have customer account information and internal documents in their possession. In the investigation that was launched after the breach, Coinbase discovered that the cybercriminals had bribed a group of the company’s overseas customer support representatives to extract…

In recent months, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has emerged as one of the most influential voices on artificial intelligence’s impact on the future of employment. He continues to espouse that while AI itself won’t eliminate jobs completely, those who fail to embrace and effectively utilize this technology would risk being left behind in a fast-paced AI-driven economy. Huang’s perspectives, shared across multiple high-profile events we’ve had so far in 2025, reveal a nuanced view that acknowledges AI’s transformative potential while emphasizing human adaptation and opportunity rather than loss of human jobs. At the Milken Institute Global Conference 2025, Huang stated…

The United States has reached a preliminary agreement with the United Arab Emirates that would significantly increase the UAE’s access to advanced artificial intelligence chips, marking a notable shift in U.S. export control policy. This comes after the Trump administration rescinded U.S. Former President Biden’s AI Diffusion rule that created a three-tiered country access to U.S. manufactured AI chips, a rule that was supposed to go into effect on May 15. In its stead, the Trump-aligned Commerce Department has now negotiated for a robust framework to allow U.S.-manufactured AI Chip export to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other countries.…

In a landmark regulatory showdown, Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) levied an astonishing $220 billion fine against Meta, making it one of the largest penalties ever imposed on a global tech firm in Africa’s most populous nation. In response, Meta, whose Nigerian user base ranks as its 10th largest market, threatened to withdraw its services from the country, a move that stirred intense public debate but failed to sway the Commission’s resolve. Undeterred by Meta’s warnings, the FCCPC issued a pointed statement affirming the penalty and characterizing the company’s threat as “a calculated move aimed at inducing negative…

Wall Street experienced a great deal of instability as a result of President Trump’s serious criticism towards Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States, Jerome Powell. In addition to its effect on U.S. financial markets, this public confrontation between Trump and the Fed Chair raised important questions about the independence of the central bank from politics, even in the middle of a tit-for-tat trade/tariff war. As a result of this serious criticism, all three major indices fell by over 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 971.82 points, representing a 2.48% decline to 38,170.41, while the S&P 500…

The Nasdaq Composite experienced serious volatility in April 2025, where it officially entered bear market territory due to escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China that triggered widespread market anxiety. Marking its first decline since 2022 and representing a 5.8% drop, the index plummeted by 962.82 points, closing at 15,587.79. This steep fall positioned the index more than 20% below its December 2024 record high of 20,173.82, meeting the widely accepted definition of a bear market. This downturn was attributed to President Trump’s implementation of sweeping tariffs dubbed “Liberation Day,” and China’s subsequent retaliatory measures, which stoked fears of…

The tech industry continues to experience consequential significant workforce reductions in 2025, even after a grim 2024 experience with over 150,000 roles being eliminated across a number of 549 companies. So far into 2025, we’ve had over over 22,000 employees lose their jobs, with more than 16,000 layoffs occurring in February alone, and over 23,000 in April. These cuts are happening across companies of all sizes, from tech giants to startups, thereby reshaping the employment landscape in the technology industry. Per Layoffs.fyi’s independent tracking and analysis, as well as a report made by TechCrunch, we’ve had a number of 5…

Synology has confirmed plans to implement new restrictions on the use of third-party hard drives in its network attached storage (NAS) devices, starting with its 2025 model releases. “Synology-branded drives will be needed for use in the newly announced Plus series, with plans to update the Product Compatibility List as additional drives can be thoroughly vetted in Synology systems,” a Synology spokesperson told Ars Technica. Starting with Plus Series models, Synology, in their press release, says they will limit full functionality to Synology-branded or Synology-approved drives and/or those explicitly certified by the company. As such, users who are not using…

The first quarter of 2025 witnessed significant venture capital investment despite underlying market challenges. Of the $126.3 billion recorded in global VC funding in Q1’25, and representing a ten-quarter high of Q4’24 VC funding ($118.7 billion), startups in the U.S. accrued over 72%, recording and accounting for $91.5 billion of the total global investment. The U.S.’s large venture capital funding was especially driven by large AI-funding rounds, with OpenAI’s record-breaking $40 billion funding representing the largest VC funding round ever raised. This testifies to the VC funding landscape’s recent shift to strong investor selectivity, most especially in artificial intelligence (AI),…