Category: Business Day

The National Sugar Development Council (NSDC) is repositioning Nigeria’s sugar sector as one of the country’s most compelling industrial investment opportunities.

This, the NSDC said is anchored on a $1 billion EPC-plus-finance partnership with SINOMACH of China, a N10 billion Sugar Project Acceleration Fund established with the Bank of Industry (BoI), and a significantly strengthened accountability regime under the Backward Integration Programme (BIP).

Kamar Bakrin, executive secretary/CEO, National Sugar Development Council outlined the Council’s execution agenda when he received members of the Abuja Chapter of the Chartered Institute of Directors (CIoD) on a courtesy visit to the NSDC headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.

Nigeria consumes about 1.8 million metric tonnes of sugar annually, with an estimated $1billion flowing each year to foreign producers.

Bakrin said the Council views this not as a deficit to be lamented, but as a ready-made domestic market waiting to be recaptured by Nigerian producers – value that the Nigeria Sugar Master Plan (NSMP) 2.0 is designed to retain within the national economy in the form of jobs, rural incomes, foreign exchange savings and industrial capacity.

He noted that the sector’s historical challenge has never been an absence of policy, but the discipline of delivery – a challenge the Council is now confronting directly.

‘We don’t lack policy. What we have struggled with is world-class execution,’ Bakrin said, stressing that the gap is not a farming problem but a governance problem – and therefore one that serious, well-run institutions can fix.

He described NSMP 2.0 as an ‘acceleration mandate’: a deliberate compression of Nigeria’s path to self-sufficiency, targeting the delivery of about two million metric tonnes of locally produced sugar.

Bakrin said the Council’s ambition extends well beyond substituting imports. Sugarcane, he noted, is one of the most generous crops in existence – yielding sugar, ethanol, animal feed and electricity – and NSMP 2.0 is structured to capture that full value chain.

‘We have been blessed with a crop that is one of the most generous God has ever made. From sugarcane you can get sugar, you can get ethanol, you can get animal feed, you can produce power. Our job is to build a bio-industrial ecosystem around it – this is not just about producing a commodity,’ he said.

On enforcement, Bakrin said the Backward Integration Programme has been rebuilt around four principles – qualify, reward, verify and enforce – designed to give both government and investors confidence that quota privileges are matched by real production on the ground.

Companies seeking import quotas must now demonstrate genuine commitment to backward integration, while major refiners are required to provide audited production commitments tied to their quotas, with clear consequences for shortfalls. The Council is deploying satellite imagery alongside field inspections to independently verify activity at every site – replacing self-reporting with objective, data-driven oversight.

Bakrin said the Council’s diagnosis of the sector’s financing challenge is that capital is available – what has been missing is a pipeline of bankable projects capable of absorbing it. The Council’s response is to industrialise project preparation itself.

The N10 billion Sugar Project Acceleration Fund, established with the Bank of Industry, will finance feasibility studies and project preparation, converting greenfield sites into investment-ready packages. These packages will in turn feed the $1 billion EPC-plus-finance agreement signed with SINOMACH of China, which provides a ready channel for construction and financing once projects are prepared.

The Council is complementing this with structured engagement with Afreximbank and a partnership with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum to fast-track the development of sugar estates across the country.

Bakrin highlighted the Sugarcane Outgrower Development Programme (SODP) as a deliberate strategy to make smallholder farmers co-owners of the sector’s growth.

Under NSMP 2.0, every sugar estate is required to reserve land for outgrowers and to invest part of its capital in host communities – through social infrastructure, employment and physical infrastructure – making rural prosperity a design requirement of the programme rather than an afterthought.

Drawing on the Council’s recent engagements with Brazilian authorities and other leading sugar-producing nations, Bakrin said the defining lesson from Brazil’s success was institutional, not agronomic.

‘Brazil did not win by planting better cane. They won by building institutions that compounded productivity for years, for decades,’ he said.

The Council, he added, is applying that same discipline to itself – developing Standard Operating Procedures across all its critical supporting functions using Six Sigma methodology, one of the world’s most exacting process-improvement systems, to build standardised, repeatable and effective processes that will endure beyond the tenure of any individual, including the Chief Executive.

‘I hold a very strong conviction that the difference between the countries that industrialised and those that did not rarely has to do with the quality of their plants. It is the quality of their institutions,’ the Executive Secretary emphasised.

Bakrin invited the Chartered Institute of Directors to play an active role in the emerging sugar economy – strengthening board governance across sugar estates, mills and outgrower companies, and contributing to the policy dialogue and consistency needed to attract patient, long-term capital.

He assured the Institute that the Council’s doors remain open for partnership in support of national development.

Earlier, the leader of the CIoD delegation, Fatima Nana Mede, commended the Council’s leadership on the visible reforms it is spearheading in the sugar industry and the momentum toward self-sufficiency. She affirmed the Institute’s readiness to collaborate with the Council in all areas of mutual interest as part of its contribution to the advancement of the sector.

