Category: Business Day

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has cautioned members and supporters of the Accord Party against circulating what it described as false and AI-generated results of the governorship election.

In a statement issued on Saturday and signed by Kola Olabisi, Osun APC Director of Media and Information, the party accused Accord Party members and supporters of allegedly assuming the role of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by declaring what it described as fake results from various wards across the state.

Olabisi said INEC was the only body constitutionally empowered to conduct and declare the election results, adding that results released from other sources could be regarded as illegal.

He said, ‘is a statement of fact that INEC is the only corporate body constitutionally empowered to conduct and duly declare the results of the election which translates to the fact that election results from other sources from the national election umpire could be described as an illegality.

‘The members of the public should therefore keep watch of the misinformation about the governorship results as such is capable of plunging the state into avoidable crisis.

‘It is equally important for the police to urgently delve into the matter in order to make some of those publishing the falsehoods through the social media scapegoats.

‘A keen watcher of the development would agree with the observation and conclusion that the publication of the false election results by the Accord Party members and supporters was a prearranged and co-ordinated exercise by the handlers of the Accord Party in the state to cause confusion.

‘For God sake, why is it impossible for the Accord Party handlers to play politics by the rules as the INEC has been warning copiously that it wasn’t the business of anyone other than the national electoral umpire to release and declare the election results.,’ Olabisi stated.

The party said Governor Ademola Adeleke should be held responsible if there was a post-election crisis, which it alleged ‘has been stylishly promoted by the governor and his co-travellers, as findings showed that some of the disgruntled politicians of the Accord Party extraction have illegally enlisted the services of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to cause political crisis in the state with special reference to the churning out of fake election results.’

The APC urged its members and supporters to remain peaceful, continue with their businesses and avoid being distracted by what it described as activities capable of plunging the state into political crisis.

Nigerians are working harder, but that does not necessarily mean businesses are becoming more productive.

Across the country, manufacturers contend with energy costs, distributors navigate difficult logistics, retailers operate on increasingly thin margins, and small businesses manage the daily realities of expensive capital and weakening consumer purchasing power. Yet, despite all this effort, an important economic question remains: are Nigerian enterprises becoming more productive?

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), in its Nigeria Private Sector Outlook 2026, describes productivity as one of the defining challenges facing Nigerian businesses.

The report notes that real GDP growth improved from 3.4 percent in 2024 to 3.9 percent in 2025, while inflation moderated and the exchange rate became relatively more stable. Yet these improvements have not translated sufficiently into broad-based improvements in firm-level productivity.

The reasons are familiar. High energy costs, limited access to affordable finance, infrastructure gaps, insecurity and logistics inefficiencies continue to place what NESG describes as a ‘production ceiling’ on Nigerian businesses.

These structural constraints are real, and better data will not make them disappear. Analytics cannot generate electricity, repair a highway or lower interest rates.

But this raises another question.

When capital, energy, people and infrastructure are already constrained, how effectively are Nigerian businesses allocating the resources they do have?

This is where data deserves a much bigger place in Nigeria’s productivity conversation.

Productivity Is an Allocation Problem

Productivity is not simply about working harder or producing more. It is also about getting greater value from the resources already available. For a business, those resources include capital and labour, but also inventory, delivery vehicles, salespeople, warehouse capacity, marketing budgets and management attention. The challenge is that these resources are often deployed across customers, stores, products and markets that have very different economic characteristics.

Treating them as though they are the same can be expensive. I saw this firsthand in a store-clustering project involving retail outlets in Lagos. Rather than treating the stores as one relatively homogeneous market, the analysis grouped them into four clusters based on their commercial characteristics.

One cluster – the highest tier, classified as Gold – accounted for approximately 50 percent of category volume. That finding immediately changed the commercial question. Instead of asking how the business could serve every store in the same way, the question became: should stores that contribute disproportionately to category volume receive a different service model?

