General
Africa Has Potential for Green Hydrogen—Okonjo-Iweala
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has advised African leaders to make use of the continent’s solar resources to provide clean electricity to its people.
In a chat with CNN, she suggested that microgrids could be easily installed in rural areas to supply electricity to the people.
Despite possessing 60 per cent of the world’s solar resources, Africa only accounts for 1 per cent of the world’s total solar panel capacity, according to the 2022 Africa Energy Outlook by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
“Africa has these critical minerals, lithium, you name it, all of them. We also have the potential for green hydrogen. Kenya is 95% clean energy. Many African countries have that potential. Put the two together. You can use clean energy to produce some of these critical minerals.
“You can have these many micro-grids that can be more easily installed in rural areas and give our people access to light.
“So, let’s do that and that will take care of a large requirement. Now we come to industry, and we do have a right to industrialise.
“So, there we have this issue. That’s why we say that to some of our developing countries, let’s not be hypocritical.
“We will need a transition where gas is better than oil. Let’s use that until we have more new technology that can help us with cleaner energy,” the WTO chief said.
The Head of Unit for Tracking Sustainable Transitions at IEA, Mr Daniel Wetzel, identified financing as the major problem with the continent.
“The major challenge for investment in Africa is financing. In Africa the cost to finance a solar project, the same size solar project that would be built in Europe costs three to four times more just because of the returns that are expected on financing because of the higher risks,” he submitted.
But a few companies are looking into this and one of them is ARTsolar, which boasts a state-of-the-art production facility in Durban.
“Effectively, we make 1,760 solar panels a day at peak capacity. We can reduce breakages, and increase efficiency in terms of production and cycle times in the various stages of manufacturing, and that is how AI is being used in the manufacturing process.
“A big consumer of ours is Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Namibia. We are also supplying into Mauritius right now.
In Nigeria… we’ve supplied into Nigeria for the last 10 years. We’re involved in the street lighting programs,” its General Manager, Viren Gosai, said.
In sub-Saharan Africa, in 2019, 25 million Africans had home solar systems, and in 2022, 45 million had the systems installed, providing 4 electricity to African households.
Kenya’s Sun King Solar, is a world leader in off-grid solar systems, though its Vice President for Pay-As-You-Go in East and Southern Africa, Mr Victor Agandi, said, “We are currently in nine countries. We have Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, that’s East Africa.
“We have Mozambique, Malawi, Cameroon, Togo, and of course, Nigeria. We have over 79 stores in Nigeria with I think almost two million households right now installed in Nigeria.”
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has explained why it initiated a move to freeze the bank account of the Osun State government.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Governor of Osun State, Mr Ademola Adeleke, claimed that the anti-money laundering agency asked one of its bankers, First Bank, not to release funds to the state government.
According to the Governor, this was part of the strategies to frustrate his administration ahead of the August 15, 2026, governorship election in the state.
Reacting to the issue on Wednesday night, the EFCC, in a statement, said it has been investigating the state government since March 2026 over an alleged “fraudulent handling of Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds and Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) account to the tune of N11.0 billion.
The organisation noted that some officials of the state government, especially the Accountant General of the State, have had interview sessions with investigators of the EFCC.
“These ongoing investigations of the state government would not have warranted any placement of Post No Debit order on its account but for the precipitate and unwarranted movement of funds from the accounts to different suspicious accounts since August 2, 2026.
“The commission noticed huge transfers of funds into different corporate entities and had to swiftly halt the trend by freezing the accounts from which such heavy funds are being moved,” parts of the statement said.
In the disclosure, the agency noted that its preventive mandate is a public-inclined framework of safeguarding public funds, assets and resources, stressing that it cannot “watch idly while a state government’s account is being pillaged.”
“While the commission is fully aware of the impending governorship election in Osun State, it has a responsibility to act in defence of the sanctity of the funds of the state. It will be uncharitable for the commission to allow an excuse of an upcoming election to fold its arms to perform its legally-assigned functions,” it pointed out.
