General
Silence Laboratories Raises $4.1m for Privacy-Preserving Computing
By Adedapo Adesanya
Silence Laboratories has announced securing $4.1 million in funding to enable privacy-preserving collaborative computing led by Pi Ventures and Anurag Arjun, along with several prominent angel investors.
In a statement shared with Business Post, the company said with the market for privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) growing globally at a compound annual growth rate of 26.6 per cent, there is growing demand.
In recognition of this, Silence Laboratories is offering to provide mathematical guarantees for techno-legal expectations as part of a mission to create infrastructure to enable complex data collaborations between enterprises and entities, without any sensitive information being exposed to the other engaging parties.
This would allow companies to work together on processing data, without needing to share data with the other party – allowing more sectors to benefit from new technology, with less risk.
The funding will be used to scale the company’s tech and business teams and enrich the company’s robust research and development (R&D) pipeline.
In the modern age, large companies are wrestling to leverage their customers’ data to provide ever-better AI-enhanced experiences but a key barrier to leveraging this opportunity is mounting public concern around data privacy, as ever-greater data processing poses risks of data leaks by hackers and malicious insiders.
Founded in 2021 by Dr Jay Prakash (CEO), Dr Andrei Bytes (CTO), and Dr Tony Quek, the firm has also recently been expanding its global leadership team across cryptography, infrastructure business, and engineering.
Leveraging modern cryptography, the company already has one of the fastest distributed signature (authorization) libraries in production (Silent Shard), which has been audited by some of the best security auditing companies like Trail of Bits.
These libraries have led to the establishment of strong partnerships with leading digital asset infrastructure and protocol companies like BitGo, MetaMask, EigenLayer, Biconomy, and EasyCrypto.
These products on offer by the company use multi-party computation (MPC) as its core cryptographic primitives.
Commenting on the announcement, Mr Prakash said, “In today’s digital ecosystem, trust, and privacy are not merely options but imperatives for sustainable growth.
“With this new injection of funds, Silence Laboratories is poised to redefine privacy by enabling businesses to fully embrace the power of AI while rigorously protecting their most vital asset – customer trust.
“Our privacy-enhancing technologies assure that collaboration and innovation can flourish in an environment where the confidentiality and integrity of data are uncompromised.”
On his part, the Managing Director of Pi Ventures, Mr Mr Shubham Sandeep, said, “Secure data collaboration to enable privacy-preserving compute is an ever-growing problem, especially in highly regulated domains such as finance and healthcare. This requires solutions based on zero-trust cryptographic guarantees instead of relying on third-party data vendors who are prone to security breaches.
“The MPC infrastructure developed by the world-class team at Silence Laboratories is the fastest in the world, easily configurable, application agnostic, and provides full control to the user.
“We are excited to double down on our investment as we have seen the fantastic progress of the company over the last 18 months.”
“The Silence team is an amazing team with deep cryptography expertise and is working on a set of groundbreaking products in privacy and authentication infrastructure and I am really excited to support their journey.
“Privacy-preserving infrastructure combined with blockchain and fintech rails is going to be huge!” added MrAnurag Arjun from Kira Studio and former co-founder of Polygon.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) recently hosted a high-level delegation from Newryton International Industrial Development Company Limited, a leading Chinese investment and industrial development consortium, to advance discussions on deepening bilateral trade, industrial cooperation, and development financing between both countries.
The Newryton delegation, led by Mr David Chen, Assistant Secretary-General of the China Hainan Investment Council, had earlier engaged with the Nigerian Association of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA). They were accompanied to the NCSP by Mr Joe Onyuike, Vice-Chairman of NACCIMA’s Agriculture and Livestock Trade Group, who conveyed NACCIMA’s support for the delegation’s engagements.
Discussions centered on the establishment of a Nigeria–China Trade and Investment Platform, including a proposed Promotion Centre in China to support Nigerian products, investors, and state governments.
The consortium also presented opportunities within Hainan Province’s Free Trade Port (FTP), which offers preferential policies that Nigerian businesses can leverage to expand exports and attract new investments.
In his address on behalf of Newryton, Mr Pong outlined plans to collaborate with NCSP in accessing FOCAC-supported financing for strategic investments in agriculture, energy, mining, solid minerals processing, and related sectors. The delegation identified aquaculture as a key area of interest and referenced the forthcoming Global Aquaculture Conference in Hainan Province, encouraging Nigerian stakeholders to participate.