For the highest-volume stores, there was an opportunity to consider direct service, concentrating distribution and commercial resources where they could generate greater value while using more cost-efficient routes to market for lower-volume outlets. No additional stores had been created. No new consumers suddenly appeared. The company did not acquire additional trucks simply because an analysis had been completed.

What changed was its visibility into the market. Data did not create more resources. It created an opportunity to allocate existing resources more intelligently. That distinction is fundamental to productivity.

The Problem With Averages

The same principle applies to growth. When businesses set growth targets, a common instinct is to look broadly across the customer base: acquire more customers, sell more products, increase marketing or push the sales organisation harder.

But customers rarely present equal growth opportunities. In another piece of analytics work, I looked at customers at a cohort level rather than treating the entire customer base as one group. Segmenting customers according to their behaviours and commercial characteristics made it possible to identify where incremental growth was more likely to come from.

Some customers represented retention opportunities. Others had the potential to increase purchase frequency. Some could expand their spending across categories. And others offered considerably less incremental opportunities. This changes the question from ‘How do we grow our customers?’ to ‘Which customers present the strongest opportunities for growth, and what specifically would cause each group to grow?’

That may sound like a subtle distinction. Economically, it is not. A naira of marketing expenditure, an hour of a salesperson’s time or a promotional discount deployed against a customer with significant headroom for growth may produce a very different return from the same resource spread indiscriminately across the entire customer base.

This is commercial productivity: not simply spending more to generate growth, but improving the precision with which resources are deployed.

Nigerian Businesses Are Already Generating Data

Nigeria is not starting from zero. Every day, businesses generate information through sales transactions, inventory movements, payments, deliveries, production lines, customer complaints, digital platforms and supply chains. The challenge is increasingly what happens after that information is generated.

Research from the International Finance Corporation and World Bank provides some useful context.

Researchers examined 3,325 microenterprises across seven African countries, including Nigeria. They found that the use of smartphones and computers for business was strongly associated with better outcomes in productivity, sales, profits and wages.

Yet fewer than 7 percent of the microenterprises surveyed used these digital technologies for business purposes, while 71 percent reported that they saw no need for them. It does not prove that technology or data alone causes productivity. Nor does it mean that Nigeria’s productivity constraints can be reduced to a technology-adoption problem. It does, however, point to an important gap between the availability of digital tools and their productive application.

The World Bank reached a related conclusion in its Nigeria Digital Economy Diagnostic, observing that Nigeria was capturing only a fraction of its digital economic potential. That gap matters because collecting information is not the same thing as using it.

A retailer may have years of point-of-sale transactions but still manage every store similarly. A distributor may know what it delivered yesterday without understanding which customers are disproportionately expensive to serve. A manufacturer may collect production records without identifying which machines, shifts or processes account for the greatest downtime.

A bank may have millions of customer transactions while still applying broad marketing strategies to customers with very different behaviours and needs.

The presence of data does not automatically create a data-driven business.

Beyond the Economics of Averages

One-size-fits-all business models become particularly costly when resources are constrained.

The ‘average customer’ may spend a certain amount, but no actual customer is necessarily that average customer. The ‘average store’ may sell a particular volume, while a relatively small group of stores could account for a disproportionate share of category sales. The ‘average product’ may appear profitable even while certain SKUs absorb working capital and warehouse capacity without generating adequate returns.

The problem with averages is that businesses do not serve averages. They serve individual customers, stores and markets whose economics can be radically different. Analytics allows businesses to see those differences.

This does not always require sophisticated or expensive technology platforms. For many businesses, the productivity journey can begin with much simpler questions:

Which 20 percent of our customers generate most of our contribution? Which products are tying up working capital without moving? Which stores justify direct distribution? Which customers have the greatest potential to increase their spending?

Which delivery routes generate the highest cost per order? Where are we repeatedly losing production hours? Which promotions generate incremental sales rather than simply discounting purchases that would have happened anyway?

These are fundamentally data questions, but they are also management questions.

