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Proventa Global Business Services Limited has commenced operations in Nigeria, offering advisory services to founder-led, family-owned and growth-stage businesses seeking to strengthen their structures, systems and decision-making processes.

The firm, founded and led by business professional Bashir Arowojobe, said it would focus on businesses dealing with operational and organisational challenges associated with expansion.

Arowojobe said some businesses reach a stage where the structures and processes that supported their early growth may no longer be adequate for further expansion.

‘Many businesses reach a point where what worked in the early years is no longer enough for the next stage,’ he said.

‘The challenge is not always a lack of ambition or opportunity. Sometimes, the business has simply outgrown the structure that got it there.’

Proventa said its services cover three main areas: Business Diagnostics, Corporate Restructuring and Management Advisory.

Under Business Diagnostics, the firm assesses areas including strategy, operations, people, finances and organisational systems to help management identify gaps and determine areas that require attention.

Its Corporate Restructuring service covers organisational structure, roles and responsibilities, reporting lines, processes, governance and operating systems.

The Management Advisory service provides founders and management teams with external advice on growth strategy, organisational challenges and business decisions.

Arowojobe said the firm’s approach is based on the view that challenges facing businesses are often linked across different functions.

‘The reality of business is that problems rarely sit neatly within one department,’ he said.

‘A growth problem can have financial implications. A financial problem can be connected to operations. An operational problem can come back to structure, governance or decision-making.’

Proventa said it is working with a multidisciplinary team that includes accountants, legal practitioners, strategists and other professionals to address business issues from different perspectives.

According to the firm, the approach allows businesses to consider financial, legal, strategic and organisational issues together rather than addressing them in isolation.

The launch comes as businesses in Nigeria, particularly small and growing enterprises, continue to deal with issues associated with expansion, operational complexity and organisational development.

Proventa said it also aims to help businesses reduce excessive dependence on founders by establishing clearer responsibilities, stronger internal systems and more structured decision-making processes.

The firm said its focus would be on supporting businesses as they transition from founder-driven operations to more structured organisations capable of managing growth beyond their early stages.

Bayelsa and Benue State governments yesterday announced measures to provide stable power to residents and industries.

While Bayelsa is mulling 13 mini-grids to complement its 60-megawatt turbine, Benue announced a move to build a $4 billion hydro power plant in Makurdi, the state capital.

Director General, Bayelsa Electricity Regulatory Agency(BERA), Rosalyn Dressman, said during the Southsouth Reawakening Group Roundtable Series in Yeangoa said the state government, in collaboration with the German Development Organisation (GIZ) and the Nigerian Energy Support Programme, is already collating data for the establishment of the mini-grids.

The roundtable series was themed ‘Bayelsa Power Infrastructure and Its Value Chain Objectives.’

Dressman said the regulatory agency has designed an Integrated Resource Plan that focuses on demand and load forecasting, establish conditions of existing assets and comparing supply and network options.

According to her, the integrated resource plan also identifies the least-cost options for meeting service requirements, while also considering resilience and the objectives of each project.

Managing Director, Bayelsa Electricity Company Ltd, Olice Kemenanabo, identified poor network as the principal reason many homes do not have power.

Kemenanabo said although the Electricity Act provides for regulatory arrangements where state and interstate interests are involved, it does not eliminate the franchise owner.

His words: ‘The law provides for regulatory arrangements where state and interstate interests are involved. But that does not mean that the interstate dimension somehow eliminates the franchise owner or extinguishes the rights and obligations associated with that franchise.

‘The assets and the franchise arrangements remain governed by the applicable legal framework. The fact that a state now has regulatory responsibilities does not, by itself, mean that the distribution network operated under an existing franchise can simply be excised from that distribution company and unilaterally vested in the state.

‘There is no provision, to my understanding, that says that once a state establishes a regulatory agency, it should automatically take over the network of another distribution company and drive the franchise owner away.’

