Category: Business Day

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that 1,906,390 Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), representing 81.50 per cent of registered voters in Osun State, have been collected ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.

INEC, in a statement signed by Mohammed Kudu Haruna, National Commissioner and Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, said the state has 2,339,233 registered voters.

According to the Haruna, 426,842 PVCs, representing 18.50 per cent, remain uncollected and have been deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in line with its established practice.

He said’ Out of the total of 2,339,233 registered voters in the State, 1,906,390 PVCS, representing 81.50 per cent, have been collected. The remaining 426,842 PVCS, representing 18.50 per cent, have been safely deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in line with the Commission’s established practice.’

INEC also disclosed that some voters whose cards were damaged, defaced or lost applied for replacements, while 6,101 of those applicants printed downloadable copies of their PVCs.

The commission said ‘ a table of of the PVCs collected, Polling Unit by Polling Unit (PU), has been published on the Commission’s website.’

Haruna reassured political parties, civil society organisations, media, and the good people of Osun State of its total readiness to conduct a free, fair, credible, transparent, and inclusive election on Saturday, 15th August 2026.

Dr Efunbo Dosekun is before an eager crowd in an auditorium in Ikeja today, Wednesday, 5th August 2026, to deliver a valedictory lecture for her friend, Elizabeth Disu, a professor of paediatrics, who is retiring from academics at the milestone age of 70 years.

The lecturer is inching close to 70 herself and approaching the prospect with some disquiet. There is still much to be done. Outreach Neolife, Kano, her 100-bed specialist children’s hospital designed primarily for salvaging critically ill newborns, full-term or pre-term, and the latest member of her Outreach Hospitals group, which had started in FESTAC and expanded across Lagos, has been literally swamped with work. In the past one month, the survival rate has risen to 95% from an initial 82% in the first three months, and the numbers to more than 1500.

Today is not about her, she knows, but about her friend and colleague. They had been residents together at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi Araba. She, Efunbo, had spent a year abroad in Newcastle and had returned to be Senior Registrar over a dynamic team that included other friends such as Ngozi Onyia.

The decision to go to Kano under a partnership with the National Health Insurance Agency (NHIA) that guarantees free treatment for critically ill babies seen in her facility has a grim logic to it. 59 out of every 1000 babies born in Kano die in their first month of life, far worse even than the globally infamous Nigerian national average of 41 neonatal deaths out of every 1000 live births. Kano is one of the worst places on earth for any baby to be born. That is not a fact that should be conducive to the peace of mind of anyone. The experience of saving those first 1000 babies in Kano, salutary as it is, has also been a reality check for her on the limitation of high-tech Neonatal Intensive Care Units alone as a panacea for high death and disability in the first month of life in a resource-challenged society like Nigeria.

Getting past the niceties, she begins to talk to the audience about Elizabeth, who is being celebrated by the people she has mentored, and influenced, over the course of decades of clinical work and scholarship at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and its sister College of Medicine.

Her presentation slides are not crammed with a Chinese Menu of figures and diagrams. She is talking from the heart about a person she knows, and the care of little Nigerian babies they are both incurably passionate about.

‘Elizabeth has brought in a Public Health dimension to our work’ she says. ‘She taught me her course on ‘Helping Babies to Breathe’. I have myself organised over 50 Training programmes to teach the same skills to other people.’

She describes how Elizabeth had been very enthusiastic about the resuscitation of newborns, after learning from the mutual teacher Professor Nike Grange, and how she designed and started to disseminate ‘Helping Babies To Breathe’ in Lagos. Her trainees included fellow paediatricians, doctors, nurses, and, significantly, staff from General Hospitals and Primary Healthcare centres.

Her innovative work, she says, is like a coin, dropped into water, creating endless ripples. She is an example of a researcher whose work has translated into direct impact on Nigerian society.

