Category: Business Day

Nigeria’s renewed drive to manufacture medicines locally deserves recognition, but it also deserves a more rigorous test. The nation has introduced fiscal incentives, regulatory reforms, financing mechanisms and procurement initiatives to strengthen domestic pharmaceutical production. The most basic measure of import substitution tells a less encouraging story.

Nigeria imported pharmaceutical products worth $767.4 million in 2023, according to UN Comtrade data compiled by the World Bank. The figure fell to $653.5 million in 2024 but rose sharply to $766.2 million in 2025, almost exactly where it stood before the current healthcare manufacturing push gathered momentum.

‘If tax exemptions, cheaper financing, procurement guarantees and regulatory concessions merely make manufacturers comfortable without making medicines cheaper, better or more available, then the policy has simply transferred benefits to producers.’

PVAC, launched in October 2023, was conceived with an ambitious target to raise local production of healthcare products to 70 percent by 2030. The rationale is compelling, as Nigeria’s dependence on imported medicines, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and sophisticated medical equipment exposes the nation to foreign-exchange pressures, global supply disruptions, and decisions taken by multinational companies outside the nation.

The exits of GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi from direct commercial operations in Nigeria further exposed that vulnerability. The lesson was obvious, as a nation cannot guarantee healthcare security when too much of its essential supply chain depends on external producers.

The government has since taken several important steps. The October 2024 Executive Order introduced zero tariffs and excise duties on pharmaceutical machinery and equipment, waivers for some raw materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients, and measures to accelerate regulatory approvals. Financing pipelines have also emerged, including the pound 50 million facility provided by the European Investment Bank and the Bank of Industry to support healthcare manufacturers.

The proposed Medipool Programme, with its promise of long-term public procurement, could prove even more significant. Manufacturers do not need government protection forever but need sufficient certainty to justify investing in factories, technology and production capacity.

This is where our earlier concern about privileges for Nigerian drug manufacturers requires some qualification. Incentives are not inherently wrong. In fact, strategic infant-industry support can be justified where the objective is to build domestic capacity in a sector as critical as healthcare. The real question is whether those privileges produce measurable public value.

If tax exemptions, cheaper financing, procurement guarantees and regulatory concessions merely make manufacturers comfortable without making medicines cheaper, better or more available, then the policy has simply transferred benefits to producers.

But if those interventions create globally competitive Nigerian pharmaceutical companies, increase domestic production, reduce foreign-exchange exposure and eventually lower medicine costs, then the privileges become investments in national economic resilience.

There are encouraging signs, as the Federal Ministry of Health says local manufacturing now accounts for nearly half of healthcare products consumed in Nigeria, while registered pharmaceutical companies have increased from 180 in 2022 to more than 200 in 2025. Nigeria is also moving towards deeper pharmaceutical production, including plans for an active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturing plant.

These are meaningful first steps, but the biggest concern is measurement. ‘Healthcare products’ is broader than pharmaceuticals, making it difficult to compare the government’s nearly 50-percent local-production claim directly with pharmaceutical import figures. Nigeria needs a transparent yearly scorecard showing exactly how much of medicines, APIs, vaccines, diagnostics, and medical devices are produced locally, how much is imported, and what the 70-percent target yearly means in measurable terms.

The 2025 import figures provide an important warning. After declining in 2024, pharmaceutical imports rebounded by 17 percent. If domestic production is genuinely replacing imports, that substitution must eventually become visible in the trade data.

Therefore, PVAC should neither be dismissed as a failure nor celebrated as a finished success. It is better understood as a programme taking one step at a time.

The first step was creating incentives. The next was mobilising finance. The next must be expanding production. But the decisive step is ensuring that Nigerian-made medicines can compete on price, quality, reliability, and scale.

Sidama Bank has become the seventh company to list on the Ethiopia Securities Exchange (ESX), extending a rapid run of new admissions that is expanding the country’s young equities market.

The bank began trading on the ESX Main Market on Monday under the symbol SIDAX after meeting listing requirements set by the exchange and the Ethiopian Capital Market Authority. Its shares opened at Br1,300, although trading was thin, with only nine shares changing hands during the debut.

Sidama’s listing takes the number of companies on the ESX to seven, six of them banks. Ethio Telecom remains the only non financial company listed on the Main Market.

The admission also marks the latest stage in the transformation of Sidama, which began as a microfinance institution in 1994 before becoming a commercial bank in 2022. The ECMA registered 1,447,002 existing Sidama Bank shares ahead of the listing.

Unlike a conventional initial public offering, the listing did not involve the sale of newly issued shares. Instead, existing shares were admitted for secondary market trading, allowing shareholders to buy and sell their holdings through the exchange.

The listing adds to a sharp increase in activity on the ESX this year. The exchange entered 2026 with only two listed companies, Wegagen Bank and Gadaa Bank, following the launch of operations in 2025.

Awash Bank joined the market in April, followed by Ethio Telecom in May, Abay Bank in June and Bank of Abyssinia in July. Sidama’s admission means the exchange has added five companies in just over five months.