SSRG Convener Joseph Ambakaderimo described the Electricity Act, 2023 as a structural shift that ’empowers states with the authority to shape their own electricity markets, opening the door to innovation, investment, and locally driven solutions.’

Ambakaderimo said the transition from a centralised state-led electricity market represents both an opportunity and a responsibility.

He warned that decentralisation, if not properly coordinated, risks fragmentation, highlighting overlaps between federal and state jurisdictions in transmission and distribution.

‘At the South South Reawakening Group, we believe that reforms alone do not deliver outcomes; execution does, and execution requires dialogue, alignment and collaboration,’ the SERG convener stated.

In Makurdi, the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Benue Investment Promotion Agency (BENIPA), Johnpaul Kpenkaan, told reporters that the $4 billion plant, if executed, will generate 1,650Megawatts (MW) of electricity.

The initiative, according to Kpenkaan, is part of Governor Hyacinth Alia administration’s broader efforts to strengthen the state’s infrastructure and create the energy foundation required to support industrial and economic development.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it has reached about 7.1 million beneficiaries through its assistance programmes in Nigeria between 2023 and 2025.

It said it assisted approximately 2.4 million people in Nigeria in 2023, while its 2024 Nigeria Annual Country Report recorded 2,378,604 actual beneficiaries. Its latest 2025 Annual Country Report put the number of beneficiaries at 2,365,792.

The figures indicated a slight decline in WFP’s annual reach between 2023 and 2025, even as humanitarian needs continued to intensify.

WFP’s 2023 Nigeria report highlighted the organisation’s broader role beyond emergency food distribution, including nutrition support, livelihood interventions and resilience-building activities.

The agency said it delivered integrated nutrition, life-saving assistance and livelihood support to 2.4 million people during the year, supported more than 1,700 communal livelihood assets and provided resilience support to 55,198 smallholder farmers, 59 per cent of whom were women.

It also reported that 95 per cent of the food distributed to vulnerable people through its activities in conflict-affected areas was locally purchased, representing more than $75.6 million in expenditure.

In 2024, WFP recorded 1,829,991 beneficiaries under unconditional resource transfers, while 637,747 people benefited from malnutrition treatment programmes and 625,637 from malnutrition prevention programmes.

The report also recorded 73,573 beneficiaries under smallholder agricultural market support programmes and 47,750 under asset-creation and livelihood activities.

WFP said its unconditional resource transfers in 2024 provided food assistance through in-kind and cash-based modalities to about 1.8 million people, including pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls.

Children aged six to 23 months also received additional nutrition assistance under the programme.

The 2025 report showed that the humanitarian operation remained heavily concentrated among internally displaced people. Of the 2,365,792 beneficiaries recorded during the year, 1,452,849 were internally displaced persons, while 912,943 were residents. The report recorded no returnee beneficiaries during the year.

The continued humanitarian needs came against the backdrop of worsening food insecurity projections.

The October 2025 Cadre Harmonisé analysis, led by the Federal Government with support from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), WFP, UNICEF and other partners, projected that 34.7 million Nigerians could face acute food insecurity during the June-August 2026 lean season if timely interventions were not implemented.

The assessment estimated that 27.2 million people were already facing hunger at the time of the analysis.

An earlier Cadre Harmonisé assessment had projected that 30.6 million people in 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory would face Crisis-level or worse food insecurity during the June-August 2025 lean season. This followed an earlier projection of 33.1 million people for the same period, highlighting the changing nature of Nigeria’s food-security situation.

In November 2024, WFP warned that economic hardship, climate shocks and conflict could push 33.1 million Nigerians into acute food insecurity in 2025.

The agency said 25.1 million people were already likely to be experiencing acute food insecurity between October and December 2024, despite the period coinciding with the peak harvest season.

WFP’s 2025 country report said the latest Cadre Harmonisé results represented the highest levels of food insecurity recorded since the analysis began in Nigeria, with up to 34.7 million people potentially facing acute food insecurity during the 2026 lean season.