‘…Everyone talks about how hard-working Elizabeth is in the Emergency Room and in the clinic. But she has saved thousands of Nigerian babies who she did not even touch with her own hands…’

The Paediatrics Association of Nigeria utilises her training. She is involved with the programmes in the Lagos State Ministry of Health, and with the Federal Ministry of Health. She is principal investigator in a Bill and Melinda Gates funded international study on the simplified administration of a substance to free the airways of distressed newborns.

Babies, avers the lecturer, were designed by God to breathe, and to cry, immediately at birth. Any baby that does not breathe in one minute is in dire trouble. The window is narrow. A baby who has not breathed for three-to-five minutes, but later survives due to even the most expert treatment, may be permanently brain damaged and unable to function optimally in later life.

The drift of her logic is clear. Elizabeth’s drive to diffuse the skills needed to help babies through that critical window to the grassroots is needed to support the achievements of her high-tech hospital in Kano, and others like it. Anybody who has cause to take the delivery of a baby must ultimately have knowledge of how to help the baby to breathe.

She speaks of the celebrant’s NGO – the Abiye Maternal and Child Health International Foundation (AMCH) to which she has been committing huge amounts of time and effort over several years. Through it, she and her supporters have been teaching health workers in less specialised levels of care about minimal cost ways of keeping little babies alive and well and educating mothers and grassroots society on how to prevent or reduce the dangers that kill or damage babies – sepsis, jaundice, perinatal asphyxia, prematurity.

It is a tough labour of love, Efunbo concedes. But there is no retreat. For the celebrant, who is now 70. For her too, soon to be 70. She may be preoccupied currently with driving quality life-saving care in Outreach Neolife in Kano, and her other baby-hospitals. But she has also caught the Public Health bug from her friend and colleague Elizabeth.

There is applause as she concludes her talk.

An endless flow of adulatory tributes follows.

Despite the mirth, there is sombreness in the air, influenced perhaps by the grim pictures painted – of ailing, vulnerable Nigerian babies, in Kano and other places, and all the work that still lies ahead.

Everyone in the auditorium is aware that, for the Professor, retirement may just be the beginning of a reinvention of her mission to save little babies.

In February 2025, the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) made an argument that should not be forgotten.

Following an engagement at the Presidential Villa involving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Flutterwave’s leadership, at which MOFI’s managing director was present alongside the then Minister of Finance, MOFI publicly welcomed the fintech company’s proposed Nigerian listing.

In its own account of the meeting, the institution described the impending listing as a landmark moment offering ‘increased transparency, liquidity, and a pathway for more fintech companies to follow suit.’

MOFI was right…

When a successful Nigerian-facing company enters the public markets, the choice of exchange determines more than where its shares are traded. It determines who can participate easily, where part of the resulting wealth is distributed and whether the domestic capital market captures any of the value created within the domestic economy.

OPay now puts that conviction under examination

The payments company is reportedly preparing for a potential United States initial public offering (IPO), with Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan engaged and a valuation of approximately $4 billion under consideration. Though, the plans remain subject to market conditions and corporate decisions, but the direction is clear enough to raise a legitimate national question.

Does MOFI believe the argument it made for Flutterwave also applies to OPay?

This is not a demand for the government to decide where a private company must list. OPay’s board and shareholders will determine the structure that best serves the company. But that does not prevent Nigeria’s public investment vehicle from making a clear case for Nigerian participation.

MOFI is not a passive government department. It describes itself as the sole manager of Federal Government investment interests, estates and rights. It also presents itself as an institution that uses investment and partnerships to support innovation, competitiveness and national economic development.

That mandate should extend to how Nigeria responds when its most successful companies approach the public markets.

OPay’s commercial relationship with Nigeria is not marginal. Its Nigerian operating company is licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), its mobile-money operations appear on the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) list of insured institutions, and tens of millions of Nigerians use its services daily.

The company may have international ownership and operate across several markets, but the overwhelming weight of its business, and the scale behind its investment proposition, has been built on Nigerian economic activity.

A Nigerian listing would not require OPay to abandon its international ambition. It could take the form of a secondary listing that gives Nigerian institutions and retail investors an accessible route to ownership.