The concentration of listings in the banking sector reflects the role lenders are playing in the early development of Ethiopia’s capital market. The new exchange is providing banks with a platform for public trading while gradually expanding the range of securities available to investors.

More companies are also moving towards listing. The ESX has said several major banks and other issuers are progressing through the admission process, including regulatory approval, securities registration and prospectus publication.

Sidama’s debut therefore adds another bank to an exchange that is still in its early stages, while the growing pipeline of potential listings points to a broader expansion of Ethiopia’s formal capital market.

The commendation is contained in a letter by the company’s leadership to Alex Otti, governor of Abia State.

Edise Ekong, brand and communications manager, Aba Power, a member of the Geometric Power group, applauded the state government’s promotion of collaboration with the private sector in its intervention in recent negotiations between Geometric Power and some firms in the energy industry for uninterrupted power supply in the Aba Ring-fenced Area following gas supply outages that resulted in blackouts in the area.

The Aba Ring-fenced Area comprises nine of the 17 local government areas (LGAs) in Abia State.

ý’The governor intervened directly and many times in our negotiations with gas producers and suppliers to ensure constant supply, so that industries, social organizations like hospitals, laboratories and educational institutions, as well as households, markets and small and medium enterprises remain competitive for the benefit of all in Abia and beyond,’ Ekong said.

ýThough Geometric Power signed a gas supply contract almost two decades ago with The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), which used to operate Oil Mining Licence (OML) 17 in Owaza in Ukwa West LGA of Abia State, it receives gas from Heirs Energies, a fast-growing indigenous oil and gas company that now operates the oil licence following President Muhammadu Buhari’s decline to renew the Shell licence.

ýGiven the ageing gas infrastructure, which was built over half a century ago and has now created serious operational challenges, Ekong noted that Governor Otti has been encouraging Geometric Power to explore alternative sources of gas supply to its 188-megawatt plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba.

ý’As he was intervening in negotiations with gas suppliers, the governor was also getting constant briefings from his Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities, and his Special Adviser on Power and Public Utilities, both sound professionals and dedicated public servants’.

ýEkong, an engineer, stated that Governor Otti demonstrated the same passion in Geometric Power’s discussions with the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) and the Independent System Operator (ISO) in Abuja for his firm’s temporary use of power from the national grid during emergencies.

ýHe revealed that Geometric Power has already paid in advance an undisclosed amount, which he described as significant, for supplies from the national grid ‘when there is a compelling need to draw electricity from this source’

ýCommending the state administration for ‘practising public-private partnership in truth and spirit’, he commended religious bodies, civil society organisations, industrialists, landlords, professionals, traders, communities, and other stakeholders in Aba and the environs for their understanding during the blackouts arising from a total lack of gas while the repair and rehabilitation of the antiquated gas infrastructure were on.

Ayeni Adekunle, CEO of BHM Holdings, said Africa’s next phase of economic growth will depend in part on its ability to build companies capable of operating at global scale. Speaking at the fourth edition of Africa Breakfast Convos (ABC) 2026 in New York, on September 25, 2026, Ayeni pointed to the possibility of building globally competitive companies out of Nigeria and across the continent, arguing that Africa’s long-term economic prospects will be shaped not only by the size of its markets, but by the businesses capable of serving them and expanding beyond them.

His remarks came as business leaders, investors and policymakers gathered during UNGA81 to examine the trade, investment and partnerships shaping Africa’s position in the global economy.

‘I like to look into the future and imagine what is possible if we build 10 or 20 global companies out of Nigeria,’ Ayeni said.

‘Despite the challenges in Nigeria, South Africa, and across the continent, I choose to focus on the power of possibility. If we keep building and investing for the next 5, 10, or 20 years, the global landscape will look completely different.’

The ambition to build globally competitive African companies is already visible across sectors, from financial technology and telecommunications to consumer goods, energy and digital services. Nigerian companies such as Flutterwave, Moniepoint, Interswitch and Jumia have built operations or customer bases across multiple African markets, illustrating how businesses born in one African market can develop regional and international reach.

The emergence of these companies also points to a broader question for the continent: whether Africa can produce a larger pipeline of businesses that move beyond regional scale to compete consistently in global markets.

That challenge is partly about access to markets. The African Continental Free Trade Area is designed to create a single market for goods and services across participating African countries, reducing barriers to intra-African trade and giving businesses a larger potential customer base. For companies trying to scale, a more integrated market could mean that growth does not have to stop at national borders, making it easier to build the revenues, talent and operating experience required to compete internationally.

The 2026 edition of Africa Breakfast Convos brought together voices from across that wider business ecosystem, including Hackim Abdul, Director of Citi’s Public Sector Group for Africa; Yasamin Alttahir, Director of Global Marketing, Communications and External Affairs at The King’s Trust International; Kayode Akintemi, Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of News Central TV; Akunna Cook, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Next Narrative Africa; Otunba (Dr.) Bimbola Ashiru, Chairman, Blackcod Group and Group Director, Odu’a Investment Company Limited; and Claudine Moore, Managing Director for Africa at Allison Worldwide.

