Economy
Alibaba Cloud Revamps Global Partnership Ecosystem to Fuel AI-driven Growth
New AI-focused initiatives with an enhanced incentive program, an AI partner accelerator program and revitalized service partner strategy to support global partners and customers
BALI, INDONESIA – Media OutReach Newswire – 3 December 2024 – Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group today announced the launch of its revamped AI-focused partner ecosystem plan, known as “Alibaba Cloud Partner Rainforest Plan” during the Alibaba Cloud Partner Summit 2024 through a series of new initiatives including an AI partner accelerator program, an enhanced incentive program and a revitalized global strategy for service partners. The initiatives aim to foster the growth of global partners and accelerate the development and deployment of cutting-edge artificial intelligence and cloud computing solutions for businesses across various industries worldwide.
“At Alibaba Cloud, we believe that collaboration is the key to unlocking innovation and driving growth. Our global partners are not just participants, they are the architects of a new digital landscape in the AI era.” Selina Yuan, President of International Business, Alibaba Cloud Intelligence said during the summit, “Today, with our revamped global partner ecosystem, we are committed to supporting our global partners to jointly reap the benefits of AI era and meet the diverse business demand of global customers.”
New AI-focused Partner Ecosystem initiatives
To meet the surging demand for AI technologies from the global customers, Alibaba Cloud debuted AI Alliance Accelerator Program to build a dedicated AI partner ecosystem through collaboration with 50 AI technology partners and 50 channel partners in 2025.
This program offers selected AI technology partners enhanced technical support focused on AI, expanded distribution channels, collaborative go-to-market resources, and dedicated AI consulting services. Meanwhile, chosen channel partners will benefit from increased financial incentives and market development funds for their AI-related initiatives. By leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s AI capabilities and its global technology ecosystem, the initiative aims to enhance partner enablement and accelerate diverse partners’ digital transformation journey. It also seeks to empower global partners to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the AI era, reaching a broader customer base through Alibaba Cloud’s extensive distribution network of channel partners
Alibaba Cloud has also unveiled an enhanced global system for its service partners, introducing the Revitalized Service Partner Program. This initiative focuses on cultivating new service partners by upskilling channel partner and technology partners with targeted training and empowerment, equipping them with necessary capabilities of consulting, implementation and managed services to diversify their revenue stream and deliver a comprehensive service to the customer. It also seeks to empower existing service partners by expanding their offering to include both product reselling and service delivery. Additionally, leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s Generative AI capabilities, the company has collaborated with service partners to jointly develop the Managed Large Language Model Service and other AI-focused services to foster an AI partner ecosystem and address the diverse digital transformation needs of global customers.
Meanwhile, Alibaba Cloud pledged to extend new strategic partnerships with 18 service partners including Whale Cloud, Bespin Global, Cognizant Worldwide, Deloitte, Accenture and FPT out of the existing 50 global standard service partners via enhanced resource sharing and capability complement, aiming to build a comprehensive service system that meets diverse needs of global customers.
In addition, the company also released its Synergistic Incentive Program designed to strengthen the collaboration between its global technology partners and channel partners, fostering a vibrant and dynamic ecosystem. The program introduces an expanded go-to-market pathway, enabling technology partners to boost revenue by leveraging Alibaba Cloud’s extensive channel network while channel partners gain access to a broader product portfolio, increasing sales opportunities and enhancing profit margins. This initiative drives mutual growth and reinforces Alibaba Cloud’s commitment to empowering its partners and nurturing a robust global ecosystem.
Enhanced Collaborations with Global and Regional Partners
In order to support global customers to reap the benefit of digitalization in the AI era. Alibaba Cloud has also announced enhanced collaboration with innovative technology and channel partners, both globally and regionally, to provide cutting-edge cloud computing and AI products and solutions, fostering a thriving and sustainable ecosystem.