On Thursday August 6, President Tinubu announced that NNPC Limited would be reformed and listed in the capital market.

That commitment concerned a state-owned company, but its significance extends beyond NNPC. It recognises the capital market as a mechanism for widening ownership, mobilising capital and allowing Nigerians to participate in the value of major national enterprises.

MOFI has already expressed a similar view in relation to fintech. Indeed, its own words anticipated this very moment.

If Flutterwave’s listing was to create a pathway for more fintech companies to follow, OPay is ideally the next company on that path.

MOFI cannot celebrate the prospective domestic listing of one Nigerian fintech and remain silent when another, with an even larger domestic consumer footprint, prepares to enter the public markets elsewhere.

Consistency matters because institutional credibility is built from positions maintained across transactions, not positions adopted only when convenient.

While MOFI does not need to disclose confidential discussions or claim powers it may not possess, it needs to answer a straightforward question: does it support OPay evaluating a Nigerian component alongside its proposed international listing?

If the answer is yes, it should say so clearly.

If MOFI believed a domestic listing would strengthen transparency and liquidity in the case of Flutterwave, the same reasoning deserves to be considered in the case of OPay. Silence would also communicate a position. It would suggest that MOFI’s enthusiasm for domestic fintech listings is selective, rather than a conviction grounded in Nigeria’s long-term economic interest.

OPay’s possible IPO is therefore more than a corporate milestone. It is a test of whether Nigeria’s public institutions will consistently make the case for retaining part of the ownership opportunity created by companies that achieve scale in this country. MOFI has made that case before. It should make it again.

Africa remains home to most of the countries with the highest birth rates in the world, with 13 African countries featuring among the top 15, according to World Bank data.

The gap becomes clearer when these figures are compared with the global average. In 2024, the global birth rate stood at 16 births per 1,000 people, while the countries at the top of this ranking recorded more than twice that rate. While birth rates have fallen in many parts of the world over the years, countries in sub-Saharan Africa continue to record some of the highest rates globally.

This pattern is also reflected in fertility rates. The World Bank’s 2024 data, compiled using figures from the UN Population Division, the UN Statistical Division and national statistics offices, shows that countries with high birth rates also tend to have relatively high fertility rates.

Another pattern is evident when contraceptive use is considered. The World Bank reported that 10 of the 15 countries on the list had contraceptive prevalence of 20 percent or lower among married women.

Here are the 15 countries with the highest birth rates in the world, based on 2024 data from the World Bank.

Central African Republic – 46.2 births per 1,000 people

The Central African Republic led the global ranking with 46.2 births for every 1,000 people in 2024. The country also had a fertility rate of about six, meaning a woman would be expected to have around six children over her lifetime if current fertility patterns continued.

Chad – 43.3 births per 1,000 people

Chad came second, recording 43.3 births per 1,000 people. Its fertility rate was also about six children per woman, putting it among the countries with the highest levels of fertility worldwide.

Somalia – 42.3 births per 1,000 people

Somalia followed closely behind, with 42.3 births per 1,000 people. A fertility rate of about six means the average woman in the country is expected to have roughly six children over her lifetime based on prevailing fertility patterns.

Niger – 41.4 births per 1,000 people

Niger recorded 41.4 births per 1,000 people, placing it fourth globally. Its fertility rate of 5.9 translates to an expectation of nearly six children per woman over her lifetime.

Democratic Republic of the Congo – 40.9 births per 1,000 people

With 40.9 births per 1,000 people, the Democratic Republic of the Congo was the fifth-highest country on the list. Its fertility rate was about six children per woman.

Mali – 39.5 births per 1,000 people

Mali recorded 39.5 births per 1,000 people in 2024. The country’s fertility rate of about 5.5 means a woman would be expected to have roughly five to six children over her lifetime under current fertility patterns.

Angola – 37.2 births per 1,000 people

Angola ranked seventh with 37.2 births per 1,000 people. Its fertility rate was about five children per woman, placing it among the countries with the highest fertility levels in the world.