The Zamfara State Government said it received vaccines for the prevention of diphtheria, with a vaccination exercise scheduled to begin across the state today.

The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Nafisa Maradun, disclosed this during a one-day State-Level Traditional Leadership Engagement Meeting on the Zamfara Tracking and Accountability for Equitable Immunisation (Z-TRACE) Project in Gusau on Tuesday.

The announcement followed an outbreak of diphtheria that recorded 44 deaths out of 367 identified cases, with more than 200 recoveries.

The Director of Public Health in the ministry, Dr Yusuf Haske, had confirmed the outbreak in an interview with NAN in Gusau.

The development led the State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to extend school resumption by two weeks.

The commissioner said the state government had secured the vaccines and would administer them to children in the affected Local Government Areas beginning on Thursday.

Maradun, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Rilwan Zurmi, said 11 local government areas of the state currently have reported cases of diphtheria.

She explained that results of analysis conducted by the ministry showed that most of the children who contracted the disease either did not receive vaccination or were not fully immunised.

Maradun described vaccination as essential to protecting children against preventable diseases, urging traditional rulers to intensify community sensitisation on the importance of immunisation.

The commissioner said the Sultan Foundation, under the Z-TRACE project, had targeted to reach zero-dose and under-immunised children across communities in seven local government areas of Zamfara identified to have a high number of such children.

Traditional rulers attended the meeting, officials of the State Primary Health Care Board, Ward Development Committees, health partners and Community-Based Organisations, among others.

The federal government, through the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP), has rolled out 120 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-powered tricycles to young operators in Adamawa State.

The vehicles, made available under CREDICORP’s national mobility programme, were commissioned in Yola for distribution to young operators under a consumer credit scheme in which operators would pay for the vehicles in instalments.

The scheme, designed to empower young beneficiaries through asset ownership and provide mobility at reduced cost to commuters, places ownership in the hands of the operators, marking a shift from the practice of businessmen acquiring vehicles and hiring riders to operate them.

Representing Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri at the commissioning of the tricycles at the Mahmud Ribadu Square in Yola, the Adamawa State Commissioner for Transport, Mrs Wunfe Anthony, described the initiative as an investment in young people’s livelihoods and strong support for the state’s transition towards cleaner and more affordable transport.

Also speaking, the Managing Director of CREDICORP, Engr Uzoma Nwagba, said the Yola activation of the nationwide mobility programme marked CREDICORP’s inaugural deployment of CNG-powered three-wheelers, aligning CREDICORP’s consumer credit mandate with the Federal Government’s energy transition agenda.

‘The CNG vehicles being deployed today represent our commitment to reaching Nigerians in every part of the country,’ Nwagba said.

The rollout of the 120 tricycles in Adamawa State is driven by CREDICORP, which provided the financing framework; the Letshego Microfinance Bank and Accion Microfinance Bank, which administered the credit; the DAG Bajaj, which supplied the locally assembled CNG three-wheelers; and Sub-City Global Consult, which mobilised beneficiaries.

The Chief Executive Officer of Sub-City Global Consult, Malam Imam Tolihat Umar, said the partnership was designed to empower young Nigerians with productive assets that could help them become economically independent.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has cited a recent SBM Intelligence survey as evidence of growing demand for relief from high petrol and living costs.

He said 67.4 per cent of respondents favoured restoring petrol subsidy.

Atiku, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the survey showed that petrol was the second-most cited national concern and the worst-rated policy issue of the administration, with a score of 1.69 out of four.

He said the findings reflected the impact of high fuel and transportation costs on households, workers, farmers and businesses, arguing that the government should respond to the concerns raised by the survey.

According to him, petrol was identified as the primary concern by 32.4 per cent of rural respondents, compared with 11.7 per cent of urban respondents.

He also cited figures of 30.5 per cent in the Southwest and 29.1 per cent in the Southsouth.