Somewhere in Johannesburg, Lagos, or Nairobi tonight, a graduate is folding a certificate into a drawer and walking out to sell recharge cards on the street. He did everything right. The system kept its promise to teach him. It broke its promise to employ him profitably. Multiply him by tens of millions, and you do not have a youth unemployment crisis. You have a curriculum catastrophe. Curriculum is a nation’s engine and its operating system at once – get the engine wrong, and the car never leaves the driveway; get the operating system wrong, and every application built on top of it – jobs, industries, GDP – crashes.

The China shockwave

Between 2021 and 2025, China’s Ministry of Education revoked 12,200 undergraduate programmes and introduced 10,200 new ones – over 30 per cent of the national curriculum rewritten in five years. Dead: arts, humanities, foreign languages, traditional management. Resurrected: artificial intelligence, embodied intelligence, robotics, semiconductors, and agricultural automation. Over that window, China’s economy grew from $14.7 trillion to $19.5 trillion. Africa, with a comparable population, moved from $2.7 trillion to $2.82 trillion – essentially standing still. The difference is not luck; it is curriculum, treated as economic infrastructure in one place and ceremonial tradition in the other.

South Africa’s youth unemployment hit 60.9 percent in early 2026. In Nigeria, over 80 per cent of ’employed’ graduates are trapped in low-productivity informal work no degree prepared them for. The jobs are not missing – the WEF projects 170 million new global roles by 2030, and Deloitte estimates the semiconductor industry alone needs over one million additional skilled workers by 2030. Our youth are not perishing for lack of jobs. They are perishing for lack of relevant skill.

The diaspora mirror

And lest anyone blame Africa’s economy alone, follow the graduate abroad. Land him in Toronto, London, or Houston – remove every excuse about local jobs – and the pattern repeats. Indian and Chinese graduates arrive in the same cities and, within a generation, are disproportionately the ones opening businesses: Indian Americans alone now own roughly 60% of the hotels in the United States, among the highest rates of business formation of any immigrant group in the West. African graduates, trained in the same universities the diaspora produces, too often arrive with degrees built for job-seeking, not wealth creation – and end up driving for Uber or staffing care homes, not owning the platforms or the facilities. This is not a verdict on the graduate’s ability. It is a verdict on what his curriculum trained him to become: an employee, not an owner. Twenty years in a classroom should not conclude with a steering wheel and a ride-share app. That is not a diaspora failure. It is a colonial curriculum, still teaching Africans to seek a master’s payroll instead of building their own.

The three-tier fix

Tier 1 – the technical core: AI, semiconductors, embedded systems, robotics, new materials, and biotechnology – the hard infrastructure of the coming economy.

Tier 2 – the human operating system: critical thinking, complex problem-solving, communication, creativity, collaboration, leadership, and entrepreneurship – mandatory for every student, every discipline.

Tier 3 – the Taipei model: academia must stop designing curricula in isolation. Taiwan builds courses the way Taipei Tech and TSMC build them – jointly, reviewed annually, with industry empowered to kill any course that has stopped producing value.

The call

To governments: stop funding the ceremony. Treat the curriculum as infrastructure. If a programme keeps producing unemployed graduates, revoke its accreditation. To universities: open your gates. Co-author your courses with industry every year, or keep training for an economy that no longer exists. And to parents, you are partially responsible for the depression most youths are suffering from today: Stop sending your children to study DEAD DEGREES!

The Phd reckoning

The reform must reach the summit of the academic pyramid, because the crisis is not only undergraduate – it is at its most absurd at the doctoral level. Africa is producing PhDs by the thousands, many parading titles that add zero value to society: theories defended before five examiners and then buried, never touching a farm, a factory, a hospital, or a policy desk. China does not confer its highest degree this way. No African university should either. From today, no doctoral topic should be approved unless it is bound, in writing, to producing or innovating something the nation can point to – a technology built, a yield increased, a disease addressed, a system fixed. A PhD must be a contract with the nation, not a private meditation rewarded with a title. If it cannot name what it produced, it should not be conferred.

WELCOME TO THE CHIP CIVILISATION

Every smartphone, every fighter jet, and every AI model runs on semiconductors – and Africa is absent from that table. New Horizons Africa Group is changing that. This academic season, we launch Africa’s first Semiconductor Knowledge Transfer Program, in direct partnership with Taiwan – the home of the modern chip, the birthplace of TSMC, and the island that turned technical education into a national security asset. African undergraduates will train in semiconductor design, engineering, and fabrication, with the opportunity of an internship inside a semiconductor factory in Taiwan, before they even graduate – taught by the ecosystem that actually builds the world’s chips. Not a theory of semiconductors. The thing itself, transferred directly from source to soil. The verdict has been written: Africa must kill the dead degrees, or the dead degrees will kill Africa.

We are pulling up a chair to the table – and bringing the tools to build at it.

PREPARING HUMANS FOR SPACE

One more frontier deserves the same honesty. Humanity is moving toward becoming a multi-planetary species – SpaceX alone has poured over a decade and tens of billions of dollars into that goal. Whether it arrives in one decade or three matters less than this: the skills for it – closed-loop life support, off-world energy, autonomous robotics – are being built right now, in curricula from Beijing to Austin. Not one African university has asked what it will take to keep a human alive on another world. A continent that cannot enter that conversation has already conceded the century before it begins. The hour is late. The inertia is unaffordable.

