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Nigeria’s JR Farms Group and Liberia’s Ministry of Agriculture have signed the implementation agreement for a $60 million partnership aimed at reviving and scaling Liberia’s coffee industry over the next 20 years.

The agreement, signed in Monrovia on June 8, 2026, marks the official commencement of the deal. It will cover the development of commercial-scale coffee nursery hubs across five counties, the registration and onboarding of more than 200,000 farmers nationwide, and the training of extension workers and farmers.

The partnership also includes the construction of coffee washing stations and market infrastructure designed to integrate Liberian coffee into global supply chains.

The project is expected to boost rural incomes, create jobs across the value chain, and position Liberia as a competitive exporter in the international coffee market.

Rotimi Opeyemi Olawale, founder and the group chief executive of JR Farms Group,

expressed his satisfaction about the progression of the project, which he noted will spur nationwide cross-cutting development in Liberia.

‘Since signing the main partnership in June 2026, we have recorded tremendous progress and serious commitment to the partnership,’ Olawale said.

‘We are confident the project is heading in a great direction, with the scale, the project will create close to half a million direct and indirect jobs in Liberia, majorly in rural areas, contribute to the country’s GDP and income and position Liberia as a global exporter of coffee,’ he explained.

He stated that the Liberia Ministry of Agriculture, under the leadership of Neutah Alexander, has been very active and committed to supporting the project.

‘We appreciate the Honorable Minister and President Boakai, for his visionary leadership and support for agricultural development in Liberia,’ he said.

The partnership aligns with the interest and focus of the Liberian Government, which had earlier placed coffee as the sole priority crop of the country under the Food and Agriculture Organisation project of ‘One Country, one Priority Crop’.

Under the leadership of Neutah Alexander, minister of Agriculture, Liberia is witnessing the most organised, precise, and largest revamp of the coffee value chain in its history, evident in the partnership with JR Farms.

The Liberian government has allocated land to JR Farms across the five counties for the development of commercial-scale nurseries and the breeding of Liberica, Arabica, and Robusta coffee varieties that will be planted by farmers nationwide.

The signing of the implementation would be followed by the immediate flag-off of the nurseries hubs in Bomi and Great Cape Mount Counties with capacities to produce 1 million coffee seedlings per cycle.

Since the signing of the partnership, JR Farms has galvanized immense global support from its partners, including the International Labour Organisation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, among others.

Last month it officially presented the project to the International Labour Organisation head office in Geneva, where critical support for Liberian coffee farmers was discussed.

Ntufam Hilliard Eta, former National Vice Chairman (South-South) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other law-enforcement agencies to investigate petitions and allegations of financial crimes involving Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) for the 2027 election.

Eta made the call on Tuesday during a press conference at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, insisting that political considerations must give way to accountability, regardless of the political status of the person involved.

Atiku, a former vice-president who served from 1999 to 2007 under President Olusegun Obasanjo, has recently intensified criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s administration over insecurity, hardship, poverty, unemployment, hunger and rising food and fuel prices.

Atiku has also consistently criticised the Tinubu administration over what he described as excessive borrowing without commensurate development, as well as its management of public resources and implementation of social intervention programmes.

Etta, a former member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) said, ‘I am calling on the appropriate law-enforcement and anti-corruption authorities to fully investigate the allegations and petitions concerning former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and, where the evidence establishes criminal offences, prosecute him in accordance with Nigerian law.’

However, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku’s meda aide, was yet to respond to a request for comment by our Correspondent as of the time of filing this report.

The allegations

Eta said, ‘For the avoidance of doubt, Nigerians deserve to know precisely what has been alleged rather than dealing with vague political accusations.

‘First, there were allegations concerning the movement of more than US$40 million in suspect funds into the United States between 2000 and 2008 through offshore corporations and accounts associated with Jennifer Douglas, Atiku Abubakar’s wife.