Mozambique – 37 births per 1,000 people

Mozambique recorded 37 births per 1,000 people, just ahead of Afghanistan. The country’s fertility rate of about 4.7 means a woman is expected to have nearly five children over her lifetime.

Afghanistan – 35 births per 1,000 people

Afghanistan stands out as the only non-African country among the first eight countries in the ranking. It recorded 35 births per 1,000 people, while its fertility rate was about 4.8 children per woman.

Tanzania – 34.8 births per 1,000 people

Tanzania was the 10th-highest country, with 34.8 births per 1,000 people. On average, a woman in the country is expected to have about 4.5 children over her lifetime based on the 2024 fertility rate.

Uganda – 34.4 births per 1,000 people

Uganda recorded 34.4 births per 1,000 people, placing it 11th globally. Its fertility rate of about 4.2 means the average woman is expected to have just over four children over her lifetime.

Yemen – 34.4 births per 1,000 people

Yemen recorded the same birth rate as Uganda, at 34.4 births per 1,000 people. However, its fertility rate was higher, at about 4.5 children per woman.

Mauritania – 34 births per 1,000 people

Mauritania recorded 34 births per 1,000 people, ranking 13th globally. Its fertility rate stood at about 4.6 children per woman.

Benin – 33.4 births per 1,000 people

Benin was just below Mauritania, with 33.4 births per 1,000 people. The country’s fertility rate of about 4.5 means women are expected to have roughly four to five children over their lifetime.

Cameroon – 33.3 births per 1,000 people

Cameroon completed the top 15 with 33.3 births per 1,000 people. Its fertility rate stood at about 4.3 children per woman, according to the World Bank data.

Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) has strengthened efforts to bridge Nigeria’s technical skills gap by equipping over 50 Nigerians with practical skills in compressed natural gas (CNG), vehicle welding and fibreglass technology.

The college recently graduated more than 50 trainees from its TETFund Centre of Excellence in Skills, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development (TETCoE), following intensive certified short courses in CNG, Welding and Fibreglass Technology for vehicles.

Each participant underwent training valued at approximately N1.2 million, underscoring the significant investment being made in technical and vocational skills development and the college’s commitment to producing industry-ready manpower for Nigeria’s evolving economy.

Ibraheem Abdul, the rector of YABATECH, speaking at the ceremony, described the closing ceremony as a significant milestone for both the graduating participants and the institution.

Abdul said YABATECH was continuously positioning itself at the forefront of practical solutions to contemporary national challenges through initiatives that provide young people with high-demand and industry-relevant technical competencies.

‘The training programme had successfully produced two cohorts, Cohorts three and four, in Compressed Natural Gas technology, alongside a cohort in Welding and Fibreglass for Vehicles,’ he said.

The rector said the specialised training tracks were deliberately selected because of their relevance to critical areas of Nigeria’s evolving economy.

He explained that the CNG programme had equipped trainees with knowledge of the technology and mechanics involved in CNG conversion, giving them a competitive advantage in the emerging green economy while positioning them to contribute to national economic growth and environmental sustainability.

On welding and fibreglass for vehicles, Abdul said the programme provided participants with practical expertise in automotive fabrication, body repair, structural engineering and modern material technology required for contemporary vehicle manufacturing and maintenance.

‘You are leaving YABATECH not merely with certificates, but as solution providers, innovators, and future industry leaders capable of driving self-reliance and technological progress,’ the rector said.

Abdul commended the leadership and staff of TETCoE, resource persons and instructors for their dedication to practical excellence and urged the graduands to become worthy ambassadors of Yaba College of Technology.

The trainees were formally celebrated on Thursday, August 13, 2026, at the college hall, YABATECH, during the closing ceremony of the certified short courses, which brought together the college’s management, TETCoE officials, instructors, resource persons, industry experts, partners and the graduating trainees.