Ayeni’s argument ultimately shifts the focus from whether Africa has potential to what can be built from it. Producing more companies with the scale to serve multiple African markets and compete internationally will require founders willing to build for the long term, investors willing to support that ambition and institutions that make expansion possible.

For Africa’s next growth story, the measure may be less about how often the continent is described as a market of opportunity and more about how many companies are able to turn that opportunity into global businesses.

Access Holdings’ foreign subsidiaries contributed 48 percent of the banking group’s net income last year, up from 30 percent in 2021, highlighting how its aggressive expansion across Africa and other international markets is reshaping the earnings profile of Nigeria’s biggest lender by assets, according to Fitch Ratings.

The share of group assets held by foreign subsidiaries also more than doubled over the same period, rising to 51 percent at the end of 2025 from 23 percent in 2021.

In its report, African Banking Groups’ Cross-Border Expansion to Continue, the global ratings agency examined 14 African banking groups with subsidiaries in at least five African countries and consolidated assets above $15 billion at the end of 2025.

Fitch identified Access as having the fastest cross-border growth among the African banking groups covered, as lenders increasingly look beyond their domestic markets for growth, diversification and access to trade and financial flows.

‘Access has had the fastest cross-border growth in recent years,’ it said, attributing the expansion to a series of acquisitions aimed at building a network of subsidiaries across sub-Saharan Africa.

The acquisition of Mauritius-based AfrAsia Bank, completed in July 2025, has been particularly significant. AfrAsia had assets of about $6.9 billion at the end of 2025, equivalent to an estimated 19 percent of Access’s consolidated group assets.

The report added that the acquisition was important not only because of AfrAsia’s balance sheet but also because Mauritius provides a lower-risk operating environment than many of the sub-Saharan African markets in which Access operates.

‘The acquisitions have strengthened Access Bank’s franchise and geographical diversification,’ Fitch said, noting that foreign subsidiaries accounted for 48 percent of net income and 51 percent of assets at the end of 2025.

The transformation puts Access in a similar league with United Bank for Africa, whose foreign subsidiaries accounted for 77 percent of group net income in 2025, although Fitch noted that UBA’s figure was inflated by weak domestic performance. Foreign subsidiaries accounted for 52 percent of UBA’s total assets.

From acquisition spree to integration

For Access, however, the next stage of its international strategy is shifting from expansion to consolidation.

Fitch said the bank has entered a ‘consolidation and optimisation phase’, focused on integrating its acquisitions and extracting synergies from its increasingly complex international network.

The agency noted that while Access has experience integrating large domestic acquisitions, the sheer number of foreign acquisitions creates execution risks.

The group also faces a regulatory issue over its foreign investments. Fitch said Access is in breach of a regulation limiting investments in foreign subsidiaries to 10 percent of shareholders’ funds, which has prevented dividend payments.

The agency expects the group to restore compliance, partly by reducing its shareholding in some foreign subsidiaries by a limited amount, while continuing to fully consolidate the businesses.

The shift in Access’s earnings profile has also been helped by the naira’s sharp depreciation.

Fitch said the naira devaluation significantly increased the naira value of the assets and income generated by Nigerian banks’ foreign subsidiaries. Foreign operations also became more important to earnings in 2025 as the withdrawal of regulatory forbearance led to higher domestic loan impairment charges.

Foreign operations gain weight

The changing balance was already visible in Access Holdings’ 2026 results.

BusinessDay analysis of the group’s first-quarter results showed that Access Bank UK overtook the Nigerian operation as the group’s largest single earnings contributor for the first time.

Access Bank UK’s profit after tax rose by 73.5 percent year-on-year to N83.8 billion, compared with N52 billion for the Nigerian operation.

The development reflects a broader shift in Access’s earnings mix. Between January and September last year, Nigeria accounted for 37 percent of the group’s pre-tax profit, down from 61 percent during the same period in 2023. African subsidiaries increased their contribution to 35 percent from 18 percent, while the UK and other international businesses accounted for 28 percent, up from 21 percent.

The strategy was partly funded by capital raised by the group to support its international expansion.

Roosevelt Ogbonna, group managing director of Access Bank, said the capital raise was designed to finance the bank’s investment strategy, including the acquisition of Standard Chartered’s African subsidiaries.

In 2023, Access agreed to acquire Standard Chartered’s operations in Angola, Cameroon, The Gambia and Sierra Leone, as well as its Consumer, Private and Business Banking business in Tanzania.

The bank subsequently expanded its footprint through the acquisition of National Bank of Kenya from KCB Group, a majority stake in AfrAsia Bank and Standard Chartered’s consumer banking operations in Tanzania and subsidiary in The Gambia.

Diversification beyond Nigeria

Access’s expansion comes as international banks have reduced their presence in Africa, creating opportunities for regional lenders to acquire established businesses and customer networks.

Fitch said African banking groups are increasingly using cross-border expansion to reduce their dependence on individual domestic markets while positioning themselves to benefit from stronger growth, financial inclusion and trade flows created by the African Continental Free Trade Area.