The Productivity Lever Businesses Can Control

The government still has an enormous responsibility to improve electricity, transport infrastructure, security, access to finance and the broader environment in which businesses operate. Indeed, NESG’s 2026 outlook argues that these structural bottlenecks continue to suppress investment and competitiveness. But businesses cannot wait for every structural constraint to disappear before pursuing productivity.

They can ask whether every truck is being deployed where it creates the greatest economic value. Whether every naira of marketing expenditure is targeting the customers with the greatest opportunity. Whether inventory reflects actual demand. Whether sales teams are spending their time on the right accounts. Whether management decisions are being made based on averages and intuition when transaction-level evidence tells a different story.

The question for Nigerian enterprises, therefore, is not simply whether they have data. Most businesses generate some form of it already. The more consequential question is:

Does the data change how the business allocates its resources?

Nigeria’s productivity challenge will not be solved by one intervention. The country needs better infrastructure, more reliable energy, productive capital, stronger institutions and a more predictable operating environment. But within those constraints lies another opportunity. In an economy where resources are expensive, knowing precisely where to deploy them becomes a competitive advantage.

The businesses that understand which customers to pursue, which stores to prioritise, which products to back, which costs to attack and which opportunities to ignore will increasingly outperform those still applying one-size-fits-all approaches.

Data will not solve Nigeria’s productivity challenge. But it can help Nigerian businesses make considerably more productive decisions with the resources they already have.

And that may be one of the most immediately available places to start.

Umo Eno, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, has led a delegation of State Executives and members of the airline’s Management team to a pre-delivery inspection of Ibom Air’s third Airbus A220-300 aircraft at the Airbus production facility in Mirabel, Canada, ahead of its formal delivery and reception in Akwa Ibom State.

The inspection marks another significant milestone in Ibom Air’s fleet modernisation and growth strategy and is part of the acceptance process before the aircraft enters commercial service.

The aircraft is Ibom Air’s third Airbus A220-300 and the second A220 to be received under the airline’s firm order for ten Airbus A220 aircraft placed in 2021. Its addition marks a further step in Ibom Air’s commitment to expanding capacity, strengthening connectivity, and operating one of Africa’s most modern fleets.

The delegation was received by Guillaume Chevasson, Head of the A220 Program and Chief Executive Officer of Airbus Canada, during the inspection, which formed part of the formal acceptance process ahead of the aircraft’s delivery.

Speaking on the significance of the event, George Uriesi, the Chief Executive Officer of Ibom Air, said:

‘This pre-delivery inspection represents an important milestone in our fleet expansion programme and brings us one step closer to welcoming this aircraft to Nigeria. As demand for air travel continues to grow across our markets, we remain focused on investing in modern aircraft that deliver superior operational efficiency, reliability, safety, and passenger comfort.

‘The Airbus A220 continues to be the ideal aircraft for our network strategy, and we look forward to deploying this latest addition into our network in furtherance of our growth objectives.’

Commenting on the development, Umo Eno, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, said:

‘The inspection of this aircraft reflects the State Government’s commitment to the continued growth of Ibom Air as a strategic asset for Akwa Ibom State. This investment aligns with the ARISE Agenda and our vision of establishing Akwa Ibom as a leading aviation hub, supported by world-class infrastructure and a modern airline.

We look forward to formally receiving this aircraft in Akwa Ibom State and to the economic opportunities that enhanced connectivity will create for trade, tourism, investment, and regional development.’

Speaking on the partnership with Ibom Air, Guillaume Chevasson, Head of the A220 Programme and Chief Executive Officer of Airbus Canada, noted:

‘We are honoured by Ibom Air’s trust in Airbus and the A220 Family. The A220 is the ideal aircraft for the airline’s fleet modernisation, thanks to its exceptional operational flexibility, fuel efficiency, passenger comfort, and performance across domestic and regional networks, and we look forward to supporting Ibom Air’s continued growth for many years to come.’

The aircraft also incorporates features that further support the airline’s commitment to continuous improvement in operational capability, efficiency, and customer experience.

Upon completion of the delivery processes, the aircraft will be ferried to Nigeria, where it will be officially received into the Ibom Air fleet in Akwa Ibom State before commencing commercial operations.