They also expressed readiness to strengthen cooperation in vocational training and employment under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Welcoming the delegation on behalf of the Director-General, Martins Olajide, NCSP’s Head of Internal Operations, reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to fostering mutually beneficial partnerships.
He highlighted NCSP’s strong interest in the proposed Nigeria–China Trade and Investment Platform and the development of the Nigerian Oil Palm Industrial Park as a flagship demonstration project.
Also speaking at the meeting, Ms Judy Melifonwu, NCSP’s Head of International Relations, underscored the opportunities presented by China’s zero-tariff policy and the forthcoming NAQS–GACC protocol on the export of Nigerian aquaculture products. She noted that these frameworks would significantly enhance Nigeria’s competitiveness in emerging global markets.
Both parties expressed commitment to advancing discussions toward a structured cooperation framework covering all priority areas.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The United Kingdom–Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (UKNIAF), established in 2019 as part of a 16-year legacy of UK-funded infrastructure support to Nigeria, convened over 100 senior stakeholders on Tuesday, December 2, to review its progress and formally close out its current phase of operations.
The event brought together representatives from federal and state governments, development partners, development finance institutions, and the private sector to reflect on UKNIAF’s work across the power, infrastructure finance, and roads sectors. Discussions focused on institutional reforms, capacity development, and the sustainability of tools and processes introduced over the past six years.
Since inception, UKNIAF has delivered targeted technical assistance designed to embed evidence-based reforms, data-driven decision-making, and improved institutional performance. Its interventions have mobilised significant financing, strengthened regulatory and planning systems, and enhanced investor readiness across multiple infrastructure markets.
In the power sector, participants highlighted landmark achievements including the development of Nigeria’s first Integrated Resource Plan, which outlines a least-cost and low-carbon pathway for expanding electricity supply. UKNIAF also supported the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in building advanced real-time data capabilities for tariff monitoring, grid management, and outage tracking. The programme enabled pioneering states to establish their own electricity markets following constitutional reforms.
In infrastructure finance, UKNIAF was recognised for strengthening project preparation systems and enabling access to capital. Notable accomplishments include supporting the mobilisation of $75 million from the African Development Bank to the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone (SAPZ) programme in two states, and accelerating mini-grid and solar deployment through improved technical standards at the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
UKNIAF also designed a national project preparation facility, for which N21 billion was allocated in both the 2024 and 2025 budgets to build a pipeline of bankable projects.
Speaking on this, Mr Frank Edozie, UKNIAF Team Lead, described the programme’s close-out as a “handover for sustained delivery,” emphasising that strengthened institutions now hold tools that make Nigeria’s infrastructure landscape more transparent, climate-smart, and investor-ready.
On his part, the Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, commended the programme, noting that its technical assistance and advisory services had helped lay the foundation for a sustainable and inclusive electricity supply industry.
Mrs Cynthia Rowe, Head of Development Corporation at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Nigeria, praised the partnership, highlighting achievements ranging from state-level electricity market reforms to unlocking major financing and designing Nigeria’s Climate Change Fund.
Enugu State Secretary to the State Government, Professor Chidiebere Onyia, underscored the lasting influence of the programme, stating that UKNIAF’s impact continues through the expertise and leadership transferred to national and sub-national institutions.
The close-out event reaffirmed stakeholders’ commitment to sustaining tools, reforms, and knowledge products developed under UKNIAF, while strengthening collaboration among public, private, and development actors in the infrastructure ecosystem.
Participants included federal and state agencies such as the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Federal Ministry of Power, Ministry of Finance, NERC, REA, and the Transmission Company of Nigeria, alongside development partners including the African Development Bank, World Bank, and IFC, as well as private sector and civil society stakeholders.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The gantry price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, has been slashed by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
The Lagos-based oil facility brought down the ex-depot price of the petroleum product by 15.58 per cent or N129 per litre to N828 per litre.
Though the company had yet to release an official statement on this development, real-time market data on Petroleumprice.ng on Friday showed the new price.
Punch reports that data from the platform also showed fresh reductions across several private depots following the refinery’s latest review.
Sigmund Depot cut its ex-depot price by N4 to N824 per litre, Bulk Strategic dropped its price by N3, and TechnoOil slashed its by N15.
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