Universities are factories of human capital, and no sane factory manufactures without first securing a market. China builds its curriculum backward from the job – she treats curriculum as a means and employment as the end. Africa builds its curriculum forward from tradition and calls the certificate itself the end.

Or are you still wondering why Africa’s curriculum produces 60 percent youth unemployment?

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased slightly to 15.43 percent in July 2026, from 15.91 percent recorded in June, even as food inflation rose to 20.31 percent from 17.52 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report has shown.

According to the report published on Monday, the July headline inflation rate was also lower than the 24.94 percent recorded in July 2025.

The Bureau attributed the rise in food inflation to changes in the average prices of crayfish, fresh pepper, fresh onions, fresh carrots, rice, water yam, fresh tomatoes, garri, plantain, beef, eggs, guinea corn, ginger and plantain flour, among others.

BusinessDay’s analysis of the report showed that food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Adamawa at 51.36 percent, followed by Katsina at 30.84 percent and Zamfara at 30.65 percent. Borno, at -0.31 percent, Nasarawa at 6.88 percent and Kebbi at 12.50 percent recorded the slowest rises in food inflation.

On a month-on-month basis, July 2026 food inflation was highest in Adamawa at 17.02 percent, Lagos at 13.48 percent and Borno at 13.26 percent, while Jigawa at -3.60 percent, Kebbi at -3.67 percent and Bauchi at -1.85 percent recorded the lowest rates.

The NBS stated that the month-on-month headline inflation rate in July 2026 was 1.57 percent, representing a 0.09 percentage point decline from the 1.66 percent recorded in June.

At the divisional level, the three major contributors to headline inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages, restaurants and accommodation services, and transport.

The least contributors were recreation, sport and culture; alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics; and insurance and financial services.

Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 14.97 percent in July 2026 on a year-on-year basis.

On a month-on-month basis, core inflation was 0.15 percent in July 2026, down by 1.51 percentage points compared to June 2026.

On a year-on-year basis, the urban inflation rate in July 2026 was 16.12 percent. On a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 1.90 percent in July 2026, down by 0.23 percentage points from 2.13 percent recorded in June.

The rural inflation rate stood at 13.77 percent in July 2026 on a year-on-year basis. On a month-on-month basis, rural inflation rose to 0.78 percent, up by 0.25 percentage points from 0.52 percent in June.

The NBS report showed that the all-items inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was highest in Adamawa at 33.03 percent, Yobe at 25.21 percent and Anambra at 23.99 percent.

Nasarawa at 7.86 percent, Kebbi at 9.12 percent and Borno at 9.12 percent recorded the lowest increases in headline inflation on a year-on-year basis.

On a month-on-month basis, July 2026 recorded the highest headline inflation increases in Adamawa at 12.48 percent, Anambra at 9.95 percent and Delta at 9.54 percent.

Niger at -5.86 percent, Enugu at -5.71 percent and Kebbi at -4.89 percent recorded the lowest month-on-month inflation rates, according to the report.

There are moments in history when humanity develops a technology so powerful that the question is no longer simply what the technology can do, but what the technology may ultimately do to humanity itself.

The Industrial Revolution was one such moment. Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly another.

It is therefore highly significant that Pope Leo XIV has chosen artificial intelligence as the subject of his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. The document was signed on May 15, 2026, exactly 135 years after Pope Leo XIII issued his famous social encyclical Rerum Novarum, and was formally presented at the Vatican on May 25, 2026.

The symbolism is deliberate. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII confronted the social consequences of the Industrial Revolution: factories, mass urbanisation, poor working conditions, widening inequality and the growing power of industrial capital. In 2026, Pope Leo XIV argues that humanity faces another transformation of comparable magnitude, perhaps even greater, because artificial intelligence is already influencing decisions that affect economic activity, employment, communication, education, security and even warfare.

The Pope is not calling for humanity to reject artificial intelligence. Quite the contrary. His argument is more profound. Technology must remain the servant of humanity and must never become its master.

The central question raised by Magnifica Humanitas is not whether artificial intelligence is good or bad. It is unequivocal that AI is a tool in the hands of humans. Hence, on a personal note, I have always advocated Responsible Human In The Loop (RHITL).

The real question is, what kind of society will human beings build with it?

AI can diagnose diseases, detect fraud, predict equipment failure, accelerate scientific discovery, improve agricultural productivity, automate repetitive work, enhance financial inclusion and transform education.

But the same technology can also facilitate mass surveillance, manipulate elections, create deepfakes, automate discrimination, displace millions of workers, concentrate economic power and enable weapons systems capable of making life-and-death decisions at machine speed, scope and scale: what I usually refer to in my lectures and training sessions as the 3S of AI.

That is why Pope Leo XIV places human dignity at the centre of the AI debate. This clearly resonates with UNESCO’s AI Readiness Assessment Methodology framework and guidelines on the ethical and responsible use of AI.

His message can be reduced to one fundamental principle: human beings must never become mere inputs into an algorithm.

A human being is more than data. More than a credit score. More than a medical record. More than a consumer profile. More than a productivity statistic. More than a biometric identity. And certainly more than an algorithmic prediction.

The encyclical insists that every human person possesses an intrinsic dignity that cannot be measured by intelligence, economic productivity, social usefulness or technological efficiency.