As organisations across Africa and the rest of the world seek to translate sustainability ambitions into business outcomes, new research from Project Management Institute (PMI) and Green Project Management, reveals a critical challenge – many are struggling to deliver measurable sustainability outcomes.

The findings, according to a statement, come at a time when the world is running out of time to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025, only 35% of SDG targets are currently on track or making moderate progress, while nearly half are advancing too slowly, and 18% have regressed. Against this backdrop, PMI’s latest research highlights execution as challenge that receives far less attention than policy or funding debates.

The report, Executing Sustainability Strategy: When Ambition Meets Reality, surveyed nearly 1,600 professionals across 35 countries and found a significant disconnect between strategic confidence and execution readiness.

While 85% of sustainability executives believe their organisations will achieve their sustainability goals, only 43% of Project Management Office (PMO) leaders share that confidence. Among project professionals responsible for implementation, just 20% are extremely confident in their organisation’s ability to deliver.

The study also found that although 79% of respondents believe sustainability is important to long-term success, only 41% say it is fully integrated into projects and daily operations.

For Africa, where projects underpin everything from infrastructure and energy development to healthcare, mining, agriculture, and digital transformation, the findings point to a challenge that is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

‘Sustainability is no longer a separate conversation from business performance. Across the continent, governments and businesses have set bold targets and made significant commitments. The real challenge is delivery.

‘A strategy does not build a power station, expand broadband access, or improve water security – projects do. If sustainability is not embedded into project delivery, organisations will struggle to achieve the outcomes they are aiming for,’ says George Asamani, Managing Director, PMI Sub-Saharan Africa in the statement.

The research found that organisations most successful in delivering sustainability commitments typically share two characteristics: leadership alignment around a clear definition of success and strong organisational capability to translate sustainability priorities into project-level decisions and actions.

The 2026 Osun State governorship election has been overshadowed by allegations of widespread vote-buying, with agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Accord Party reportedly offering between N10,000 and N20,000 per voter in several parts of the state.

The allegations, came as voters went to the polls to elect a governor for the next four years.

According to the report, the alleged cash inducements began days before election day and were reported in several local government areas.

In Ilesa, APC agents were reportedly distributing as much as N20,000 per voter in parts of Ilesa East, Ilesa West and Atakunmosa East. One voter claimed that payments were made in cash at the residences of party chieftains designated to coordinate activities at polling units.

A human rights activist in Ilesa, speaking anonymously, was quoted as saying that about N700,000 was allegedly allocated to each polling unit, with individual voters receiving varying amounts.

In Aiyedire Local Government Area, Accord was reportedly distributing N10,000 to eligible voters, while some residents said APC agents were offering as much as N15,000. The report also alleged that more than 200 women in Ileogbo were offered N10,000 each by a group campaigning for the APC.

The alleged cash-for-votes competition was also reported in Ila, where residents claimed that both parties were offering money.

According to the report, APC was allegedly offering N15,000, while Accord reportedly raised its offer to N20,000.

In Ile-Ife, some residents alleged that APC agents offered N15,000 while Accord offered N10,000. Similar claims emerged from Ikire, where both parties were reportedly distributing cash ranging from N10,000 to N20,000.

The reports also indicated that some voters were allegedly asked to provide their Permanent Voter Cards or make promises about how they would vote before receiving money. Such allegations, if established, would raise serious concerns about the credibility and integrity of the electoral process.

The vote-buying allegations are not limited to cash handed out at the grassroots. Earlier in the campaign, the APC accused Governor Ademola Adeleke, the Accord candidate, of planning to give N20,000 to state and local government workers as an inducement ahead of the election.

The governor’s camp and organised labour have rejected the allegations, describing payments to workers as legitimate government interventions rather than vote-buying.

The latest allegations have added another layer of controversy to a closely fought election between incumbent Governor Adeleke of Accord and APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji.

The contest has already been marked by accusations and counter-accusations over alleged electoral malpractice, intimidation and political interference.