In Indonesia Alibaba Cloud has reached a strategic partnership with Telkom Indonesia to provide innovative and effective AI-supported cloud solutions for the Indonesian community. Additionally, this collaboration aims to develop the digital talent increasingly needed in Indonesia to realize the vision of Indonesia Emas 2045.
In Japan: Alibaba Cloud has partnered with Securai, a Japanese company that provides cloud services and information security solutions, to meet the booming digital transformation requests by Japanese businesses. In particular, Securai will localize Alibaba Cloud’s Zstack service for the Japanese market and provide operational support for the stable continuation of the service. Alibaba Cloud’s Zstack is an enterprise-grade cloud platform designed specifically for enterprise customers based on the Apsara distributed operating system for enhanced self-ownership, security compliance, and autonomous O&M.
In Thailand: Alibaba Cloud signed a MoU with Yell Group, a leading creative digital company based in Thailand. This collaboration aims to address the growing demand for Generative AI and to empower the creative media industry with scalable and reliable cloud-based solutions. Leveraging cutting-edge Generative AI, the company develops applications to support creators in their visual endeavors. To promote industry-wide adoption of AI-driven solutions, Yell Group will utilize Alibaba Cloud’s robust cloud computing capabilities to enhance scalability in the creative sector. Additionally, the partnership will introduce Alibaba Cloud’s media solutions, such as Elastic Desktop Service (EDS) and Object Storage Service (OSS), to foster innovation and growth in this dynamic field.
Alibaba Cloud currently works with about 12,000 partners worldwide, including Salesforce, Fortinet, IBM and Neo4j.
Hashtag: #alibaba
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Alibaba Cloud
Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com) is the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group. It offers a complete suite of cloud services to customers worldwide, including elastic computing, database, storage, network virtualization services, large-scale computing, security, big data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) services. Alibaba has been named the leading IaaS provider in Asia Pacific by revenue in U.S. dollars since 2018, according to Gartner. It has also maintained its position as one of the world’s leading public cloud IaaS service providers since 2018, according to IDC.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The domestic supply of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, from the Dangote Refinery increased by 64.4 percent in December 2025, contributing to an enhancement in Nigeria’s overall petrol availability.
This is according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) in its December 2025 Factsheet Report released on Thursday.
The downstream regulatory agency revealed that the private refinery raised its domestic petrol supply from 19.47 million litres per day in November 2025 to an average of 32.012 million litres per day in December, as it quelled any probable fuel scarcity associated with the festive month.
The report attributed the improvement to more substantial capacity utilisation at the Lagos-based oil facility, which reached a peak of 71 per cent in December.
The increased output from Dangote Refinery contributed to a rise in Nigeria’s total daily domestic PMS supply to 74.2 million litres in December, up from 71.5 million litres per day recorded in November.
The authority also reported a sharp increase in petrol consumption, rising to 63.7 million litres per day in December 2025, up from 52.9 million litres per day in the previous month.
In contrast, the domestic supply of Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) known as diesel declined to 17.9 million litres per day in December from 20.4 million litres per day in November, even as daily diesel consumption increased to 16.4 million litres per day from 15.4 million litres per day.
Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supply recorded modest growth during the period, rising to 5.2 metric tonnes per day in December from 5.0 metric tonnes per day in November.
Despite the gains recorded by Dangote Refinery and modular refineries, the NMDPRA disclosed that Nigeria’s four state-owned refineries recorded zero production in December.
It said the Port Harcourt Refinery remained shut down, though evacuation of diesel produced before May 24, 2025, averaged 0.247 million litres per day. The Warri and Kaduna refineries also remained shut down throughout the period.
On modular refineries, the report said Waltersmith Refinery (Train 2 with 5,000 barrels per day) completed pre-commissioning in December, with hydrocarbon introduction expected in January 2026. The refinery recorded an average capacity utilisation of 63.24 per cent and an average AGO supply of 0.051 million litres per day
Edo Refinery posted an average capacity utilisation of 85.43 per cent with AGO supply of 0.052 million litres per day, while Aradel recorded 53.89 per cent utilisation and supplied an average of 0.289 million litres per day of AGO.
