Daily Watch – Pantami alleges 13M cyber attacks during elections, Kenyan banks rake in record profits

Nigeria said 12,988,978 cyber attacks were recorded before and during the 25 February presidential and National Assembly elections. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Communications and Digital Economy Minister Isa Pantami said at least 1,550,000 attacks were recorded on public websites and portals daily before the elections. The statement noted that the attacks increased to 6,997,277 from within and outside Nigeria on Election Day. The incidents include Distributed Denial of Service, email and IPS attacks, SSH Login Attempts, Brute Force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion and Forceful Browsing. The statement added that a committee set up by the ministry to mitigate the activities of cyber criminals during the elections worked from 24-28 February.

Tension has gripped the Toru Angiama community residents in Patani Local Government Area of Delta State as three farmers were killed by suspected herdsmen who invaded the community. Many farmers were also reportedly abducted during the attack, according to reporting by the Punch. The paper said hoodlums killed one Mr Dennis, his son and one other person while they were working on their farm. It was further gathered that the deceased was slain while trying to fend off the gun-toting herders and their cattle from grazing and destroying crops on their farms.

Ghana’s finance ministry says it has started processes to settle payments on outstanding bonds. A statement on Tuesday said the processes commenced on 13 March 2023 and the initial instruction covers coupon and principal payments on bonds that matured on 6 and 13 February 2023. “Holders of the afore-listed bonds should therefore expect to receive their payments within the next 48 hours,” it said and explained that payment dates for subsequent maturities will be communicated in due course. The Coalition of Individual Bondholders on Tuesday issued a 48-hour ultimatum for the government to honour the bonds, just as the Pensioner bondholders also said they were worried over the government’s silence in spite of the various promises to honour the payments, so they considered revisiting their picketing to press home their demands.

Two of Kenya’s biggest banks saw a surge in profit from foreign exchange trading due to the increased volatility of foreign currencies caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. According to the Kenyan paper Business Daily, Standard Chartered’s net profit skyrocketed by 38% to Ksh12.44 billion ($95.7 million) in 2022. Absa’s profit soared to Ksh14.6 billion (~$112 million), prompting the bank to pay a record dividend to its shareholders. StanChart’s performance was due to robust growth in consumer, private, and business banking. The wealth management business contributed Ksh15.6 billion ($120 million) to the top line. The corporate, commercial, and institutional banking unit also chipped in Ksh13.6 billion ($104.6 million). The bank also cashed in on currency trading, which netted them Ksh5.97 billion ($45.9 million). Absa’s payout rose to Ksh1.35 ($0.01) per share, which is Ksh6.2 billion ($47.7 million), up from last year’s Ksh1.10 ($0.0085) per share. Absa’s net profit grew by 34.2%, amounting to Ksh14.6 billion ($112.3 million) by the end of 2022. They also saw a 27.7% increase in interest income. They made a profit from foreign exchange trading earnings—about Ksh6.6 billion ($50.7 million).