With voters now casting their ballots, attention is turning to whether the reported financial inducements will influence turnout and voting patterns, and whether election officials and security agencies will be able to prevent further attempts at influencing voters through cash.

The allegations remain allegations and have not, in themselves, established that either party systematically bought votes across the state. Independent verification and findings by relevant electoral and law-enforcement authorities will be necessary to determine the extent of any wrongdoing.

As voting proceeds across Osun, the central question is whether the election will ultimately be decided by voters’ policy preferences and candidate choices or by the highest price offered for their ballots.

Afrobeats star David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has alleged that soldiers are attempting to prevent him from entering Osun State as voters head to the polls for the state’s governorship election on Saturday.

Davido raised the alarm in a post on his verified X account early Saturday, saying he had been ‘reliably informed’ that soldiers were trying to stop him from entering the state.

The singer insisted that he would not be deterred, arguing that Nigerian citizens have a constitutional right to freedom of movement.

His claim comes amid heightened security measures across Osun ahead of the election.

The Nigeria Police Force announced a restriction of movement throughout the state from midnight on Friday, August 14, until 6 p.m. on Saturday, August 15, as part of arrangements to secure the poll.

The movement restriction is expected to affect vehicular and other forms of movement across the state during the voting period, with security agencies deployed to maintain order and prevent disruptions.

Davido, who is a nephew of incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke, has been an active supporter of his uncle’s re-election campaign under the Accord Party. Adeleke is seeking a second term against candidates including the All Progressives Congress flagbearer, Bola Oyebamiji, and other contenders.

The singer’s allegation has generated reactions online, with some commentators linking the reported attempt to stop him to the general movement restrictions announced for election day, while others questioned whether he was being specifically targeted.

Former presidential media aide Bashir Ahmad dismissed Davido’s complaint as ‘dramatic,’ arguing that the restrictions had been publicly announced by security authorities and were part of standard election security measures.

Ahmad maintained that the right to freedom of movement does not exempt individuals from complying with lawful security measures introduced to protect the electoral process.

As of the latest reports, there has been no independent confirmation that soldiers were specifically ordered to prevent Davido from entering Osun State.

The allegation comes against the backdrop of a tense political atmosphere surrounding the election, with security, voter safety and the conduct of political actors remaining major concerns ahead of the outcome.

Thirteen candidates are contesting the governorship election, although the race has largely centred on incumbent Governor Adeleke, APC candidate Oyebamiji and African Democratic Congress candidate Najeem Salaam.

Davido had earlier called on Nigerian authorities and the international community to pay close attention to the Osun election, citing concerns over possible violence and intimidation.

With voting underway, attention is now focused on whether the election will proceed peacefully and whether the singer’s reported movement difficulties will develop into a wider political or security controversy.

Higher salaries and better working conditions abroad are drawing experienced Nigerian teachers away from private schools, worsening an already fragile sector grappling with rising operating costs and poor management.

As schools struggle to retain qualified staff while meeting escalating expenses, many are scaling back operations or shutting down entirely, raising concerns about the future of private education in the country.

Elizabeth Ohaka, a school owner, emphasised that the environment is toxic to school business owners. ‘With teacher scarcity and overhead costs on an astronomical increase, it is tough navigating the path of school business,’ she said.

According to the Education International 2025 report, Nigeria’s deep-rooted education crisis is being exacerbated by the loss of its teachers. Over 20 million children are out-of-school, yet classrooms lie empty.

As the teacher recruitment and retention crisis deepens globally, many countries, such as the UK, Canada, and Germany, among others, have intensified efforts to recruit overseas-trained teachers (OTTs).

In 2025, the UK granted Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) to 5,230 overseas teachers (a 28 percent year-over-year jump), with thousands being from Nigeria. Canada also attracts hundreds of licensed Nigerian educators annually.

The teacher exodus and other concomitant challenges such as mismanagement and operational costs, among others, have pushed many school owners to wind down the business.

Recently, a children’s school at Ojudu Estate Phase II, Lagos, announced it is winding down after 30 years of existence.