The EFCC disclosed that it is “keeping watch over the finances of other states like Osun State. Many of these states are on the investigative radar of the commission to ensure accountability and probity. The commission has always pointed out that it is non-partisan and non-sectarian but always working in the overall interests of Nigerians. The Osun State government account was frozen to save public funds from being looted.”
The organisation urged the public “to ignore false narratives and deliberate demonisation of the works of the EFCC. The interests of all Nigerians are greater and will always be protected by the commission.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has launched a mobile application designed to monitor fuel consumption patterns in real time across retail outlets nationwide.
The NMDPRA, established under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, is responsible for the technical and commercial regulation of Nigeria’s midstream and downstream petroleum operations. The deployment of the mobile application aligns with the authority’s broader efforts to leverage technology to improve regulatory compliance and strengthen accountability.
The pilot phase of the project began on August 1 in Abuja and its six Area Councils, the authority said in a statement published on X.
As part of the rollout, the Executive Director for Distribution Systems, Storage and Retailing Infrastructure (DSSRI), Mr Ogbugo Ukoha, led a team alongside officials from the Abuja Regional Office to assess the readiness and operational performance of the digital platform at participating retail outlets.
According to the NMDPRA, the application captures inventory and compliance data in real time, enabling regulators to monitor fuel distribution more effectively while improving operational efficiency across the sector.
The authority said the platform would generate reliable, data-driven insights to support evidence-based decision-making, strengthen national energy security planning and enhance transparency in the downstream petroleum industry.
It added that the initiative is expected to provide significant value to government, investors, operators and other stakeholders by improving access to accurate fuel consumption and compliance data.
Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector has undergone significant changes since the deregulation of the petrol market and the removal of fuel subsidies, with regulators placing greater emphasis on data-driven supervision to ensure product availability, prevent supply disruptions and discourage sharp regional disparities in distribution.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
No doubt, moving money among African markets remains a slow, fragmented process that relies on multiple intermediaries and prolonged settlement cycles.
To solve this issue and drive the development of stablecoin-enabled payment services for businesses across the continent, Onafriq has joined forces with a leading stablecoin infrastructure provider, Privy.
The collaboration will enable Onafriq to create and manage embedded digital asset solutions for its partners and, in time, institutional clients where regulation allows. The initial phase focuses on cross-chain stablecoin transfers and treasury and settlement workflows, creating the foundation for future cross-border payment and liquidity solutions.
Integrating Privy’s secure infrastructure enables Onafriq to build the capabilities required to support a new generation of efficient digital payment services for banks, fintechs, and mobile money operators.
This partnership is a key component of Onafriq’s broader strategy to modernise pan-African payment infrastructure, enabling secure multi-modal wallets and more efficient movement of value across the continent.
The outcome will support a range of future institutional use cases, including stablecoin-enabled settlement, treasury management and liquidity services, as it reflects Onafriq’s commitment to driving Africa’s digital transformation agenda by investing in technologies that make financial services more efficient, connected and accessible.
It was gathered that Onafriq selected Privy for its enterprise-grade infrastructure to enable the seamless integration of digital asset wallet capabilities into its products, subject to regulatory approval, and deliver a simple user experience while abstracting the complexity of blockchain technology.
“At Onafriq, we keep investing in technology that makes payments faster and more accessible. Privy gives us a building block for faster settlement and better liquidity management. As demand for digital asset services grows, our goal is to ensure Africa’s payment ecosystem benefits securely and in line with regulatory frameworks,” the Group Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Onafriq,” Mr Luke Kyohere, said.
The chief executive of Privy, Mr Henri Stern, said, “Stablecoins will play an increasingly important role in the future of global payments, but real-world adoption depends on infrastructure that is secure, scalable and simple to implement. Working with Onafriq allows us to help build that foundation across Africa and beyond.”
