General
Amini Secures $2m to Solve Africa’s Environmental Data Gap
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
An early-stage company focused on solving Africa’s environmental data gap, Amini, has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding in an oversubscribed round led by Pale Blue Dot, a leading European Climate Tech fund.
The firm intends to deploy artificial intelligence and satellite technology to provide reliable and trustworthy data, which has held back Africa’s development for decades by hampering business decisions and capital allocation as well as making it difficult to measure the impact of climate change.
Other investors that pumped funds into Amini were Superorganism, RaliCap, W3i, Emurgo Kepple Ventures and a network of angel investors from the global technology community.
Amini was designed to address Africa’s data scarcity, facilitate capital investment, promote climate resilience, and accelerate economic development opportunities in the region.
It has found its first customers in the agricultural insurance sector, using the platform’s granular, verifiable, and actionable data for enhancing farmers’ resilience through parametric agricultural insurance coverage.
With a focus on regenerative agriculture, this collaboration aims to support both African farmers and global food chains.
Within the first six months of operation, the company has developed a robust data aggregation and analytics platform capable of collecting, unifying, and processing satellite data, weather data, and other types of data down to a square meter.
The platform provides access to valuable environmental data analytics, including drought, flood, soil and crop health. This data can be processed to forecast crop yields for millions of smallholder farmers in mere seconds, as well as measure the impact of natural disasters across the region.
Africa, home to 65 per cent of the world’s uncultivated fertile land and 30 per cent of its mineral resources, accounts for only 3% of the global GDP.
“The scarcity of high-quality environmental data in Africa is a concern as it prevents others from building important climate solutions such as for example, improving farmer insurance, monitoring climate risk or supply chains.
“When meeting the team behind Amini, we were blown away by their ambition and expertise, and we believe they are best positioned to fill the environmental data gap of Africa,” the General Partner for Pale Blue Dot, Heidi Lindvall, said.
The founder and CEO of Amini, Kate Kallot, said, “We are building the single source of truth for environmental data across Africa. Data has the potential to transform livelihoods by enabling everything from climate resilience to sustainable value chains. Should Amini reach its full potential and solve this problem, we are setting up Africa for tremendous transformation and development over the next decade.
“It’s a long way to get there, but the early customer success and interest from global enterprises, governments and international organizations are showing us that we’re on the right track.”
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has disclosed that average litres of fuel consumed daily by the country decreased by about 18.6 per cent to 48.0 million litres in June 2025 from the 59.0 million litres recorded in May 2025.
The Director of Public Affairs for NMDPRA, Mr George Ene-Ita, confirmed this in a report on Wednesday, noting that for the full month, the fuel consumption also went down by 16.4 per cent or 290 million litres to 1,440,768,129 litres from the previous month’s 1,768,812,804 litres.
Breaking down the fuel supply figures, the NMDPRA report stated that in June, the Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), called diesel, saw a slight increase in supply by 1.73 per cent, reaching 432.18 million litres compared to May’s 424.83 million litres.
In spite of this, diesel distribution (truck-out) declined by 23.23 per cent, falling from 552.35 million litres in May to 424.06 million litres in June.
It further showed that the Household Kerosene (HHK) supply and distribution both recorded a 13 per cent decrease, with June figures at 7.79 million litres, down from nearly nine million litres in May.
The sharpest decline was seen in automotive gasoline supply, which dropped by nearly 48 per cent from 72.36 million litres in May to 37.66 million litres in June.
Distribution also fell by 16.54 per cent within the same period.
The NMDPRA’s report also detailed fuel truck-out volumes to individual states, totalling the 1.44 billion litres evacuated in June.
The report showed that Lagos received the highest volume at 205.66 million litres, followed by Ogun with 88.69 million litres, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) with 77.51 million litres, and Oyo with 72.81 million litres.
The decline in overall supply and distribution suggests continued challenges in the petroleum midstream and downstream sectors, impacting national fuel consumption patterns in June.