Lauretta Ofodile, the technical advisory committee acting chairman, urged the graduating trainees not to regard the completion of the programme as the end of their learning journey, but as a foundation upon which they could build more advanced technical competencies.

She said the skills acquired were ‘more than just certificates,’ describing them as tools for financial independence, entrepreneurship and industrial leadership.

Ofodile charged the beneficiaries to uphold professional integrity, remain disciplined and innovative, and continuously upgrade their knowledge through further training, research, workshops and industry exposure.

Toronto Adegoju, the Automedics Nigeria Ltd representative, who spoke on the CNG training, congratulated the trainees for completing the programme, while stressing the importance of safety in the installation, calibration and maintenance of CNG-related automotive systems.

She advised the trainees to always use appropriate tools, follow established procedures and ensure that installations and calibrations were properly executed before vehicles were put into operation.

According to her, technological advancement in the automotive sector makes continuous learning indispensable, urging the beneficiaries to keep abreast of emerging technologies and industry developments.

Sherif Deen Ayodele-Oja, the TETCoE director, earlier described the centre as a strategic platform established to promote specialised training in skills that address priority national challenges while strengthening the capacity of institutions to deliver quality training and applied research.

He said that the Centre, established in 2021, was selected as one of six centres of excellence in Nigeria and has continued to support capacity development through industry-relevant skills training, innovation and applied research.

According to him, the centre came to being to bridge the gap among academia, industry, policymakers and communities, while developing industrially relevant products and services, strengthening research capacity and integrating contemporary technologies into skills development.

The college’s partnership with industry organisations, including Automedics Nigeria Ltd and IVIX Design Ltd., was also highlighted as part of efforts to expose trainees to practical industry experience and create pathways for entrepreneurship and professional development.

The partnerships, he added, were necessary to ensure that technical education responds directly to the changing needs of the labour market and national economic development.

The programme was implemented under the TETFund Centre of Excellence in Skills, Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Development, established to strengthen specialised skills development, applied research and industry-oriented training.

Agusto and Co has withdrawn the ‘A-‘ rating it had assigned to Geregu Power PLC and the company’s N40.09 billion Series 1 Senior Unsecured Bond, after the Nigerian electricity generating company missed its eighth coupon payment and fourth principal repayment on the note.

The Lagos-based rating agency said the withdrawal was driven by a combination of the default itself and a separate determination that it no longer has access to information reliable enough to support a credit opinion on the company.

‘Management has advised that previously issued financial statements are undergoing an independent verification process,’ Agusto and Co said.

Until that review is complete, the agency said it cannot place any reliance on the audited accounts currently in circulation, and is therefore not in a position to express a view on the company’s creditworthiness.

‘Pending completion of this review, Agusto and Co is unable to rely on the current audited financial statements and, therefore, cannot provide an opinion regarding the Company’s creditworthiness,’ the agency said.

The Series 1 bond, issued to help fund expansion of Geregu Power’s generation capacity, had carried an ‘A-‘ rating, a grade denoting strong credit quality with low expectation of default risk, before Friday’s action.

Rating withdrawals of this kind typically leave bondholders and other market participants without an independent benchmark for the issuer’s risk profile until fresh, verifiable financial data becomes available.

Agusto and Co said it would revisit its assessment of Geregu Power once completion of the ongoing independent forensic review and receipt of reliable audited financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2025.

No timeline was given for either milestone.

‘We will undertake a reassessment of the Company’s rating upon completion of the ongoing independent forensic review and receipt of reliable financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025,’ Agusto and Co said.

The missed coupon and principal payments mark the first default event disclosed on the bond since issuance and come at a time when Nigerian corporates have increasingly leaned on the local debt capital markets to fund power-sector investment amid persistent naira volatility and elevated borrowing costs.

A default by a rated issuer, paired with questions over the integrity of its financial reporting, is likely to draw scrutiny from bondholders, trustees and other market participants tracking credit conditions in the sector.

In a strategic move to bridge the structural gap between Nigeria’s vast natural gas reserves and a fully functioning domestic market, JEX Markets has unveiled plans to build a regulated trading exchange aimed at curbing counterparty risk and creating transparent price discovery.