‘It is with a heart full of mixed emotions that I write to inform you that your school, Children School, will permanently close for school activities at the end of the current academic year,’ the letter read in part.

BusinessDay survey shows that many other schools in Nigeria have shut down and/or sold out the business to another entrepreneur as a result of the high cost of operation.

A top-notch school in the Isolo suburb of Lagos State was sold to another person because the initial owner migrated to Canada for greener pastures, handing over the management to a staff member, who was alleged to have mismanaged the business.

Another school was sold because the owner could not retain the qualified teachers, as they left for better-paying jobs abroad. Besides, there are reports of some teachers who migrated to other careers due to poor salaries and the downtrodden status of the teaching profession in Nigeria.

The steady migration of Nigerian educators to the United Kingdom and Canada has reached alarming levels, with over 2,655 teachers relocating abroad between 2022 and 2025, leaving many schools struggling to stay open amid worsening staff shortages.

Unfortunately, teachers are among the lowest-paid professionals in the country. A graduate public-school teacher in some states earns as low as N70,000 per month, which is roughly $45 to $50.

If you are a fan of crime drama movies, then this new movie that just got recently added on Netflix would be worth your while. Elize was a pretty young lady that worked at a stripe club. Along the course of her job, she meets Marcos, a married man who was from a very wealthy family. He fell in love with Elize and asked that she quit her main job, she agreed and they got married after he divorced his main wife. They lived together and after much trial they had a baby girl. Elize agreed to marry Marcos on the basis that he had changed and would see only her, but Marcos didn’t change, he kept going back to other women and this made Elize very upset, Elize lost her mind and she did the unthinkable. You will need to go check out this movie to see what Elize did, this movie was based on true events. The 93m Brazillian, crime, drama, thriller movie was directed by Felipe Vellas, they featured actors like Lorena Corparato, Henrique Kinura, Denise Weinberg, Gustaro Falcao, Julia Shimura, Flora Sandya, Edson Kameda, Miwa Yanagizawa and many more.

If you are a fan of Kevin Hart, then this might be your movie for the weekend. I do find his movies okay, but sometimes just feel like the storyline is everywhere. In this movie, Kevin played the lead role as ‘Joe’, he got a random text one day asking him to contribute towards a bachelor’s party. For some weird reasons, he paid and decided to go and spend the weekend with these 4 young guys in their 20’s. He needed to attend this to get perspective into the world and use them to shoot an advert campaign for his new client called, ‘Unlimited’. Little did the boys know they were being used for a campaign. You will need to go check out this movie to see how the happy weekend turned into a total nightmare and disaster. The 105min comedies, raunchy, irrelevant movie was directed by Tim Story, they featured actors like Kevin Hart, Marcello Hernandez, Teyana Taylor, Any Garcia, Mason Gooding, Kam Patterson, Ben Marshak, Mike Epps, Kevin Dunn, Zach Cherry and many more.

23,000 LIVES (2026)

If you really enjoy movies on true life issues, then grab your popcorn and drink as this would be worth your while. Lukas was a young man who dropped out of school to follow his dream and passion helping stranded immigrants on sea. Despite the warning from mom, he went out to set a group of his friends, they decided to do some fund raising, they bought a ship got some food and medical supplies and started the mission, what started as a simple, noble mission, became almost a mission impossible, even leading to them being sued by one of the countries, which ended their good mission, as at that point. They had saved over 23,00 lives; it was a very touching movie. The 114m German, drama, based on real life, social issue, It was directed by Markus Goller, they featured actors like Louis Hofmann, Mala Emele, Katharina Stark, Maria Dragus, Fraderick Lau, Trevor Magaya, Kathy Etoa, Luisa-Celine Gaffron etc.

Title: Tales and Tatase: A Nigerian Recipe Book Garnished with Humorous Stories

Author: Atinuke Aliu-Edomobi

Year of Publication: 2026

Number of Pages: 108

These days, watching Nigerian food content online can be exhausting. One chef is asking for turkey bacon. Another wants beef pepperoni. Someone else is using an ingredient that can only be found after a three-hour drive and two visa applications. Before long, the average Nigerian quietly closes Instagram, reaches for garri and sugar, and accepts their fate.