The NMDPRA, then, pledged to work closely with relevant stakeholders to strengthen distribution and guarantee the uninterrupted supply of petroleum products across the country.
By Adedapo Adesanya
An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday discharged the embattled Ms Comfort Emmason of charges bordering on unruly behaviour and assaulting the flight crew aboard an Ibom Air aircraft from Uyo to Lagos on Monday.
Magistrate Olanrewaju Salami struck out the five-count charge against Ms Emmason after the police prosecution team withdrew the case.
At the resumed hearing, the prosecuting council, Mrs Oluwabunmi Adeitan, informed the court of new developments that necessitated the withdrawal.
She tendered an application to the court for the withdrawal of the case, which was admitted by the court.
Earlier today, the federal government announced the withdrawal of a criminal complaint against Ms Emmanson.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Mr Festus Keyamo, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday morning, noting that this followed consultations with key stakeholders in the aviation sector over recent incidents involving disruptive conduct at Nigerian airports.
According to the Minister, Ms Emmanson, had showed “great remorse” during a police interview in the presence of her lawyer.
As a result, Ibom Air has agreed to withdraw its complaint, with the Police expected to complete steps for her release from Kirikiri Prisons within the week.
The Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has also agreed to lift the lifetime flight ban earlier imposed on her.
In a related development, popular Fuji musician, Mr Wasiu Ayinde, popularly known as Kwam 1 had his six months ban reduced to one-month following an earlier fracas while the pilots involved in the matter also had their suspension reduced to one-month with their licenses re-activated upon expiry of the punishment.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government has gotten a September 2025 deadline to close the prosecution of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Mr Sambo Dasuki, over alleged money laundering, a case which has been in court for over 10 years.
The Federal High Court through Justice Peter Lifu fixed September 24, 25, and 26 for the government to call any remaining witnesses and tender all exhibits in support of the charges.
Mr Dasuki, who was first arraigned in 2015 was facing a seven-count amended charge and was expected to open his defence once the prosecution closed its case.
At the last hearing, a prosecution witness, Mr Monsur Mohammed, told the court that following Mr Dasuki’s arrest, his residences in Abuja, Kaduna, and Sokoto were searched for arms and cash.
Led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Mr Oladipupo Okpeseyi (SAN), the witness, an exhibits keeper with the Department of State Services (DSS), listed items recovered from Dasuki’s Abuja residence at 46, Nelson Mandela Street, Asokoro.
He claimed that at Mr Dasuki’s House at 46, Nelson Mandela Street, Asokoro, found items include two Compact Disc of Freedom Radio on Jokolo, two GT Bank Cheque books, two blackberries phones, Nokia phone, flash drive, Apple Laptop and statement of account as part of items found in the house.
Others were a Visa card, approval letter of a radio station granted to Afri-Media Integrated Ltd, one CD on arrest and execution of Mohammed Yusuf, $500 and 533 Saudi Riyadh.
Also recovered were an HSBC account book and a Cheque book of Habibson Ltd of a Mr Abubakar Ibrahim.
The court admitted the items as Exhibits MSD 015 to 034 following no objection from Dasuki’s lawyer, Mr Ahmed Usman.
It was also revealed that at Mr Dasuki’s residence in Sabo Birni, Sokoto State, the exhibits keeper claimed that $150,000 were recovered in the house and subsequently deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The prosecutor said he would ask the DSS to bring the cash to court to be tendered as exhibits.
At the Sultan Abubakar Road, Sokoto house, the witness told the court that no items were found.
At this stage, the federal government counsel applied for an adjournment to enable him bring before the court other items found in Mr Dasuki’s house during the four search warrants executed in the houses.
Justice Lifu while granting the adjournment request directed the federal government to be ready to close its case against the defendant and for Dasuki to open his defence.
The judge subsequently adjourned the case until September 24, 25 and 26.
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