Operating as Nigeria’s pioneer licensed gas trading platform, the exchange seeks to transition the country’s fragmented, bilateral gas deals into a liquid, central marketplace, setting the foundation for a benchmark price index that could eventually power energy trading across West Africa.

Speaking at the sideline of the West Africa Regulator Forum (WARF) in Abuja on Tuesday, Blessing Ayemere, Chief Executive Officer, JEX markets said that the platform exists to give gas producers, shoppers, and consumers a transparent, efficient, and bankable venue to trade, clear and settle gas transactions.

According to the CEO, JEX markets is focused on boosting transparent price discovery, by referencing prices formed through an organised exchanged based market, as against an opaque bilateral deals.

He said, ‘JEX Markets is a dual regulated markets company, we have the licence from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, for gas trading, we also have that of SEC, the commodity exchange.

‘Every trade under the JEX market is centrally cleared through FMDQ clear, removing bilateral settlement exposure.

‘We know that when it comes to gas trading, the issue of counterparty settlement is a major deal, so with the structure that we have, we expect that payment finality will almost happen immediately on the platform. And then we also have established market rules and trading framework. Also, at this time, we are establishing contacts and partnerships with key market participants.’

Also speaking, Oscar Onyema, chairman, JEX markets, said that while Nigeria boasts some of Africa’s largest natural gas reserves, which is backed by major producers, rising industrial and power demand, expanding LNG and CNG sectors, the wealth in resources has yet to translate into a fully functional gas market.

He emphasized that a functioning market requires more than molecules and pipelines but transparent price discovery and standardisation.

‘Nigeria has one of Africa’s largest natural gas resource bases. We have significant producers, major industrial consumers, expanding power demand, growing LNG, CNG and other gas-based industries, and an increasingly supportive policy and regulatory environment.

But possessing gas is not the same thing as having a gas market,’ he said.

Onyema said that JEX is building a regulated marketplace where qualified buyers and sellers of natural gas can transact transparently, efficiently and with significantly reduced counterparty risk.

‘It requires credible counterparties, effective clearing and settlement, reliable delivery arrangements, and market data that participants can trust. That is the infrastructure gap JEX Markets has been established to help close.

‘JEX is building a regulated marketplace where qualified buyers and sellers of natural gas can transact transparently, efficiently and with significantly reduced counterparty risk. Importantly, we are not seeking to replace the institutions that already make Nigeria’s gas industry work, our approach is to connect them.

‘The exchange sits at the centre of an ecosystem involving the regulator, producers, gas marketers and aggregators, transportation infrastructure, clearing and settlement institutions, financial institutions and, ultimately, the industrial and commercial users of gas.

‘Our ambition is therefore bigger than creating another electronic trading platform. We are building market infrastructure and the distinction is important,’ he said.

Speaking further, Onyema stressed that a successful gas exchange should help convert bilateral and relatively fragmented transactions into a deeper marketplace in which prices become increasingly transparent; buyers can access multiple sources of supply and sellers access a broader pool of demand.

He said that a gas exchange must be able to manage counterparty exposures and establish meaningful reference prices for the Nigerian gas market.

GetBundi, an African EdTech platform has commenced the 2026 edition of its TechSis programme which targets 3,000 women with free digital skills training as it intensifies efforts to close the gender gap in Africa’s technology ecosystem.

The latest cohort was onboarded virtually on August 1 which marks the beginning of a four-month training programme focused on equipping participants with skills in high-demand areas including content creation, digital marketing, data analytics and video editing.

Petronella Chizera, CEO of Asher Zebulun, urged participants to look beyond securing employment and use their digital skills to create opportunities and solve problems within their communities.

‘Your digital skills become truly valuable when they solve real problems in your community,’ she said.

The guest speaker at the event, Ijeoma Emeagi, director of career development services at Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, encouraged the trainees to view the programme as the beginning of their professional journey rather than its conclusion.