That distinction could become one of the defining moral principles of the AI age.

Artificial Intelligence is not human intelligence

One of the greatest conceptual errors of our generation may be the assumption that because a machine can perform intellectual tasks better than humans, it therefore possesses something equivalent to human intelligence.

AI can calculate faster than us. It can remember more information than us. It can identify patterns hidden within billions of data points. It can analyse documents, generate computer code, compose music and imitate human conversation. But intelligence alone does not define humanity.

Humans possess conscience, empathy, compassion, moral responsibility, relationships, vulnerability, forgiveness, hope, faith and love.

Machines calculate probabilities. Human beings make moral judgements.

Machines optimise outcomes. Humans must decide which outcomes are worth pursuing.

Machines can learn from errors. Human beings can transform mistakes into repentance, wisdom, forgiveness and personal growth.

This distinction becomes particularly important as increasingly sophisticated AI systems are described using human language such as ‘reasoning’, ‘thinking’, ‘understanding’ and ‘agents’.

We must never confuse simulation of human intelligence with humanity itself.

The new concentration of power

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of Magnifica Humanitas is its recognition that artificial intelligence is creating unprecedented concentrations of power.

The world’s most advanced AI systems require enormous quantities of data, specialised semiconductor chips, electricity, data centres, highly trained researchers and huge amounts of capital.

Consequently, a relatively small number of technology companies possess capabilities that were once the exclusive domain of powerful states. In his January 2026 message for World Communications Day, Pope Leo XIV observed that behind the enormous invisible technological forces affecting modern communication lie only a handful of companies.

This should concern governments everywhere.

And Africa in particular.

If artificial intelligence becomes the principal infrastructure of the twenty-first-century economy, countries that do not possess their own AI capacity risk becoming permanently dependent upon foreign technology providers.

Africa must therefore think seriously about:

AI compute infrastructure

Data centres

Sovereign datasets

Large African language models

Cybersecurity infrastructure

AI research capabilities

Talent development

Reliable electricity

Cloud infrastructure

Otherwise, we may wake up one day to discover that the algorithms determining our financial systems, healthcare priorities, education, employment and security were developed thousands of kilometres away by people who may know little about African societies.

AI sovereignty should therefore become part of African economic sovereignty.

Who owns our data?

Data is the crude oil of artificial intelligence.

Without data, modern AI systems cannot learn.

Yet billions of human beings generate extraordinary volumes of data every day through mobile phones, bank transactions, social media, hospitals, schools, internet searches, transportation systems and government databases.

Who owns this data? Who profits from it?

Who determines how it is used?

These questions will become increasingly important.

The encyclical challenges the assumption that data produced through collective human activity should automatically become the commercial property of organisations capable of collecting it. It raises concerns about technological monopolies and the concentration of digital resources.

This has enormous implications for governments, corporations and individuals.

Your face is data. Your voice is data. Your medical history is data. Your purchasing habits are data. Your movements are data. Your financial behaviour is data. Even your relationships may become data.

The AI revolution will therefore require a new social contract concerning information.

The future of work

The workplace may be where artificial intelligence becomes most immediately disruptive.

AI will undoubtedly improve productivity. It will automate thousands of tasks. It will create entirely new industries.

But it will also eliminate certain categories of employment.

The mistake would be to frame this simply as an efficiency question. Corporate leaders cannot merely ask, ‘How many employees can AI replace?’

They must also ask:

‘What happens to those employees?’

‘What new skills will they require?’

‘What responsibilities does the corporation have toward workers whose jobs are transformed?’

‘What happens to society if technological productivity rises while employment opportunities decline?’

The Pope argues that technological development should enhance rather than diminish the dignity of work, and he warns against excessive surveillance and the reduction of workers to rigid machine-directed tasks.

For companies, this means that AI transformation must be accompanied by reskilling, retraining and workforce transition programmes.

Human capital must not become collateral damage in the race for automation.

AI governance is now a board responsibility

This is where the encyclical becomes particularly relevant to corporate Nigeria.

Artificial intelligence can no longer be treated merely as an information technology project. It is now a corporate governance issue.

Boards of Directors must understand the AI systems operating within their organisations. They should know:

What data is being used?

Where is that data stored?

Which AI models are being deployed?

Who supplied the models?

What decisions are being automated?

Are those systems explainable?

Could they discriminate?

Can humans override their decisions?

What cybersecurity vulnerabilities exist?

Who bears responsibility when something goes wrong?

The Pope’s message to an international conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics and Corporate Governance in June 2025 already emphasised the responsibility of business leaders to ensure that AI development respects human dignity and contributes to the common good.

Magnifica Humanitas develops this principle much further.

Boards cannot outsource responsibility for artificial intelligence to chief technology officers. Nor can management simply say, ‘The algorithm made the decision.’

Algorithms do not possess fiduciary duties.

Human beings do.

One of the great misconceptions about artificial intelligence is that computers are naturally objective. They are not.

AI systems learn from historical data. If historical data reflects social prejudice, discrimination or inequality, AI can reproduce those biases at an enormous scale.