For Access, Nigeria still accounted for 49 percent of group assets and 52 percent of net income at the end of 2025. Its UK operations accounted for 31 percent of assets, while Ghana contributed seven percent of group net income and Zambia six percent.

Fitch also sees a credit benefit from the bank’s diversification. Its UK and Mauritius operations accounted for a combined 32 percent of group assets and helped give Access an operating environment assessment of ‘b+’, one notch above Nigeria’s ‘b’.

But diversification does not automatically eliminate risk. Fitch said the benefit depends on the risk profile of the markets where banks expand.

For Access, the immediate challenge is therefore moving from acquisition-led growth to profitable integration.

Fitch expects foreign subsidiaries to remain an increasingly important source of assets and income for African banking groups as they deploy new capital and pursue opportunities across the continent.

For Access, the next test will be whether its expanding international network can translate into sustainable earnings, stronger integration and lower concentration risk rather than simply a larger geographical footprint.

For millions of Nigerians, the promise of a digital economy is still measured in something far more basic than artificial intelligence or global technology partnerships: whether a phone call connects, a WhatsApp message goes through, a bank transfer succeeds and mobile data works when it is needed.

That reality is putting the digital economy agenda of Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, under a sharper test as the administration approaches another October 1 anniversary.

Tijani came into office with an ambitious mandate to reposition technology from a supporting sector into a major driver of economic growth. His ministry has pursued artificial intelligence, digital skills, broadband expansion, innovation funding, technology diplomacy and large-scale infrastructure projects.

But three years into the administration, the country’s telecommunications industry still faces a stubborn contradiction: digital adoption is accelerating faster than the infrastructure and service quality needed to sustain it.

Nigeria’s broadband subscriptions rose to 124.42 million in July 2026 from 104.07 million a year earlier, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). Yet the growth in users has not eliminated the everyday frustrations of unreliable connectivity.

The central question now is whether Tijani’s biggest infrastructure promise: Project BRIDGE, can finally close that gap.

The 90,000km promise

Project BRIDGE has become perhaps the clearest measure of Tijani’s infrastructure ambitions.

The Federal Government plans to deploy at least 90,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables through a public-private partnership, at an estimated cost of $2 billion. The project is intended to expand Nigeria’s backbone towards about 120,000km and provide the foundational connectivity needed for universal digital access. The government says more than 33 million Nigerians remain offline. But the physical rollout has taken longer than initially expected.

In May, Tijani acknowledged that Nigeria’s connectivity problems were structural and linked to years of underinvestment. He said Project BRIDGE had secured World Bank-led funding and that fibre deployment, alongside new tower rollouts under the Nigeria Universal Communication Access Project (NUCAP), would commence before the end of 2026.

In August, the minister gave a more specific timeline, saying implementation of the 90,000km project would begin in October.

Then, in September, the government shortened the expected delivery period from five years to three years, with the project now targeting completion in 2028.

The change creates a new pressure point for the ministry: October is no longer simply a promised start date. It is becoming a test of whether the government’s infrastructure programme can move from financing and planning into visible deployment.*

Recent reports indicate that about $800 million of the estimated $2 billion financing requirement has been covered through commitments from the World Bank, African Development Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, leaving about $1.2 billion to be mobilised from private capital.

For technology policy expert Jide Awe, the problem is not the ambition of Project BRIDGE but the pace at which Nigerians can see its impact.

According to Awe, Nigerians have seen fibre construction in parts of Lagos and some private developments, but the scale is not yet comparable with what should be expected from a national infrastructure intervention.

‘With that kind of initiative, you want it to be more of a massive rollout that will be countrywide. Even if it is not immediately countrywide, at least the major urban areas should have started feeling the impact,’ he said in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay.

The last-mile problem

Even if the government successfully lays 90,000km of fibre, the fibre itself will not automatically put millions of Nigerians online.

This is the more complicated second phase of the connectivity challenge. Nigeria needs electricity, affordable devices, affordable data, reliable towers, fibre backhaul and local access networks to convert backbone infrastructure into actual household and business connectivity.

That means Project BRIDGE could solve a major infrastructure deficit without, by itself, solving Nigeria’s digital inclusion problem.

The ministry itself says the project is designed to connect schools and hospitals, expand financial and digital inclusion and create economic opportunities. But the test will ultimately be whether a trader in a congested market, a student in a rural community or a small business outside the major cities experiences a materially better connection.

That is where the infrastructure debate moves from kilometres of fibre to meaningful connectivity.

Telecom tariffs rose, but consumers still want better service

The financial sustainability of telecom operators became one of the biggest industry debates during Tijani’s tenure.

Operators argued that years of inflation, foreign-exchange losses, energy costs and higher equipment expenses had made existing tariffs unsustainable.

In 2024, Gbenga Adebayo, ALTON chairman, argued that telecom tariffs had not kept pace with the economic realities facing operators and warned that inadequate pricing was affecting the industry’s ability to invest in infrastructure and maintain service quality.

By early 2025, the NCC approved a tariff adjustment of up to 50 percent under its tariff review framework. But the increase came with an important expectation: operators were expected to use improved revenues to sustain and improve network investment and service quality.