‘Never stop learning. The end of training is the beginning of your professional journey. Build a digital footprint you’re proud of because your reputation starts long before the interview,’ Emeagi said.

TechSis was launched by GetBundi in 2023 to address the digital gender gap and increase women’s participation in Africa’s digital economy.

The programme has expanded significantly since its launch. Its inaugural cohort trained 500 women in coding, while the 2024 edition reached 1,000 women with training in web development and data analytics.

In 2025, the programme increased its reach to 1,500 women, who were trained in data analytics and cybersecurity.

For 2026, GetBundi has raised its target to 3,000 women, representing a doubling of last year’s planned reach.

‘Our mission is to equip African women with the digital skills they need to drive innovation, secure meaningful employment, and achieve economic independence,’ Osita Oparaugo, founder of GetBundi, said at the launch of the 2026 programme.

‘We are creating pathways for African women to enter and lead in the digital economy,’ he added.

Beyond training, GetBundi is also seeking to connect graduates to employment opportunities through partnerships within the global digital labour market.

Through its partnership with Doballi, a Dubai-based remote talent platform, some TechSis graduates have secured employment opportunities with international companies, providing a potential pathway from skills acquisition to income generation.

The 2026 programme will be delivered entirely online over four months. Participants will receive certificates upon completion only if they have indicated interest and paid the optional $10 certification fee.

GetBundi said the continued expansion of TechSis reflects its broader objective of preparing African learners for the future of work while creating more pathways for women to participate meaningfully in the continent’s growing digital economy.

A new book, Courage to Succeed, has launched to spotlight the resilience of Nigerian entrepreneurship.

Authored by Yinka Padonu, creative director of Smartbrands Innovative Media Services, the book profiles 14 founders who built thriving businesses despite major challenges.

The book tells the stories of entrepreneurs including Chidi Ajaere of GIG Group, Cosmas Maduka of Coscharis Group, Odunayo Eweniyi of PiggyVest, and Tunde Onakoya of Chess in Slums Africa.

It also features Grace Ibhakomu of Lifecard Int’l Investment Ltd, Sola Adesakin of Smart Stewards Financial Academy, Wisdom Ezekiel of Pertinence Group, Kemi Fajana of Fajana Group, Tara Fela-Durotoye of House of Tara International, Olumide Adeniji of Ao Electricals and other leaders across transport, finance, and social impact sectors.

According to Padonu, Courage to Succeed is designed to document the vision, grit, and enterprise behind Nigeria’s growing business class, while offering lessons for aspiring founders across West Africa.

In a statement, he explained that the legacy book project documents their early beginnings, the obstacles they encountered, and the principles that guided their growth.

He noted that the book was written to preserve authentic Nigerian business stories and to provide a practical reference for students, young professionals and aspiring founders.

‘I authored this book to put on record the experiences of Nigerians who dared to start. These are not theories. These are real stories of risk, failure, learning and eventual success,’ Padonu stated. ‘If one young person reads this and decides to start, then the purpose is served.’

According to Padonu, the 14 entrepreneurs featured in the book represent diverse sectors and backgrounds.

Each chapter explores how they identified opportunities, mobilized limited resources, built teams, and stayed consistent through economic fluctuations.

He added that the book also examines the mindset required to succeed as a business owner in Nigeria.

‘Entrepreneurship in Nigeria demands courage, patience and adaptability. The people in this book did not wait for perfect conditions. They started where they were, with what they had,’ he said.

He said the book is positioned to contribute to national conversations on job creation, self-reliance and the importance of documenting indigenous business models.

The book further highlights mentorship, community support, and policy as key factors influencing enterprise growth.

The official launch of the book is scheduled for Thursday, 3rd September 2026 at the Faculty of Communication and Media Studies (FCMS) Conference Hall, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos.

‘Your presence will honour this milestone and celebrate the spirit of enterprise and impact in Nigeria,’ Padonu said.