Imagine an AI system determining:

who receives a bank loan;

who obtains insurance;

who qualifies for employment;

who receives medical treatment;

who receives a government benefit; or

even who becomes the subject of a security investigation.

If the system is biased, discrimination can become invisible because it appears to have been produced by mathematics rather than human judgement.

This is why high-impact AI decisions must retain meaningful human oversight.

Human-in-the-loop governance is not merely a technical safeguard. It is a moral requirement.

AI, deepfakes and the crisis of truth

Another profound and dangerous trend identified by Pope Leo XIV concerns truth itself.

Artificial intelligence can now generate photographs of events that never occurred, videos of people saying things they never said, voices belonging to people who never spoke, news reports describing events that never happened, academic papers written without research and entire online personalities that do not exist.

In his 2026 World Communications Day message, Pope Leo warned that systems capable of simulating human faces, voices, knowledge and relationships can penetrate deeply into the human information environment.

We are therefore entering a world where the problem may no longer simply be misinformation.

The greater danger may be universal distrust.

If citizens begin assuming that every photograph might be fake, every recording manipulated and every document fabricated, the foundations of democratic society become fragile.

Truth is therefore becoming an infrastructure that society must consciously protect.

Education must change

AI will fundamentally change education.

Already, students can generate essays, solve mathematics problems, write computer programmes, code and summarise textbooks within seconds.

Traditional educational systems built largely around memorisation and examination will increasingly struggle.

Pope Leo has acknowledged this challenge directly, noting in June 2026 that widespread AI use makes student assessment more difficult and requires educators to adapt creatively.

The future of education must therefore place greater emphasis on capabilities that machines cannot easily replace:

critical thinking, curiosity, judgement, creativity, character, collaboration, ethical reasoning and the ability to ask intelligent questions.

AI should make education better. It should not make thinking unnecessary.

AI and warfare

Perhaps nowhere is the moral challenge more frightening than warfare.

AI systems can identify targets, navigate drones, analyse battlefield intelligence and accelerate military decision-making.

Pope Leo XIV has repeatedly warned that artificial intelligence must never absolve human beings of responsibility for decisions, particularly in warfare. Speaking at Sapienza University in Rome shortly before issuing the encyclical, he warned that AI must not worsen the tragedy of conflicts or remove human responsibility from military choices.

The danger of autonomous weapons is obvious. If machines become capable of selecting and attacking human targets without meaningful human intervention, humanity crosses an extraordinary moral boundary.

Someone must remain responsible.

Someone must be capable of saying: No.

Africa cannot remain a spectator

For Africa, the implications of Magnifica Humanitas are particularly important.

AI presents extraordinary opportunities. It could help overcome shortages of doctors through diagnostic systems, improve agricultural yields, extend banking services, detect corruption, improve tax administration, enhance electricity-grid management, modernise public services, transform education and improve national security.

But Africa must avoid becoming merely the source of raw data and the consumer of foreign AI products.

The continent must participate in building the technologies shaping its future.

African governments should therefore begin treating AI infrastructure, compute capacity, cybersecurity, data governance and AI talent as national strategic assets.

Our universities must produce not only AI engineers but also philosophers, lawyers, economists, ethicists and public-policy experts capable of shaping the governance of intelligent machines.

These are some of the concerns that I, through GenAI Learning Concepts Ltd, have been drawing the attention of both the public and private sectors through my AI training, seminars and webinars.

AI must be human-centred

In May 2026, the Vatican also established an Inter-Dicasterial Commission on Artificial Intelligence, specifically recognising both AI’s extraordinary potential and its possible consequences for human dignity and integral development.

That action is important.

The Catholic Church is not standing outside the technological revolution condemning it.

It is entering the discussion.

The message is neither ‘Stop Artificial Intelligence’ nor

Nor: ‘Allow artificial intelligence to develop without restraint.’

It is something much wiser:

Develop AI, but keep humanity and human agency at the centre.

And perhaps that should become the governing philosophy of the AI age, in line with the UNESCO RAM on AI ethics.

Every bank deploying artificial intelligence should ask it.

Every government should ask it.

Every technology company should ask it.

Every university should ask it.

Every Board of Directors should ask it.

Every AI developer should ask it.

Not merely:

Can we build it?

But:

Should we build it?

Not merely:

Will it increase efficiency?

But:

Will it increase human flourishing?

Not merely:

Can machines perform this decision?

But:

Should human beings surrender this decision to machines?

Pope Leo XIV’s Magnifica Humanitas may eventually be remembered as one of the great social documents of the Artificial Intelligence era.

Just as Rerum Novarum helped the world think morally about industrial capitalism more than a century ago, Magnifica Humanitas challenges the twenty-first century to think morally about intelligent machines.

Artificial intelligence may become the most consequential technology mankind has ever created.

But no matter how intelligent our machines become, humanity must remain in command.

For ultimately, technological progress should never be measured simply by how powerful our machines become.

It should be measured by whether those machines help us create a world that is more just, more compassionate, more peaceful and, above all, more human.

The European Commission has approved pound 2.3 million in emergency humanitarian funding for Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Chad to support efforts to contain an ongoing cholera outbreak across West and Central Africa.

The funding, announced on Monday, is aimed at strengthening outbreak response, improving access to essential healthcare, expanding water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions, and protecting communities considered most vulnerable to the disease.