‘The U.S. Senate investigation examined transfers involving entities including LetsGo Ltd., Guernsey Trust Company Nigeria Ltd. and Sima Holding Ltd. According to the Senate report, more than half of the funds; approximately US$25 million; were transferred by offshore corporations into U.S. bank accounts opened by Douglas (Homeland Security Committee, 2010).

‘Second, the U.S. Senate report examined allegations involving payments connected to Siemens AG. The report stated that Douglas received at least US$1.7 million in alleged bribe payments connected to Siemens, while an SEC civil complaint had alleged US$2.8 million in bribe payments to her from Siemens. These are allegations and findings contained in historical records and must not be presented as a criminal conviction against Atiku (Homeland Security Committee 2010).

‘Third, there were questions concerning approximately US$14 million transferred by offshore corporations to American University in connection with consulting services relating to the establishment of the university in Nigeria.’

Eta also said, ‘The Senate report examined the source and movement of those funds and the relationship between the offshore entities and the university project founded by Atiku. (Homeland Security Committee 2010)

‘Fourth, there were allegations in Nigeria concerning the use of companies and bank accounts as so-called Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to divert or misappropriate public funds during the period Atiku served as Vice-President between 1999 and 2007.

‘These allegations became particularly prominent in 2023 following claims attributed to Michael Achimugu, described as a former aide to Atiku. A subsequent petition by Festus Keyamo asked the EFCC, ICPC and CCB to investigate the allegations (TheCable, 2023).

‘Fifth, the 2023 petition raised allegations bordering on money laundering, criminal breach of trust, criminal misappropriation, conspiracy and possible violations of the Code of Conduct applicable to public officers. These were allegations presented to law-enforcement authorities not findings of guilt by a court (Punch, 2023).

‘Sixth, questions were raised concerning Atiku’s alleged knowledge of certain accounts, including an account associated with Marine Float and accounts belonging to other companies, which were alleged to have been used as vehicles for the movement or diversion of public funds. The allegations formed part of the case brought before the Federal High Court in Abuja in 2023.’

He explained that ‘These are not allegations that I am presenting as proven facts. They are matters that have appeared in official investigations, petitions, court filings and public records and which, in my view, deserve to be subjected to the full machinery of law.’

Opposition parties are intensifying efforts to expand their national structures, grow membership and secure wider voter support ahead of campaigns for gubernatorial elections opening today.

The 22 political parties currently recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are Accord (A), Action Alliance (AA), Action Democratic Party (ADP), Action Peoples Party (APP), African Action Congress (AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and Boot Party (BP).

Others are Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA), Labour Party (LP), National Democratic Party (NDP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressive Party (YPP), Youth Party (YP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

BusinessDay findings showed that only a few of the 22 parties, notably the APC, PDP and ADC, have a significant semblance of nationwide spread. The PDP, however, has been weakened by years of internal crisis. The ruling party, on its part, reopened its electronic membership registration to further expand its base ahead of the polls. So far, it claims 12 million members, according to its officials.

Although 19 of the 22 parties have fielded presidential candidates for the 2027 election, several are still struggling to establish structures across the country.

The NDC, which has fielded Peter Obi, former Anambra State governor, is among the emerging parties pushing to expand its footprint. Registered by INEC in February 2026, the party has been seeking to establish structures beyond its immediate political base.

Osa Director, NDC national publicity secretary, told BusinessDay that the party has candidates across the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and intends to participate fully in the elections.

For the NDC and other emerging opposition parties, building a presence beyond traditional strongholds remains crucial to transforming national political visibility into votes and establishing themselves as credible alternatives rather than regional platforms.

Similarly, the ADP is seeking to build its own structures rather than depend on a coalition. The party’s vice-presidential candidate has rejected suggestions that the ADP is relying on a coalition, insisting that the party is building its structures and preparing to compete across the country.

Ken Asuquo, Labour Party’s national publicity secretary, said the party was strengthening its internal organisation and moving away from dependence on individual popularity.

