Category: Innovation

  • Alhamrani Universal, Stanchion Payments, INETCO Partner to Counter Payment Fraud Across Middle East

    Alhamrani Universal, Stanchion Payments, INETCO Partner to Counter Payment Fraud Across Middle East

    2026-01-21 09:00:00

    Alhamrani Universal, Stanchion Payments, INETCO Partner to Counter Payment Fraud Across Middle East

    Vancouver, Canada / Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — January 21, 2026

    Alhamrani Universal, a leading Saudi fintech solutions provider and the region’s largest ATM solution provider, has announced the deployment of INETCO BullzAI, an AI-powered cyber-fraud prevention platform, to strengthen payments security across the Middle East. The rollout is delivered through Stanchion Payments, INETCO’s global partner, as the three organizations position the initiative as a response to accelerating digital payments and increasingly sophisticated financial crime in the region.

    The companies said the deployment will provide real-time visibility into transactions across self-service terminals and digital payment channels, enabling Alhamrani Universal to validate terminal legitimacy, detect anomalies early, and protect transaction settlement workflows—an emphasis aligned with Saudi Arabia’s broader digital transformation agenda under Vision 2030.

    The announcement also pointed to heightened concern about cyber exposure across the Middle East’s financial services sector as cloud adoption and generative AI expand attack surfaces, referencing PwC’s 2025 Global Digital Trust Insights (Middle East) on breach impacts and costs.

    What INETCO BullzAI is expected to deliver

    • Real-time monitoring of every transaction with zero performance impact, improving visibility and helping identify unauthorized or unregistered terminals operating outside the licensed ecosystem.
    • Deeper payments intelligence using full transaction message-field access for flexible, no-code rule creation, behavioral modeling, and detailed reporting on volumes and terminal activity.
    • Rapid adaptation to evolving threats via self-training machine learning models that update after every transaction to detect emerging (“zero-day”) fraud patterns.
    • Pre-emptive blocking of high-risk activity through an AI-driven transaction firewall designed to stop attacks such as BIN attacks, malware, account takeovers, bot attacks, and card-present/card-not-present fraud without disrupting legitimate transactions.

    Echotitbits take: This partnership reflects a broader shift in payments security: fraud prevention is moving earlier in the transaction lifecycle—from post-incident investigation to real-time interdiction. The practical test will be measurable reduction in fraud losses and disputes, stronger compliance assurance, and improved settlement confidence without degrading customer experience.

    Source: Press Release (Alhamrani Universal / Stanchion Payments / INETCO) (2026-01-21)

  • FG Announces National AI Centre of Excellence to Drive Homegrown Innovation

    FG Announces National AI Centre of Excellence to Drive Homegrown Innovation

    In a dispatch by Premium Times, the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy announced plans to establish Nigeria’s first National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Centre of Excellence.

    The centre is expected to support research and practical AI applications in areas such as agriculture, healthcare and education, with a collaborative model involving academia and the private sector.

    Officials also spoke about funding support for startups building solutions tailored to Nigeria’s local needs, including language and productivity tools.

    **Echotitbits take:** This could be transformative—but only if the basics (power, connectivity, and stable funding) are handled. Watch for where the centre will be hosted, how grants are administered, and whether talent pipelines are built beyond Abuja and Lagos.
    Source: The Punch — https://punchng.com/fg-to-establish-ai-centre-at-unijos/ 2026-01-08

    Photo Credit: The Punch