Nigerian Startup, 4 Others Join FFA’s Venture Scale Programme

By Adedapo Adesanya The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, has announced a plan to help Nigerian tech startups raise a total of $5 billion yearly in funding rounds by 2027. He disclosed the plan in the ministry’s 31-page Strategic Blueprint document titled Accelerating our Collective Prosperity through Technical Efficiency, released and seen by Business Post on Monday. Mr Tijani said the ministry’s primary objective is to stimulate the growth and sustainability of startups, with a specific focus on developing innovative solutions for critical sectors of the economy. “Recognising the critical role of patient capital in the

By Adedapo Adesanya The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, has announced a N1 billion partnership between the ministry and IHS Towers, one of the largest independent communications infrastructure firms in the world, to establish the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) Learning Community. The ministry earlier this month released a 31-page policy document titled Accelerating our Collective Prosperity through Technical Efficiency which outlined plans to boost the country’s economy through the use of technology. It said it would collaborate with other ministries and parastatals, including private sector stakeholders to drive opportunities for startups to facilitate the

By Adedapo Adesanya The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, has revealed that plans to onboard three million tech talents in Nigeria will be done in phases, starting with the training of 30,000 persons in the next three months. Appearing as one of the lead guests at Moonshoot by TechCabal, a two-day event organised by the tech publication in Lagos on Wednesday, he said his ministry would apply a 1-10-100 model, which by definition is a three-phase model. “We are using a 1-10-100-model. We are starting with 1 per cent of our 3 million target, and

By Kehinde Ogundare In recent years, the global economy has faced and continues to face numerous challenges, including a pandemic, war, climate change, and inflation. Businesses have had to adapt and find new ways of working to tackle these challenges. Nigeria is no exception. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of Nigeria, the annual inflation rate accelerated to 24.08% in July 2023, the highest since September 2005. This has affected everything from electricity tariffs to transportation, all crucial to the performance of Nigerian enterprises. Fortunately, by adopting the right technologies and using them the right way, enterprises can ensure that they’re

By Adedapo Adesanya Facebook, in conjunction with Africa Check, announced adding new local language support for several African languages as part of its Third-Party Fact-Checking programme – which helps to assess the accuracy of news on Facebook, and aims to reduce the spread of misinformation. The social network’s fact-checking programme relies on feedback from the Facebook community, as one of many signals Facebook uses to raise potentially false stories to fact-checkers for review. Local articles published will now be fact-checked alongside the verification of photos and videos. Simply put, if one of Facebook’s fact-checking partners identifies a story as false,

By Dipo Olowookere As parts of the efforts to meet the 21st century technology requirement for development in Lagos, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, on Friday unveiled the ‘Code Lagos’ computer programming initiative. Speaking at the event, the Deputy Governor, Dr Idiat Oluranti Adebule, who represented the Governor, stated that the primary aim of the initiative “is to meet the growing demand for technical skills” so as to develop a workforce that would speak a universal digital language and provide solutions to myriad of socio-economic problems confronting the society.” The Governor said that, with the new concept, Lagos State “has joined the

By Adedapo Adesanya Nigeria will accept and work with a production quota of 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2024 as the country aims to grow on the back of its oil resources, following a revision done by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, OPEC+. According to a statement issued by the Press and Public Relations unit of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Thursday’s meeting of the 23-man group addressed crucial aspects, including the completion of assessments by independent sources (IHS, Wood Mackenzie, and Rystad Energy) on the projected production levels for Angola,

By Modupe Gbaeyanka Nigerian pop star, Mr Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo, otherwise known as D’Banj, has finally regained his freedom from the custody of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC). The musician was detained by the anti-corruption agency on Tuesday after earlier failing to honour invitations to him to explain allegations that he diverted funds meant for the payment of beneficiaries of a social investment programme of the federal government, N-Power. The initiative was launched on June 8, 2016, by President Muhammadu Buhari to address the issues of youth unemployment and empowerment and help increase social development. It was alleged that

By Modupe Gbadeyanka Electricity supply to the Zamfara State Government House and other government offices in Gusau has been cut off by the Kaduna Electric. This followed failure of the government to pay the electricity firm about N400 million it owes as electricity bill. Confirming this, Kaduna Electric’s Business Development and Relationship Officer in Gusau Area Office, Mr Aminu Yakubu, said his firm disconnected the Zamfara State Government House following the failure of the state government to settle its bills. Mr Yakubu said the state government, which had a monthly electricity bill of between N15 million and N20 million, was

By Dipo Olowookere State-owned oil firm, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has reduced its operating deficit to N5.3 billion from N5.6 billion. In its latest oil and gas report, it was revealed that the deficit, which stood at N33.99 billion in March 2017, increased by N5.3 billion in April to close at N39.3 billion, showing that it was cut from N5.6 billion in March to N5.3 billion a month later. The company’s financial reports showed that the Nigerian Pipelines Marketing Company (NPMC), a subsidiary of NNPC, and its corporate headquarters recorded the heaviest losses since the beginning of the

By Adedapo Adesanya Trading activities at the midweek session on the floor of the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange ended on a negative note, with a decline of 2.10 per cent. This weakened the market capitalisation of the NASD bourse by N13.36 billion as it closed at N623.35 billion on Wednesday compared with N636.71 billion it ended on Tuesday. Also, the NASD Unlisted Securities Index (NSI) was affected yesterday as it shed 15.77 points to end the day at 736.15 points as against 751.92 points it recorded at the previous session. Two securities were responsible for the loss posted during

By Adedapo Adesanya The NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange opened the new week on a positive note after it recorded a 2.25 per cent growth, triggered by three securities. Central Securities Clearing Systems (CSCS) Plc, Niger Delta Exploration and Production (NDEP) Plc, and UBN Property Plc were the three stocks responsible for the growth witnessed yesterday at the NASD trading platform. NDEP Plc was the day’s highest gainer as it gained N19.50 or 8.9 per cent to close at N300 per share compared with the previous N280.50 per share. On its part, CSCS Plc appreciated by N1.65 or 6.5 per