According to him, the LP wants to build a political organisation capable of competing effectively in presidential, governorship and legislative elections.

‘The focus is on institutional strength. We are building a party that can win across states where voters are looking for an alternative,’ he said.

Some parties have also fielded governorship candidates in states where they lack strongholds and established grassroots structures, underscoring the gap between appearing on the ballot and possessing the machinery required to win elections.

Bernard Mikko, a political scientist and former member of the House of Representatives, said parties unable to achieve the required national spread could turn to alliances or coalitions.

‘Well, the parties that know they cannot achieve the required spread can form a coalition,’ he said.

He added that the parties could negotiate and ultimately adopt a common candidate to avoid splitting opposition votes and improve their chances of victory.

BusinessDay gathered that 16 candidates are contesting the Oyo governorship seat, with APC’s Sharafadeen Alli facing Bimbo Adekambi of the APM, backed by Governor Seyi Makinde, and Yinusa Ayandare of the ADP, among others.

In Lagos, 17 candidates are in the race, including APC’s Obafemi Hamzat, the deputy governor, and ADC’s Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour. Kaduna has 18 candidates, including incumbent Governor Uba Sani of the APC, while Kebbi has 14 and Delta 16.

In Sokoto, 19 candidates are vying for the governorship, while Kwara has 12. Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, APC’s Speaker of the State House of Assembly, will face PDP’s Bolakale Kawu and 10 others. Dauda Lawal, Zamfara governor, faces 15 challengers, while Bauchi has 19 candidates, including Lami Babageidam of the Zenith Labour Party.

In Benue, Governor Hyacinth Alia faces five challengers, including Justice Michael Aondoakaa (SAN), former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, who is of the PDP.

Abba Kabir Yusuf, Kano governor, faces several challengers, including NDC’s Aminu Gwarzo, Labour Party’s Mohammed Raji and PDP’s Muhammad Dalhatu. Rivers has 19 candidates, while Gombe has 17, according to INEC Public Affairs Officer Mohorret Bigun.

In Ogun, 13 parties fielded candidates, including APC’s Solomon Adeola, PDP’s Oladipupo Adebutu and ADC’s Jimi Lawal.

Jigawa has 14 candidates, while in Ebonyi, Governor Francis Nwifuru faces PDP’s Ifeanyi Odii and other contenders. Odii was Nwifuru’s major challenger in the 2023 election.

African carriers emerged as one of the top performers in global aviation this peak summer season, recording a robust 6.4 percent year-on-year increase in passenger demand for July 2026. The continent’s strong growth significantly outpaced the global average, where international passenger traffic slowed into a near-flatline amid economic headwinds and regional contractions elsewhere.

According to the latest air passenger market analysis from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), African airlines expanded their seat capacity by 9.0 percent compared to July 2025. While the aggressive capacity push led to a slight 1.8 percentage point drop in the regional load factor (74.1 percent), the underlying demand highlights the steady appetite for intra-African and intercontinental travel.

Worldwide passenger demand, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPK), posted a modest 0.2 percent increase in July 2026 compared to the same period last year. The broader market was heavily dragged down by collective declines among carriers in North America and the Middle East.

Total Demand: Global RPK up 0.2 percent year-on-year (up 1.2 percent when excluding the Middle East).

Capacity Expansion: Available seat kilometers (ASK) grew 0.3 percent globally. Load Factor: The average global load factor dipped slightly to 85.2 percent (-0.1 percentage points). International vs. Domestic: International demand edged down 0.1 percent (though grew 1.5 percent excluding the Middle East), while domestic travel recorded a 0.6 percent gain.

‘The peak Northern summer travel season is a mostly positive story for air travel. Overall growth of 0.2 percent in July was achieved despite year-on-year collective declines by carriers in North America and the Middle East,’ said Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Senior Vice President Sustainability and Chief Economist.