The intervention follows growing concern over the spread of cholera across the African continent.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 61,000 cholera cases were reported across the WHO African Region during the first five months of 2026.

Nigeria will receive the largest share of the European Union’s emergency allocation, with pound 1.5 million earmarked for the country’s response to the outbreak.

The funding will be used to increase the number of emergency intervention teams deployed to affected areas and provide essential medical supplies, including cholera treatment kits.

It will also support water, sanitation and hygiene measures, including the treatment of public water points and household water supplies, in an effort to reduce the risk of further transmission.

The EU said part of the Nigerian allocation would be used to intensify epidemiological surveillance, particularly in areas that are difficult to access, while strengthening case management, risk communication and community sensitisation.

According to the Commission, Cameroon will receive pound 100,000 to support efforts to contain the outbreak and improve the management of cholera cases in affected communities.

It noted that the funding will facilitate the deployment of additional staff for humanitarian partners working on the ground, provide essential medicines and support the establishment of additional cholera treatment units and oral rehydration points in some of the worst-affected villages.

‘The Central African Republic will receive pound 500,000, which will be used to scale up cholera case management and vaccination, alongside expanded water, sanitation and hygiene interventions.

‘The allocation will also strengthen risk communication and community engagement, surveillance and case detection, while supporting dignified and safe burials for victims of the disease.

‘In Chad, pound 200,000 will be deployed to help break the chain of cholera transmission by improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.

‘The funding will also support communities in surveillance activities and the management of suspected and confirmed cases’, the statement noted.

Hadja Lahbib, Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management, said cholera remained a preventable and treatable disease but could become deadly when communities lacked access to safe water and healthcare.

‘Cholera is preventable and treatable. Yet it still threatens lives when people lack something as basic as safe water and healthcare,’ Lahbib said.

She said the new funding reflected Europe’s commitment to supporting vulnerable communities despite increasing humanitarian needs and declining resources.

‘At a time when humanitarian needs are growing and resources are shrinking, Europe is not looking away.

‘This emergency funding will help our partners act quickly, contain the outbreaks and protect the communities most at risk,’ she added.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It is transmitted primarily through the consumption of food or water contaminated with the bacteria, with transmission more likely in areas where access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene is inadequate.

While many infected people may experience mild or moderate symptoms, severe cases can result in rapid and significant loss of body fluids, leading to dehydration, shock and death if treatment is not provided promptly.

The EU said the risk posed by cholera is substantially lower in Europe, where the disease is not common, adding that the likelihood of transmission from imported cases remains low.

Aile Power is targeting Nigerian businesses with Panora Smart Wireless Camera, an AI-powered surveillance solution designed to provide security monitoring without the wiring and installation requirements associated with traditional CCTV systems.

Faith Jerry, Founder and CEO of Aile Power, said the product was developed with the everyday realities of Nigerian businesses in mind. ‘Many business owners want reliable security, but the cost, time and disruption of installing a full wired CCTV system hold them back. Panora was built to remove those barriers so that monitoring becomes something they can set up and manage themselves.’

The company is positioning the product as an option for small and medium-sized businesses that need to monitor offices, shops, warehouses, car parks and other business premises while keeping installation and maintenance requirements low.

Traditional CCTV systems often require wired cameras, cabling, a digital video recorder and professional installation. Once installed, moving cameras or expanding coverage can also require technical support and additional costs.

Panora uses a battery-powered camera that connects to Wi-Fi and allows users to access live footage, recorded clips and security alerts through the VicoHome Smart Home Camera application on iOS and Android devices.

The camera comes with a magnetic mount, allowing users to move it between locations without reinstalling fixed wiring. This can be useful for businesses with changing layouts, temporary locations or multiple areas that require monitoring.

The system also uses artificial intelligence to identify different types of activity. It can distinguish between people, vehicles and packages and send alerts when a relevant event is detected.

For a business monitoring a stockroom entrance after working hours, for example, the system can notify the owner when human activity is detected. Businesses with loading areas or car parks can also use vehicle detection to monitor activity around their premises.

This reduces the need to continuously watch recorded footage and allows business owners to focus on events that require attention.

Panora also includes two-way audio, allowing users to communicate with people near the camera through the application. A business owner away from the premises can therefore view activity and communicate with staff or visitors remotely.

The wireless design is also intended to reduce the work involved in installing surveillance equipment. Unlike wired systems that require cables to connect cameras to recording equipment, Panora can be positioned without fixed camera wiring.

The camera has an IP67 rating for protection against dust and water, allowing it to be used in outdoor areas such as building entrances, business perimeters and car parks.

Remote access through the VicoHome application also allows users to monitor their premises from outside the business location, providing access to live footage and alerts through an internet connection.

Aile Power is positioning Panora as part of its wider effort to expand access to AI-powered smart technology in Nigeria. The company is targeting a market that includes businesses looking for security systems that can be installed without major infrastructure work.

For small and medium-sized enterprises, the cost of installing, maintaining and modifying traditional surveillance systems can influence decisions about security coverage. Panora’s wireless design addresses the installation requirement while its AI features are intended to reduce the amount of footage users need to review.