The launch will feature a keynote address, a panel discussion, and a book signing. Members of the media, academia, the business community and the general public are invited to attend. Copies of the book will be available at the venue.

Padonu is an author and creative director at Smartbrands Innovative Media Services, Lagos. He is a media and brand strategist focused on storytelling, visibility and enterprise development. Through his work, he helps businesses, public figures and institutions communicate with clarity and purpose.

Courage to Succeed is his latest book and reflects his commitment to documenting and amplifying Nigerian entrepreneurial journeys.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has uncovered a massive ghost-worker and payroll manipulation scheme in which a government official allegedly enrolled 14 members of his family on the public payroll and collected their salaries.

Musa Aliyu, the ICPC chairman, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja while delivering the keynote address at the 2026 Economic Confidential Lecture and National Spokespersons Award organised by Image Merchants Promotions Limited.

Aliyu said the discovery was made during a year-long investigation by the commission into suspected ghost workers, payroll fraud and manipulation across government institutions.

According to him, investigators uncovered cases in which public officials allegedly exploited weaknesses in government payroll systems to insert relatives and other individuals as fictitious employees, allowing salaries and other employment-related benefits to be diverted.

The ICPC chairman said one of the cases involved an official who allegedly enrolled 14 members of his family on the government payroll and personally collected the salaries paid to them.

‘We discovered that one person enrolled 14 members of his family. He lived in a religious hotel, a hotel at the public office, receiving salaries,’ Aliyu said.

He disclosed that investigators also uncovered another case involving an individual who allegedly enrolled his wife, daughter, son and other relatives on the payroll, enabling him to receive salaries meant for 13 employees.

The ICPC boss said the cases demonstrated the increasingly sophisticated nature of payroll fraud in the public sector and the difficulty of detecting such schemes through conventional checks.

He explained that some perpetrators manipulate payroll databases in ways that make fictitious employees appear legitimate, including inserting names and email addresses that correspond with supposed government workers.

However, further checks often reveal that the bank accounts linked to those employees belong to completely different people.

‘When they insert their names, you will see their name in the payroll. You will see their email. But when you check the account number, you will see the name of the person. So, that is how these things have been done,’ he said.

Aliyu said the commission had so far identified about 900 suspected ghost workers as part of its investigations.

He explained that the names of the suspected ghost workers were published to give those affected an opportunity to demonstrate that they were genuine employees and clarify any discrepancies identified in the payroll system.

Aliyu warned that the financial consequences of ghost-worker arrangements could be significantly greater than the salaries paid to fictitious employees.

He explained that once a fictitious employee is established on a government payroll, the individual could also become entitled, on paper, to pension contributions, mortgage benefits, housing fund contributions and health insurance.

‘Because, you know, once there is a ghost worker, there is ghost pension, there is ghost mortgage, there is ghost housing fund, there is ghost health insurance,’ the ICPC chairman said.

The ICPC chairman further disclosed that the commission recovered more than N24 billion linked to ghost-worker pension payments in 2024.

The recovery, he said, reflected the broader financial implications of payroll fraud and the importance of identifying fraudulent beneficiaries before public resources are continually lost.

Aliyu said the commission was increasingly shifting its approach towards prevention, data analysis and early intervention, rather than relying exclusively on prosecution after public funds had already been diverted.

According to him, blocking avenues through which corruption occurs could deliver greater value to the country than waiting for fraudulent transactions to take place before initiating criminal proceedings.

‘It is better for us to do that than to engage in filing criminal charges. How many charges can we file?’ he said.

Aliyu stressed the need for government agencies to deploy technology, data analytics and more effective information-sharing systems to identify irregularities in public expenditure and payroll administration.

He said the ability to analyse large volumes of government data could help investigators identify unusual patterns, duplicate beneficiaries, inconsistencies between employee identities and bank accounts, and other indicators of payroll fraud.

He also emphasised the importance of reliable information and strategic communication in the fight against corruption, saying public confidence in government institutions depends largely on their ability to demonstrate transparency and accountability.