Thankfully, Atinuke Aliu Edomodi isn’t interested in stressing anybody. She simply wants to cook good food, tell good stories and remind readers that delicious meals don’t have to come with complicated ingredients or impossible techniques.

The title Tales and Tatase already tells readers this isn’t going to be an ordinary cookbook. Why tatase? Why not pepper, onions or crayfish? Before opening the first page, curiosity has already won. Then the stories begin.

Very quickly, readers realise this isn’t just a cookbook. It is part autobiography, part comedy and somewhere in between, a collection of recipes that almost gets forgotten because Atinuke keeps distracting everyone with one hilarious childhood story after another. She has a gift for storytelling.

One minute she’s explaining a recipe; the next minute she’s telling a story that makes readers forget they were supposed to be measuring seasoning cubes. It almost feels like sitting in someone’s kitchen while they cook and gist at the same time.

Atinuke writes exactly the way many Nigerians talk. There is no unnecessary grammar. No trying to sound like a celebrity chef. She simply says things as they come to her, and somehow it works beautifully.

Then there are the pictures. The meals don’t look like food arranged by television chefs. They look like the kind of food your mother would proudly place on the dining table on a Sunday afternoon. Looking through the pages is dangerous. Hunger is almost guaranteed.

The funniest part is her cooking instructions. Most cookbooks confidently tell readers exactly what to do. Atinuke’s instructions sometimes sound more like, ‘Well…this is what I did. May God help you too.’

At some point, it almost feels as though she’s giving cooking directions over the phone while rushing to another appointment.

Readers may find themselves laughing and wondering, ‘Madam, should I continue cooking or not?’ Strangely, they do. And somehow, they trust her. Perhaps because she never pretends to know everything.

She isn’t trying to convince anyone she’s the next Chef Fregs. She’s simply sharing the recipes that work for her, and that honesty makes the book even more enjoyable.

Teenagers learning to cook will feel comfortable with this book. So will adults whose greatest achievement in the kitchen is boiling water without burning the pot. Even readers who have absolutely no intention of cooking may still enjoy the book because the stories are just as entertaining as the recipes.

One chapter that will immediately grab every Nigerian’s attention is Party Jollof. Who isn’t curious about party jollof? The chapter almost feels like discovering a national secret. Readers become so excited that they temporarily forget there are other recipes waiting for them.

Another thing that stands out is Atinuke’s personality. She comes across as the kind of friend everyone wants. The one who feeds people, laughs easily and somehow has a story for every occasion. At times, readers may even wish they had been invited to one of the meals featured in the book.

The photographs of her friends enjoying the food make the experience even warmer. For a second, they almost look too perfect, until familiar faces begin to appear and readers realise these are genuine moments shared around real food.

The Nigerian slang sprinkled throughout the book makes it even more enjoyable. International readers may occasionally pause to decode a few expressions, but Nigerians will feel completely at home.

The only small complaint is that the book deserves to be bigger. Some of those mouth-watering photographs almost beg for a larger page size so readers can admire every delicious detail before running to the kitchen.

In the end, Tales and Tatase refuses to stay in one lane. It is a cookbook. It is a collection of childhood memories. It is a comedy. It is comfort reading. And somewhere between the laughter, the stories and the recipes, Atinuke quietly reminds readers that the best meals are rarely about expensive ingredients. They are about home, family, friendship and the memories made around the table. Just don’t read it on an empty stomach. You’ve been warned.

Seamfix Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Cooperative Federation of Nigeria to develop and deploy the National Cooperative Smart Registry, a national digital registry for registering

and verifying Nigeria’s cooperative societies and their members.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed at an official ceremony held in Abuja and presided over by Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security and Supervising Minister of Cooperative Affairs, on 12th August 2026.