That leaves the ministry facing a delicate equation. Consumers are paying more. Operators say they need the additional revenue to remain sustainable and invest. Yet subscribers continue to judge the industry by the quality of the service they receive.

The tariff debate, therefore, has not ended. It has simply moved to the next question: Where is the corresponding improvement in service quality?

The NCC introduced a compensation framework in April 2026 requiring mobile network operators to compensate eligible subscribers affected by prolonged or repeated poor-quality service in areas where operators fail to meet prescribed quality-of-service benchmarks. Compensation is automatic and is calculated using factors including subscriber usage and network performance.

The policy is an important shift because it moves service-quality regulation beyond warnings and complaints towards direct consumer compensation. But its very existence also highlights how deep the problem has become.

Awe said the quality of telecom services remains a major concern despite the increase in tariffs. ‘I am even suffering from it now,’ he said, describing how poor connectivity had forced him to use another person’s phone to access the internet.

His complaint is not merely about convenience. Nigeria’s economy increasingly depends on mobile connectivity for banking, payments, commerce, work, education and communication.

When connectivity fails, the economic consequences can extend beyond a dropped call.

Network congestion is becoming an economic problem

The problem is particularly visible in Nigeria’s markets. Awe said he had encountered situations in major markets, including Balogun Market, where network congestion made it difficult to complete simple electronic transfers.

The implication is significant. Nigeria has invested heavily in the transition towards digital payments, but the effectiveness of that transition depends on the availability of reliable connectivity.

A merchant may have a bank account, POS terminal and smartphone, but if the network cannot process the transaction, the country’s digital infrastructure has failed at the point where the citizen actually interacts with it.

This is why the telecom sector cannot be treated simply as another technology subsector. It has become a piece of economic infrastructure.

Data adoption is running ahead of infrastructure

Deolu Ogunbanjo, national president of the National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS), said the country’s infrastructure has not kept pace with the speed at which Nigerians are moving towards data services. ‘Everything is now data,’ Ogunbanjo told BusinessDay.

His argument is straightforward: Nigerians have rapidly changed their consumption habits, but infrastructure investment has not moved at the same speed.

The NCC’s statistics show the scale of the transition. Broadband subscriptions reached 124.42 million in July 2026, up from 104.07 million in July 2025.

The growth means more Nigerians are consuming video, using cloud applications, conducting digital banking, working remotely, learning online and communicating through internet-based platforms.

Yet the network supporting all of this remains vulnerable to congestion, fibre cuts, inadequate backhaul and infrastructure limitations.

Ogunbanjo therefore believes Nigeria needs substantially more infrastructure providers and stronger competition.

He said Nigeria should encourage more operators and allow smaller players to serve specific communities, states or local government areas rather than assuming that every telecommunications service must operate at national scale. ‘Everything does not have to be national,’ he said.

Starlink’s entry into Nigeria, according to Ogunbanjo, illustrates the effect that an additional player can have on the market. ‘Since Starlink came, all the ISPs were sitting up,’ he said.

The argument is not that existing operators have failed to invest. Rather, stakeholders want regulators to create an environment where investment by new and smaller players can translate into meaningful competitive pressure.

For the ministry and NCC, this creates a difficult policy balance: attracting investment while ensuring that market concentration does not weaken incentives to improve quality.

Infrastructure security remains an unfinished problem

Another weakness is the security of telecommunications infrastructure.

Awe argued that Nigeria has spent years discussing the need to protect telecom infrastructure as critical national infrastructure, yet fibre and other telecommunications assets remain vulnerable to vandalism, theft and damage.

He questioned whether there have been sufficient consequences for those responsible. ‘What are the consequences? Who has been tried for some of these damages?’ he asked.

The issue matters because every damaged fibre route can affect thousands of users and businesses, while repairs can take time and add costs to operators.

A national fibre programme therefore requires more than money to lay cables. It requires a security architecture capable of protecting those assets after they are deployed.

From 3MTT to global talent: the next test is value creation

Tijani’s agenda extends well beyond telecommunications. The 3 Million Technical Talent programme has become one of the administration’s most visible digital-skills initiatives, with the ministry positioning it as a pipeline for training Nigerians in areas such as software development, data analysis, AI, cloud computing and cybersecurity.

In May 2026, the ministry announced a partnership with Hello.cv aimed at giving 20,000 3MTT fellows access to global recruiters through a package including a personal .cv domain, AI-powered job-search tools and professional CV services, with the activation valued at more than $10 million.

But the initiative has also raised questions about data sovereignty and the retention of economic value within Nigeria.

Stakeholders cited concerns over the use of foreign domains and the handling of data generated by the 20,000 fellows.

Jude Ozinegbe, global digital economy strategist and CEO of Cyberchain, said the Nigeria Data Protection Commission should examine the security implications of the arrangement.

Ugonma Egwuatu of ECAM Global Services similarly argued that the NDPC should examine how the data is handled and what happens on the backend.