Atiku said the findings reinforced his opposition to the removal of petrol subsidy without what he described as adequate measures to protect household incomes, transportation and domestic production.

He said his proposed alternative would not restore the former subsidy regime but introduce a transparent production subsidy for petroleum products refined in Nigeria and sold domestically.

Under the proposal, he said imported products would not qualify, while the scheme would have a fixed spending limit, National Assembly approval and independent audits.

Atiku said the objective would be to reduce fuel costs, support domestic refining, create jobs and improve purchasing power.

He also called on President Bola Tinubu’s administration to provide immediate relief to Nigerians, arguing that economic reforms should ultimately be measured by their impact on living standards.

Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets have completed their mandatory Magnetic Resonance Imaging screening as preparations intensify for the 2026 WAFU B U-17 Championship in Burkina Faso.

The MRI screening forms a key part of the age-verification process for players competing at U-17 level.

According to information from the team camp, the medical process has been concluded, with the technical crew expected to submit a final list of 26 players ahead of the regional tournament.

The five-time world champions have been camping in Abuja for several weeks, with the coaching crew assessing players and working towards a final squad.

Seven countries namely Nigeria, hosts Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger Republic and Togo are expected to participate in the WAFU B tournament in October.

Beyond regional honours, qualification for the CAF U-17 Africa Cup of Nations will be the major target for the Golden Eaglets.

Nigeria will need to navigate the competition successfully and secure one of the qualification places available to the WAFU B zone.

Kwara APC candidate for Ifelodun/ Offa/Oyun Federal Constituency, Dr Rafiu Ajakaye, on Wednesday toured Offa and Oyun Local Governments on a ‘thank you’ visit, acknowledging the support and active roles of party faithful during the last primaries.

Accompanied by the Chairman of Ifelodun LGA, Hon Femi Yusuf, a member of the Local Government Service Commission, Mrs Olabimpe Elizabeth Abiola, party Chairman in Ifelodun, Babatunde Surajudeen Bola, and many other party chieftains, Ajakaye was warmly received in the two communities by members of the state House of Assembly, council chairmen, top party chieftains, religious leaders, and various support groups. Starting in Offa, the team rounded off the tour in Ilemona, Oyun LGA.

Addressing supporters in Offa and Oyun, Dr Ajakaye said he owes the people a depth of gratitude for supporting his pick and for their belief in his capacity to represent their interests at the Green Chamber.

He promised to serve their interests well, and make himself accessible at the time of need.

‘We are here today for three to four reasons. But the most important one is to thank again and again the people of Offa and Oyun Local Governments for the support they have given to me,’ he told reporters Wednesday evening on the sideline of the visit.

‘I am here to show my gratitude and reassure them that I will be their son both in words and actions. I will do everything possible to ensure that I do not disappoint them, and to justify the confidence they reposed in me as a candidate of the APC. Like I have told them, if I am elected I will be their Aoju réré, meaning a true representative. I will be there because of them. I will be there to deliver their messages on the national stage.

‘You can hear from them the assurances that it is the APC they are supporting from the President down to House of Assembly members. So, we are grateful to them.’

Hon Femi Yusuf, who recalled their pre-primaries engagements with the people of Offa, where they sought their support in respect of the Green Chamber ticket, appreciated them for acceding to their request.

He specifically commended them for being practical about their ancestral eulogy (Oríki) – ‘Laare, buure, ikan Ogbodo jukan nile Olofa Mojo’ that literally points to their firm belief in equity, fairness and justice.

‘Our visit today is to thank you, for we know the worth of your support and the confidence you repose in our party candidate, Dr Ajakaye, who is your son and brother from Ifelodun,’ the Chairman said.

‘I recalled our earlier visit to seek your support, two months ago. It is interesting to note that you have played your own role by abiding by the party’s decision on rotation of the House of Reps ticket to Ifelodun for their turn. We cherish this, and we have come to appreciate you.’