Total AGO supply from the three modular refineries averaged 0.392 million litres per day, with other products including naphtha, heavy hydrocarbon kerosene (HHK), fuel oil, and marine diesel oil (MDO).
The report listed Nigeria’s 2025 daily consumption benchmarks as 50 million litres per day for petrol, 14 million litres per day for diesel, 3 million litres per day for aviation fuel (ATK), and 3,900 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
Actual daily truck-out consumption in December stood at 63.7 million litres per day for petrol, 16.4 million litres per day for diesel, 2.7 million litres per day for ATK and 4,380 metric tonnes per day for cooking gas.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has introduced a comprehensive revision of minimum capital requirements for nearly all capital market operators, marking the most significant overhaul since 2015.
The changes, outlined in a circular issued on January 16, 2026, obtained from its website on Friday, replace the previous regime. Operators have been given until June 30, 2027, to comply.
The SEC stated that the reforms aim to strengthen market resilience, enhance investor protection, discourage undercapitalised operators, and align capital adequacy with the evolving risk profile of market activities.
According to the circular, “The revised framework applies to brokers, dealers, fund managers, issuing houses, fintech firms, digital asset operators, and market infrastructure providers.”
Some of the key highlights of the new reforms include increment of minimum capital for brokers from N200 million to N600 million while for dealers, it was raised to N1 billion from N100 million.
For broker-dealers, they are to get N2 billion instead of the previous N300 million, reflecting multi-role exposure across trading, execution, and margin lending.
The agency said fund and portfolio managers with assets above N20 billion must hold N5 billion, while mid-tier managers must maintain N2 billion with private equity and venture capital firms to have N500 million and N200 million, respectively.
There was also dynamic rule as firms managing assets above N100 billion must hold at least 10 per cent of assets under management as capital.
“Digital asset firms, previously in a regulatory grey area, are now fully covered: digital exchanges and custodians must maintain N2 billion each, while tokenisation platforms and intermediaries face thresholds of N500 million to N1 billion. Robo-advisers must hold N100 million.
“Other segments are also affected: issuing houses offering full underwriting services must hold N7 billion, advisory-only firms N2 billion, registrars N2.5 billion, trustees N2 billion, underwriters N5 billion, and individual investment advisers N10 million. Market infrastructure providers carry some of the highest obligations, with composite exchanges and central counterparties required to maintain N10 billion each, and clearinghouses N5 billion,” the SEC added.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The founder and chief executive of Austin Laz and Company Plc, Mr Asimonye Austin Lazarus Azubuike, has sold off about 52.24 million shares of the organisation.
The stocks were offloaded in 11 tranches at an average price of N4.36 per unit, amounting to about N227.8 million.
The transactions occurred between December 2025 and January 2026, according to a notice filed by the company to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Friday.
Business Post reports that Austin Laz is known for producing ice block machines, aluminium roofing, thermoplastics coolers, PVC windows and doors, ice cream machines, and disposable plates.
The firm evolved from refrigeration sales to diverse manufacturing since its incorporation in 1982 in Benin City, Edo State, though facing recent operational halts.
According to the statement signed by company secretary, Ifeanyi Offor & Associates, Mr Azubuike first sold 1.5 million units of the equities at N2.42, and then offloaded 2.4 million units at N2.65, and 2.0 million units at N2.65.
In another tranche, he sold another 2.0 million units at a unit price of N2.91, and then 5.0 million units at N3.52, as well as about 4.5 million at N3.87 per share.
It was further disclosed that the owner of the company also sold 9.0 million shares at N4.25, and offloaded another 368,411 units at N4.66, then in another transaction sold about 6.9 million units at N4.67.
In the last two transactions he carried out, Mr Azubuike first traded 10.0 million units equities at N5.13, with the last being 8.5 million stocks sold at N5.64 per unit.
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