The product gives businesses another option for physical security, combining wireless installation, remote monitoring, activity detection and two-way communication in one system.

As Nigerian businesses continue to review their security needs, Aile Power is seeking to position Panora as an alternative for companies that want surveillance coverage without the fixed infrastructure associated with conventional CCTV.

Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, has charged the new leadership of the Edo State House of Assembly to embrace humility, transparency and teamwork, urging lawmakers to put aside personal differences and focus on delivering good governance to the people.

Okpebholo gave the charge on Monday when he received the new Speaker of the Assembly, Prince Yekini Oisayemoje Idaiye, who represents Akoko-Edo Constituency, alongside members of the new leadership.

The governor said political office was temporary and should therefore be exercised with humility and a strong sense of responsibility, warning lawmakers against allowing personal differences to undermine the stability of the Assembly.

‘We must put arrogance aside to serve our people better because today we are here and tomorrow we don’t know where we will be,’ he said.

Okpebholo urged the new leadership to promote transparency, dialogue and inclusiveness, stressing that disagreements within the Assembly should be resolved internally rather than being taken to social media.

‘It is a new leadership. I don’t know what happened. Whatever must have happened in the House is for the House, and it remains there. I was also a parliamentarian, and I know that we respect one another,’ the governor said.

He specifically charged Idaiye to carry all lawmakers along, warning that excluding members from the affairs of the House could create fresh divisions. According to him, effective legislative leadership requires consultation, openness and collective decision-making.

‘The only way you can have an effective leadership is for you to carry everybody along,’ Okpebholo said, urging lawmakers to voice their concerns through dialogue and private discussions with the Speaker where necessary.

The governor also called for a peaceful Assembly ahead of the 2027 elections, urging lawmakers to strengthen their presence in their constituencies and work towards electoral success. He encouraged those who may not return to the Assembly to remain optimistic, assuring them of continued cooperation.

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased slightly to 15.43 percent in July 2026, from 15.91 percent recorded in June, even as food inflation rose to 20.31 percent from 17.52 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report has shown.

According to the report published on Monday, the July headline inflation rate was also lower than the 24.94 percent recorded in July 2025.

The Bureau attributed the rise in food inflation to changes in the average prices of crayfish, fresh pepper, fresh onions, fresh carrots, rice, water yam, fresh tomatoes, garri, plantain, beef, eggs, guinea corn, ginger and plantain flour, among others.

BusinessDay’s analysis of the report showed that food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Adamawa at 51.36 percent, followed by Katsina at 30.84 percent and Zamfara at 30.65 percent. Borno, at -0.31 percent, Nasarawa at 6.88 percent and Kebbi at 12.50 percent recorded the slowest rises in food inflation.

On a month-on-month basis, July 2026 food inflation was highest in Adamawa at 17.02 percent, Lagos at 13.48 percent and Borno at 13.26 percent, while Jigawa at -3.60 percent, Kebbi at -3.67 percent and Bauchi at -1.85 percent recorded the lowest rates.

The NBS stated that the month-on-month headline inflation rate in July 2026 was 1.57 percent, representing a 0.09 percentage point decline from the 1.66 percent recorded in June.

At the divisional level, the three major contributors to headline inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages, restaurants and accommodation services, and transport.

The least contributors were recreation, sport and culture; alcoholic beverages, tobacco and narcotics; and insurance and financial services.

Core inflation, which excludes the prices of volatile agricultural produce and energy, stood at 14.97 percent in July 2026 on a year-on-year basis.

On a month-on-month basis, core inflation was 0.15 percent in July 2026, down by 1.51 percentage points compared to June 2026.

On a year-on-year basis, the urban inflation rate in July 2026 was 16.12 percent. On a month-on-month basis, the urban inflation rate was 1.90 percent in July 2026, down by 0.23 percentage points from 2.13 percent recorded in June.

The rural inflation rate stood at 13.77 percent in July 2026 on a year-on-year basis. On a month-on-month basis, rural inflation rose to 0.78 percent, up by 0.25 percentage points from 0.52 percent in June.

The NBS report showed that the all-items inflation rate on a year-on-year basis was highest in Adamawa at 33.03 percent, Yobe at 25.21 percent and Anambra at 23.99 percent.

Nasarawa at 7.86 percent, Kebbi at 9.12 percent and Borno at 9.12 percent recorded the lowest increases in headline inflation on a year-on-year basis.

On a month-on-month basis, July 2026 recorded the highest headline inflation increases in Adamawa at 12.48 percent, Anambra at 9.95 percent and Delta at 9.54 percent.

Niger at -5.86 percent, Enugu at -5.71 percent and Kebbi at -4.89 percent recorded the lowest month-on-month inflation rates, according to the report.

West Ham United have signed 22-year-old Belgium international Arne Engels from Scottish champions Celtic for £22m to break the EFL transfer record.

The Belgium international signed a five-year contract after West Ham disclosed that a ‘record fee paid by an EFL Championship club’ was paid.

Engels is West Ham’s fourth summer signing after the recruitment of Venezuela midfielder Keiber Lamadrid, Dutch defender Joel Veltman and Israel winger Manor Solomon.

‘Arne is a player we have been tracking for some time as a key target.