Calling Ajakaye a man of God who is versed in the doctrine of Islam that places a high premium on good governance, Yusuf assured that the candidate possesses a can-do spirit and will make a difference when elected.

‘This is a payback period. As you all know, Ifelodun has paid its due in favour of Offa and Oyun for the past years. It will not be unfair if both local governments pay back by electing a House of Reps’ candidate from the former,’ Hon Yusuf told supporters in Oyun.

Chairman Offa LGA, Hon Suleiman Olatunji Omituntun, said Offa people have made up their minds and are ready to give the APC their 100% vote come 2027.

‘Let’s have no fear about Dr Ajakaye. He is tested and trusted. None of you is oblivious of the wonderful roles he played for the government and our party. And I am sure, he will never drop the ball,’ he said ìn Offa.

‘Our vote is not going to be divided. We are determined to cast our vote massively for Dr Ajakaye and other APC candidates. Because we know this will benefit us greatly.’

For his part, Hon Hassan Oyeleke, a top APC chieftain ìn Offa, appealed to Governor AbdulRazaq and the leaders of the party to consider the people of the community for juicy posts or appointments in the coming dispensation, considering their known voting strength and patterns.

He called Ajakaye a founding member of APC that deserves every support to succeed, promising that the community has the capacity to deliver more than 150,000 votes for APC.

‘My people from Ifelodun, mark my words today, we will deliver for your son and other APC candidates in Offa,’ he declared.

‘Talking about our candidate, Dr Rafiu Ajakaye, I have known him as a well-bred pressman as far back as the early stage of our Oto’oge struggle. I even saved his phone number with a Lagos reporter. His service for the party at that time was more or less free, because we didn’t even have money to pay him. He devoted most of his write-ups to protect us from any persecution.’

Hon Seun Oguniyi, a member representing Ojomu/Balogun Constituency at the House of Assembly, said Ajakaye is renowned for good character, due diligence, and a service delivery in his previous office, requesting all constituents to entrust him with their mandate.

Hon Abdulwaheed Gbenga Yussuf (JK), from Essa/Shawo/Igboidun Constituency, said he has no doubt that Offa people will deliver for APC, and tasked Dr Ajakaye and other party candidates not to let the people down when elected.

APC Publicity Secretary in the State, Alhaji Olawale, said Offa community will not be disappointed in choosing Ajakaye, judging from his character and record of service, and pleaded with the party members to vote for him and other APC candidates.

He called for good representation and a fair share of dividends of democracy for the constituents in Offa.

Also speaking, Hon AGF Salaudeen, a House of Assembly member representing Omupo Constituency, said he was not surprised that Offa conceded the House of Reps’ ticket to Ifelodun LGA, saying the people of Offa have always believed in equity, fairness and justice.

He described Ajakaye as a highly cultured and generous public servant.

While in Oyun, Deputy Speaker, Kwara State House of Assembly representing Odo-Ogun Constituency (Oyun), Hon Ojo Olayiwola Oyebode, said the emergence of Ajakaye as candidate is a reflection that good character cannot go unnoticed, alluding to how he stood for the party from inception.

‘In Oyun, PDP or other opposition parties are not existent. Our people are voting for APC,’ he said.

Chairman Oyun Local Government, Hon. Akanbi Kamar Olarewaju, said Oyun’s people are more organized, and usually speak in one voice, and will replicate that for the ruling APC come 2027.

He said they have long resolved to replace their son Hon Ismaila Tijani, the serving House of Reps’ member, who he noted has performed below their expectations.

The Council Chairman assured Dr Ajakaye and other APC candidates of the electoral support of the people of Oyun, while also charging party members to redouble their efforts on door-to-door campaigns.

Adewoye Mikael Kayode, APC Chairman in Oyun, said Dr Ajakaye is ‘a very straightforward person’, who always walks his talks.

He advised him not to abandon his constituents and indeed the party structure, right from the ward to local government level.