‘Although high fuel costs, economic uncertainty, and geopolitical tensions continue, carriers are expressing confidence in demand for the last part of the year with an almost three percent expansion of seat capacity in September.’

Beyond Africa’s solid performance, regional dynamics across the globe varied sharply in July:

Latin America: Achieved the highest demand growth globally at 7.1 percent year-on-year, supported by a 7.2 percent increase in capacity and a 85.7 percent load factor.

Europe: Maintained steady momentum with a 3.1 percent demand increase and a 3.2 percent capacity expansion, holding an 87.1 percent load factor.

Traffic between Europe and Asia surged 12.1 percent, marking the strongest expansion among major international corridors.

Asia-Pacific: Demand fell 0.7 percent year-on-year, while capacity contracted by 1.7 percent. Despite the dip, the region achieved a load factor of 84.5 percent (+0.9 percentage points).

North America: Carriers recorded a 2.3 percent drop in demand against a matching 2.3 percent capacity reduction, with the load factor remaining flat at 88.2 percent. Key transatlantic routes fell 2.2 percent, led by lower traffic from the UK, France, and Spain.

Middle East: Experienced the sharpest decline, with demand down 9.5 percent and capacity falling 5.8 percent, resulting in an 80.9 percent load factor. However, IATA noted that traffic through major Gulf hubs is continuing its gradual recovery trajectory.

As Africa’s fintech industry pushes deeper into high-volume digital payments, the engineering challenge is shifting from simply processing transactions faster to ensuring that customers do not bear the cost when complex payment systems fail.

That challenge came into sharp focus as Moniepoint convened senior engineering practitioners from across Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem at its inaugural ‘Off the Record Engineering Mixer’ in Lagos, bringing together engineers from companies including Flutterwave, Cowrywise and Nomba

The closed-door industry gathering focused on a problem that is becoming increasingly important as fintech infrastructure expands: ‘how to build financial systems that remain reliable when networks, processors, banks and software services do not behave as expected.’

The Mixer, which brought together senior engineers from leading fintech companies, including Flutterwave, Cowrywise and Nomba, had candid conversations around ‘Building for Scale, The Trade-offs of Distributed Systems in Fintech’ and ‘Building Distributed Systems for POS at Scale.’

Discussions examined the realities of operating financial technology infrastructure at scale, including system failures, network dependencies, architectural trade-offs, observability, security and designing for failure.

The company said convening senior engineering practitioners to examine operational realities reflects its view that the challenges of building at scale in African fintech are shared rather than proprietary, and that the industry improves when the people running these systems compare notes directly.

Moniepoint also used the platform to highlight its approach to building more resilient card payment systems and protecting customers from false debits, guided by a principle that customers should never be left carrying the cost of uncertainty created inside a system they rely on but cannot see into.

Speaking on the engineering philosophy behind this approach, Ayomide Kolawole, engineering manager, card payments, Moniepoint, said, ‘ Building reliable payment infrastructure is about understanding every point at which a transaction can fail, determining what the system knows at each stage and designing the right response when things go wrong.

‘Our responsibility is to ensure that customers are not left carrying the consequences of uncertainty created within a system they rely on. For us, the goal is not simply to process transactions quickly, but to make sure that when something goes wrong, the customer experience does not become the cost of that failure,’ he added.

Moniepoint’s card payments infrastructure processes more than 20 million transactions daily and is built around a deliberate approach to failure. When the system is sufficiently certain that a transaction is unlikely to succeed, it fails fast. Where the outcome remains uncertain, the system continues to establish what actually happened before presenting a definitive response to the customer.

A key component of this infrastructure continuously evaluates the health of individual issuing banks across individual processors, monitoring success rates and response times in real time.

When a destination crosses a configured threshold, the system automatically stops routing transactions there, reducing prolonged waits and limiting the risk of transactions piling up behind the scenes.