The debate goes beyond the domain name itself. It touches on a larger question facing the ministry: how does Nigeria become a digital economy that exports talent and technology without also exporting the economic value, data and intellectual property generated by that talent?

Adebunmi Adeola Akinbo, CEO of DNS Africa, argued that the country’s .ng domain could have been incorporated into the initiative.

Muhammed Rudman, CEO of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, also questioned why Nigerian talent trained with Nigerian resources should have their digital presence tied to a foreign country-code domain.

These concerns do not by themselves establish that the 3MTT arrangement violates data-protection rules. They do, however, raise questions about due diligence, data governance and the ministry’s broader Nigeria First approach to digital infrastructure.

Policy has moved faster than implementation

There is little doubt that Tijani has placed technology higher on the government’s economic agenda.

His ministry has developed a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, pursued AI governance initiatives and more recently advanced plans for a National AI Trust. The ministry says the AI strategy is intended to provide a coordinated framework for AI development, while the AI Trust is intended to guide responsible adoption.

Tijani has also taken on a more prominent international technology role. He was appointed chair of the International Telecommunication Union Council for 2026, giving Nigeria a significant position in global telecommunications policy discussions.

But international recognition and policy announcements ultimately face the same domestic test: implementation.

Awe argues that policies should do more than provide direction. ‘The essence of policy is not just to write it on paper. Apart from providing direction, it should stimulate the economy, stimulate the sector and stimulate the community,’ he said.

That distinction may define the next phase of Tijani’s tenure.

The unfinished digital agenda

Three years into the administration, the scorecard is therefore not a simple story of failure or success.

There has been movement on digital skills, AI policy, technology diplomacy, infrastructure financing and telecom consumer protection. The government has also secured substantial development-finance commitments for Project BRIDGE and says physical fibre deployment will begin in October.

But some of the most important outcomes remain works in progress. The 90,000km fibre network has yet to become a nationwide physical reality. Telecom users continue to complain about service quality. Network congestion is affecting digital transactions in some locations. The industry is seeking more infrastructure investment and competition. And the ministry’s ambitious digital programmes are increasingly being tested on questions of implementation, data governance and local economic value.

For Tijani, the significance of October 1 is therefore not simply that another year has passed. It is that the administration is entering a period in which announcements will increasingly have to become infrastructure, policies will have to become measurable outcomes, and digital ambition will have to become something Nigerians can feel in their everyday lives.

The 90,000km fibre rollout now offers perhaps the clearest test. If the cables begin going into the ground in October as promised, the next question will be harder: how quickly will they reach the communities that need them, and how much will ordinary Nigerians actually notice?

That may ultimately determine how the Tijani era is remembered, not by the number of policies announced, partnerships signed or kilometres promised, but by whether Nigeria’s digital economy became more reliable, accessible and competitive for the people who use it every day.

The Kogi State Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (Kogi L-PRES) has held a two-day Ethical Workers’ Leadership Retreat for all the management and support staff; this is a bid to strengthen institutional integrity and enhance project staff productivity.

The retreat, organised in collaboration with the Centre for Ethics and Self Value Orientation (CESVO), an international anti -corruption NGO based in Lokoja, was themed, ‘Understanding the Fundamentals of Ethics, Workplace Ethics and Public Service Value Orientation’.

While declaring the retreat open, Otaru Abdulkabir Onoruoyiza, the State Project Coordinator, described the training as a strategic investment to build the capacity of the project staff on ethical standards, public service values and institutional resilience to improve productivity at work place, adding that the exercise was beyond routine capacity building, but a deliberate effort to help project staff grow both professionally and personally.

He urged participants to reflect on their work ethics, adjust where necessary, and build on their strengths to deliver the L-PRES Project Development Objective (PDO) in Kogi State.

‘Project implementation is a collective responsibility; true institutional change must begin with the individual contribution to the successful implementation of the L-PRES Project.

‘We have thought outside the box to embrace this worthy collaboration. We are now partners in progress.

‘I advise the project staff to immediately practise what they have learnt as they return back to the office so that the resources invested will not be in vain,’ he said.

He charged project staff to remain committed to self -development, stressing that the knowledge goes beyond L-PRES and will remain relevant even after the end of the project cycle.

Prince Salih Yakubu, executive director, CESVO, said the training was in fulfilment of a pledge made when Kogi L-PRES was honoured for its integrity record.

Yakubu disclosed that Kogi L-PRES ranked second among only ten states that met CESVO’s ethical standards after its annual secret investigations nationwide, adding that the feat earned the State Project Coordinator induction into the CESVO Hall of Fame as Integrity Icon of Nigeria (IION), and the project, the Corporate Ethics and Integrity Compliance Award.

He disclosed that CESVO has trained over 47,000 Nigerians in the last five years on ethical reorientation.

‘The choice is now theirs. We have done a lot of exposures. ‘What we want to see in the next few years is transformation in character, conduct and leadership to make Kogi a model for other states’.

He revealed that a communique was issued at the end of the retreat to set a clear direction, while structures would be put in place to ensure the knowledge is imbibed.

The two-day retreat featured interactive sessions, case studies, role plays and psychometric tests.