The partnership represents a major step in the implementation of the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform and Revamp Programme (RH-CRRP 2030) and the Federal Government’s efforts to modernise Nigeria’s cooperative sector.

The digital infrastructure comprises the National Cooperative Smart Registry (NCSR), the Cooperative Verification Number (CVN) for cooperative societies, and the Cooperative Member Identification Number (CoopID), which links every cooperative member’s verified identity to their National Identification Number (NIN).

Today, most cooperative societies in Nigeria manage their membership records manually. This makes it difficult to confirm who is genuinely registered, slows down access to government support, and leaves the sector’s true size and structure largely invisible to the formal economy. The NCSR will change this by giving cooperatives a digital register that ties each member’s CoopID directly to their NIN.

The NCSR is designed to support, not replace, the statutory registration and regulatory responsibilities of the Federal Department of Cooperatives at the national level, and the State and FCT Departments and Directorates of Cooperatives within their respective jurisdictions. Together, the NCSR, CVN and CoopID will give the sector the transparency it has not had before.

Nigeria has more than 370,000 registered cooperative societies with an estimated membership in the tens of millions, spanning agriculture, commerce, manufacturing, housing, transport and finance.

Despite the sector’s scale and economic significance, fragmented records and manual verification processes have held the sector back.

Digitalising cooperatives would strengthen their capacity to access finance and government interventions, while providing the data needed to drive better planning and investment.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Honourable Minister stated:

‘Under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, the Federal Government is committed to building a cooperative sector that is modern, transparent, accountable and fully integrated into Nigeria’s formal economy. The National Cooperative Smart Registry will establish a trusted national framework for verified

cooperative information while preserving the statutory powers of the Federal, State and FCT cooperative regulatory authorities within their respective jurisdictions.

‘The successful implementation of this initiative will depend on close collaboration with the Federal Department of Cooperatives and the State and FCT Departments and Directorates of Cooperatives, whose registration and regulatory responsibilities are central to the integrity and sustainability of the system.

‘Through NCSR, we will improve regulatory coordination, strengthen the targeting of government interventions, reduce fraud and duplication, and make genuine cooperative societies and their members more visible within the systems established to serve them.

‘The Cooperative Federation of Nigeria, as the umbrella body of the cooperative

movement, will support sectoral sensitisation, engagement and mobilisation, while Seamfix Limited will provide the required technical infrastructure.

‘By bringing together government regulatory institutions, the cooperative movement and our technical

partner, we are laying the foundation for greater trust, financial inclusion, agricultural transformation, food security and inclusive economic growth.’

Chimezie Emewulu, Group CEO of Seamfix Limited, said: ‘At Seamfix, we believe that identity is not a privilege, it is a right. And the right to be seen,

verified, and trusted is the foundation on which everything else in a modern economy is built.

‘The NCSR is not just a registration programme, it is infrastructure, the layer that connects a cooperative to the systems built to serve it. We are honoured to be the partner delivering this alongside the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, and we are committed to doing so with the same rigour we have brought to every national programme we have built.’

Frank Atube, Executive Director and COO of Seamfix Limited, added:

‘For too long, this sector has operated without a digital system connecting its records, a gap that has left cooperatives relying on manual processes to manage their members’ identity information, and government interventions struggling to reach the right beneficiaries. Through the CVN, every registered cooperative society gets a verified digital identity.

‘Through the CoopID, every cooperator’s identity is tied directly to their NIN, making them visible not only to the communities that have always known them, but to the formal economy that was always meant to serve them.’

Under the agreement, FMAFS will provide national policy direction and regulatory leadership; the State and FCT cooperative authorities will serve as essential implementation collaborators within their jurisdictions; CFN will lead stakeholder engagement and mobilisation; and Seamfix Limited will provide the technology and infrastructure required to deploy and operate the platform.

By connecting verified cooperative information nationally, the NCSR will lay the foundation for a more visible, trusted, and inclusive cooperative sector, one that advances agricultural development, food security, financial inclusion, employment creation, and Nigeria’s broader economic transformation.