The principles behind this approach also connected with the wider discussions at the Mixer. The sessions examined the trade-offs that accompany architectural decisions such as sharding, asynchronous processing and service decomposition, with speakers highlighting how solutions designed to address one challenge can introduce new operational and maintenance considerations elsewhere.

Participants agreed that observability and security were similarly essential to understanding system behaviour, identifying emerging risks, and building resilience into financial technology infrastructure.

The sessions reinforced a central principle of engineering at scale. Reliability is not simply about building systems that work. It is about understanding how they fail, designing for uncertainty and ensuring that when failures occur, customers are protected from consequences they should never have to bear.

The Moniepoint Off the Record Engineering Mixer was created as an open forum for practitioners to move beyond conventional technical presentations and examine the failures, trade-offs and engineering decisions behind the systems powering financial services.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been disowned the Election Petition No. EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026, purportedly filed on behalf of the party against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and two others before the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Osogbo.

The petition filed by Ochai Jacob Otokpa, Esq., is challenging the result of the Osun State Governorship Election conducted on the 15th of August, 2026.

But Jungudo Mohammed, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, on Wednesday in Abuja disowned the petition and demanded that the petitioners provide proof of authorisation

According to him, ‘The Peoples Democratic Party wishes to state CATEGORICALLY and UNEQUIVOCALLY that it did not authorise, institute, sponsor, or endorse the said petition.

‘As a matter of law and established practice, the institution of legal proceedings in the name of, or on behalf of, the Peoples Democratic Party is a matter within the authority vested in the National Legal Adviser of the Party, subject to the Party’s Constitution and applicable law’

He recalled that the party had earlier issued a public notice, duly signed by the then National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, affirming that, under Article 42 of the Party’s Constitution (as amended in 2017), the National Legal Adviser holds the exclusive authority to conduct, prosecute, and defend legal matters on behalf of the Party, its organs, and its officials.

According to him, ‘That notice remains active and unrevoked.

‘Pursuant to this provision, the engagement of any legal counsel to initiate or defend proceedings on behalf of the PDP must be authorised in writing and duly signed by the National Legal Adviser’.

He reaffirmed that the position, which still subsists, is ‘supported by a plethora of judicial decisions recognising the importance of proper authority and locus in proceedings purportedly instituted on behalf of a political party’

He emphasised that the purported petition in question does not have the blessing, approval, support, or authority of the National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party.

‘ The Party is bold to state emphatically that the action of Ochai Jacob Otokpa, Esq., in using the name of the Peoples Democratic Party to file Election Petition No. EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026 remains unauthorised, misleading, and without the prior knowledge of the Party.

‘ The National Legal Adviser of the PDP, A.K. Ajibade, SAN, neither authorised nor issued a letter of instruction to Ochai Jacob Otokpa, Esq., to file Petition No. EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026, as mandated by Article 42 of the PDP Constitution’

Mohamed also recalled that Adebayo Adedamola (‘Fryo’), the purported Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the 2026 Osun State Governorship Election, had ‘explicitly distanced himself from Petition No. EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026.’

Ademola had stated that he never instructed or retained any lawyer to file any petition challenging the outcome of the election on his behalf or on behalf of the Party.

‘ Mr. Adedamola stated unequivocally that he has no basis to dispute the result, confirming that he personally voted in the August 15, 2026, election for the declared winner, Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke.

‘The general public, the Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, INEC, the Accord Party, Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke, and all security agencies are urged to note that the PDP completely disassociates itself from Election Petition No. EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026.’ he said

He disclosed that the Party’s Legal Department is taking immediate steps to formally withdraw its name from the unauthorised suit and also urged the appropriate authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding the purported petition.

‘ Any person found to have impersonated the Peoples Democratic Party, its officials, National Legal Adviser, counsel, or any authorised representative of the Party, or to have fraudulently presented any document as having been issued or authorised by the Party, should be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with the law.

‘The PDP will not permit its name, identity, or legal personality to be misused by individuals for purposes contrary to the official position of the Party’