Six critical modules were covered, including effective office communication, ethical leadership, managing executive stress, emotional intelligence, strategic planning and office politics.

Yakubu, in his paper titled ‘Managing Workplace Executive Stress: A Silent Killer,’ decried rising stress among Nigerian workers, such as loss of sleep over work, headache, palpitations, hypertension, among others.

He identified excessive workload as a major cause and advised workers to be decisive, set priorities, avoid perfectionism and procrastination, and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

In a related development, Tom Adejo Yusuf, CESVO Faculty Advisor, in his presentations on Emotional Intelligence and Office Politics, described office politics as the use of power and social networking to influence change, pointing out that it could be positive when it promotes fairness and ethical decision-making, but negative when it involves backstabbing, manipulation and self-promotion.

He noted that over 60 percent of employees engage in office politics and advised staff to be cordial, genuine, helpful, maintain proper documentation, build relationships and guard their character.

The participants described the retreat as eye -opening, thanked the management of Kogi L-PRES and pledged to turn over a new leaf, with a vow that their conscience would henceforth remain their guide.

The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) says Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) will provide the roads, rail, ports and logistics infrastructure needed to bolster Nigeria’s critical minerals from mines to market.

The ICRC Director-General, Jobson Ewalefoh, disclosed this while briefing journalists at the Nigeria-U.S. Critical Minerals and Infrastructure Investor Room Meeting.

The meeting was held on the margins of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA-81), in New York.

He explained that the landmark solid minerals collaboration between Nigeria and the U.S. government would only deliver its full value if the supporting infrastructure was in place.

‘Minerals will not fly to the processing plants. They will not fly to the ports.

‘You need good roads, you need railways, you need ports, you need logistics infrastructure in place for these opportunities to achieve their value,’ Ewalefoh said.

He explained that beyond the government-to-government agreement on mining, the Nigerian PPP regulator was in New York to open up investment opportunities across the entire minerals value chain.

The D-G added that relevant laws have been reformed to attract more investors and protect investments.

‘There is a need for people to take advantage of this opportunity to invest in roads, rail, ports and logistics, where they will reap their investments.

‘It is a value chain. We are only trying to be proactive, and I can tell you that the response has been fantastic,’ he said.

Ewalefoh identified the minerals pact as one of two major investment milestones recorded, while citing an agreement signed with DP World for a seven billion-dollar investment in the Ogun State Deep Sea Port.

On investor protection under the direction of President Bola Tinubu, he said that Nigeria now has an enabling legal framework and standard agreement template designed to shield investors from risks.

‘One ????????thing that worries investors most is the safety of their investment.

‘We have an agreement template that guarantees safety; whether it is political, legal or financial risk, the template will mitigate it,’ he said.

He attributed the renewed confidence by investors in the country to Tinubu’s support, aimed at ensuring private capital is unlocked to build Nigeria’s infrastructure.

He also mentioned that improved collaboration among government agencies helped to remove long-standing obstacles to investment.

‘With that support and enabling law in place, investors need not worry; before now, government agencies acted in silos, but we have been able to bring everybody together under the President’s leadership,’ he said.

He affirmed that the commission now receives requests daily from investors in aviation, transportation, ports and other sectors of the economy, saying ‘Nigeria is open for business’.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the investors’ room, led by Jumoke Oduwole, Minister, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, brought together senior government, industry, finance and infrastructure leaders from both countries.

The minister disclosed that Nigeria’s solid mineral exports reached N354 billion in 2025, saying the sector attracted more than 2.6 billion dollars in foreign direct investment over 30 months.

Coronation Insurance Plc grew insurance revenue by 51 percent to N74.8 billion in 2025, from N49.5 billion in the previous year, as the insurer expanded its business despite a challenging operating environment.

The strong revenue performance was accompanied by improvements in the company’s balance sheet and insurance operations, with total assets rising 27.7 percent to N98.1 billion and shareholders’ funds increasing 21.9 percent to N48.5 billion.

Insurance service results also climbed 93 percent to N10.6 billion from N5.5 billion in 2024, indicating stronger underlying insurance performance during the year.

However, profit before tax fell to N9.6 billion from N13.8 billion in 2024, largely because the company did not record the significant net foreign exchange gain that boosted its previous year’s result.

The performance was reviewed by shareholders at the company’s 68th Annual General Meeting in Lagos, where the board outlined its strategy for sustaining growth and strengthening the business.

Mutiu Sunmonu, chairman, Coronation Insurance, said the 2025 results reflected the company’s ability to grow while adapting to changes in the operating environment.

‘The performance of Coronation Insurance in 2025 reflects a business that continued to grow while responding responsibly to significant changes in the market. Our focus remains on strengthening the business, protecting policyholders and creating sustainable value for our shareholders,’ he said.

Olamide Olajolo, managing director/CEO, Coronation Insurance, attributed the revenue growth to the strength of the company’s diversified business model, distribution capabilities and customer-focused strategy.

He said the company had entered 2026 with a stronger operating platform and broader distribution network, positioning it to deepen market participation.

‘We entered 2026 with a stronger operating platform, a broader distribution base and greater capacity to respond to the evolving needs of our customers. Our task now is to translate that foundation into deeper market participation, stronger customer relationships and sustainable growth,’ Olajolo said.

A major contributor to the company’s revenue expansion was its bancassurance partnership with Access Bank, which generated N19.4 billion in gross written premium for the Group in 2025, up from N13.6 billion in 2024.

The 42.6 percent increase in premiums from the partnership underscores the growing importance of bancassurance and alternative distribution channels to the insurer’s expansion strategy.

The company’s 2025 performance comes amid significant changes in Nigeria’s insurance market, including rising operating costs, foreign exchange volatility and regulatory pressure on insurers to strengthen their capital positions and improve underwriting capacity.

For Coronation Insurance, the growth in insurance revenue and insurance service results points to expansion in its core insurance operations, while the decline in profit before tax highlights the impact of non-insurance factors on the bottom line.

At the AGM, shareholders considered and approved the company’s audited financial statements, alongside resolutions relating to governance, board composition, the Audit Committee and other oversight arrangements.

The company said its focus going forward would remain on strengthening its operating platform, expanding distribution, improving customer relationships and converting its growing business base into sustainable long-term value.

Nigeria’s mobile network operators received 413,587 complaints from subscribers in the first six months of 2026, highlighting persistent problems around network quality, billing, data depletion and failed transactions despite efforts by operators to improve customer service.

Data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) showed that Airtel accounted for the largest share of complaints at 228,992, followed by MTN with 124,405, Globacom with 56,810 and T2mobile, formerly 9mobile, with 3,885.

The scale of complaints provides a fresh measure of the gap between Nigeria’s rapid expansion in mobile connectivity and the experience of consumers using the networks.

While 98.38 percent, or 406,938, of the complaints were recorded as resolved, the volume of complaints points to the continuing pressure on operators as subscribers demand more reliable service and greater transparency over charges.

Data depletion was one of the issues attracting particular attention. MTN recorded 12,212 complaints relating to data depletion between January and June, the highest among the four major operators. Airtel followed with 9,806, while Globacom recorded 1,373 and T2mobile five.

That means the three largest operators by subscriber base received 23,391 data depletion complaints during the period.

The complaints come at a time when mobile internet has become more expensive for Nigerian consumers following the telecom tariff increases approved by the NCC.

For subscribers, the concern is no longer simply whether they can afford to buy data, but how long the bundle will last once purchased.

MTN, which crossed 100 million subscribers in July, has faced significant consumer scrutiny over data usage. The operator has rejected allegations that it arbitrarily deducts customers’ data and has pointed to changes in the way modern smartphones and applications consume internet capacity.

At its Data on Trial event, MTN highlighted high-definition video, automatic video playback, software updates, cloud backups, social media activity and background synchronisation as some of the activities that can rapidly consume data.

The company has also introduced tools including daily usage reports and a data calculator to give customers greater visibility into their consumption.

The NCC and operators have similarly attributed unexpected depletion to factors including device settings, applications, malware and background processes rather than arbitrary deductions by networks.

But the technical explanation has not completely resolved the consumer dispute. The underlying problem is increasingly one of trust.

A subscriber who experiences slow internet, fluctuating network signals or dropped connections may find it difficult to reconcile a rapidly falling data balance with what appears to be poor network performance.

That perception becomes more pronounced when the cost of staying connected rises.

Nigeria’s telecom users are now paying more for connectivity following the approved tariff adjustment, making every gigabyte more valuable to households, students, businesses and other heavy data users.

The result is a growing tension between how operators measure data consumption and how consumers experience it.

The NCC’s wider complaint figures show that data depletion is only one part of the problem.

Quality of service covering voice and data, billing, failed payment transactions, top-up problems, number portability, value-added services and SIM-related issues also generated significant complaints during the six-month period.

Airtel had the highest resolution rate among the two largest operators, resolving 99.38 percent of its complaints, while MTN resolved 96.57 percent. Globacom recorded a 99.04 percent resolution rate, while T2mobile recorded 88.57 percent.

The NCC said the complaints were handled under the Quality of Service Business Rules 2024 and the Consumer Code of Practice Regulations 2024, which establish standards and timelines for resolving consumer complaints.

According to the regulator, publishing the data provides insight into complaint trends, service-quality problems, compliance with regulatory obligations and the responsiveness of service providers.

But the numbers also reveal an important shift in Nigeria’s telecom market.

With mobile penetration expanding and data becoming central to banking, commerce, education, entertainment and work, consumers are becoming more sensitive to the quality and value of the service they receive.

MTN’s 12,212 data depletion complaints therefore represent more than a dispute over disappearing megabytes. They reflect a broader challenge for an industry that must convince consumers that higher connectivity costs are producing measurable value.

As of July, MTN had 100.9 million subscribers, Airtel 66.76 million, Globacom 23.63 million and T2mobile 3.61 million.

The complaint figures suggest that Nigeria’s next telecom challenge may not simply be getting more people online. It will be ensuring that those already online trust the networks enough to keep paying for the service.