‘For a player who is still very young with his best years in front of him, he has very good experience and has established himself at a big club, showing consistency and confidence.’

Nils Koppen, West Ham director of player recruitment, told the club website.

According to Koppen, the Belgium international has the right traits, both as a player and as a character, to fit into what West Ham is trying to build moving forward. ‘He is very motivated to be here for this challenge.’

Engels, who has made four appearances for Belgium, won back-to-back Scottish Premiership titles with Celtic after arriving from Augsburg in August 2024, having begun his career at Club Brugge.

‘It’s a really nice project to come into,’ he said. ‘To try to go back to the Premier League. That’s the big goal.

‘It’s just up to me to hopefully help the team with it and together with the supporters to get some wins. Hopefully it’s going to be a good year.’

Engels signing tops the £17.5m paid by Ipswich Town a year ago to sign Norway forward Sindre Walle Egeli.

Following relegation in May, West Ham started their first Championship season since 2012 with a trip to Burnley on Sunday.

But Engels, who can play in midfield, right-back or right-wing, will not be available to make his debut until the home league derby against Charlton Athletic at the London Stadium on Saturday, 22 August.

Nigeria’s listed real estate investment trusts (REITs) are entering a new phase of asset expansion, with investment property values and rental income rising sharply across the sector despite persistent pressures on operating costs and the broader property market.

An analysis of the first-half financial performance of SFS REIT, UPDC REIT and UH REIT shows that the three funds recorded a 63 percent rise in rental income to N2.08 billion in H1 2026, from N1.27 billion in H1 2025, while their investment property portfolios expanded by 58.7 percent, suggesting a growing focus on income-generating real estate assets.

The strongest performance came from UPDC REIT, whose rental income almost doubled year-on-year to N1.57 billion in H1 2026 from N837 million in H1 2025. SFS REIT and UH REIT also recorded increases, although at considerably slower rates.

The development comes as Nigeria’s property market continues to adjust to high construction costs, elevated interest rates, inflation and changing demand patterns. For REIT investors, however, the expansion in rental income and underlying property values points to improving capacity to generate recurring income from real assets.

UPDC REIT leads rental income growth

UPDC REIT emerged as the clear leader in rental income generation among the three funds. Its rental income rose from N625 million in H1 2022 to N725 million in H1 2023 before declining to N683 million in H1 2024. It subsequently rebounded to N837 million in H1 2025 and then surged to N1.57 billion in H1 2026.

That represents an 87.6 percent year-on-year increase, the strongest growth among the three REITs analysed. The performance also means UPDC’s rental income has increased by about 151 percent since H1 2022, reflecting the expansion of its property portfolio and stronger income generation from its assets.

The growth is particularly significant because UPDC REIT’s investment properties increased from N27.4 billion in H1 2025 to N30.8 billion in H1 2026, a 12.4 percent increase.

Over the five-year period, its investment properties expanded from N21.5 billion in H1 2022 to N30.8 billion, representing an increase of about 43 percent. The combination of a larger asset base and sharply higher rental income suggests that UPDC REIT is extracting greater income from its portfolio.

Its rental income yield relative to investment properties also improved materially, based on the reported figures, rising from about 3.1 percent in H1 2025 to 5.1 percent in H1 2026.

UH REIT’s property base jumps

UH REIT recorded the second-largest expansion in investment properties. Its property portfolio increased from N9.27 billion in H1 2025 to N25.2 billion in H1 2026, representing a staggering 171.8 percent increase.

The expansion also marks a significant reversal from the relatively flat trajectory recorded between 2022 and 2025. UH REIT’s investment properties stood at N9.42 billion in H1 2022, declined to N9.09 billion in H1 2023 and then moved to N9.45 billion in H1 2024 before falling slightly to N9.27 billion in H1 2025.

The jump to N25.2 billion in H1 2026 therefore represents a fundamental change in the size of the portfolio. Rental income, however, grew at a much slower pace. UH REIT’s rental income increased from N335 million in H1 2025 to N393 million in H1 2026, representing 17.3 percent year-on-year growth.

While the increase is positive, the divergence between property growth and rental income growth raises an important question for investors: how quickly can the newly expanded asset base be converted into recurring rental income?

SFS REIT posts steady income expansion

SFS REIT delivered the most consistent, albeit smaller, growth trajectory. Rental income rose from N85 million in H1 2022 to N94 million in H1 2023, N101 million in H1 2024 and N105 million in H1 2025 before reaching N122 million in H1 2026.

The latest figure represents a 16.2 percent year-on-year increase. Unlike UPDC and UH, SFS REIT operated with a considerably smaller investment property base. Its investment properties remained at N1.82 billion between H1 2022 and H1 2023 before rising to N1.98 billion in H1 2024 and H1 2025.

In H1 2026, however, the portfolio jumped to N5.37 billion, representing a 171.2 percent year-on-year increase. The sharp expansion means SFS REIT, like UH REIT, now has substantially more assets from which to generate future rental income.

Interest income provides another income stream

Beyond rental income, interest income has become an increasingly important component of REIT earnings. SFS REIT’s interest income increased from N106 million in H1 2025 to N127 million in H1 2026, representing 19.8 percent growth.

UH REIT recorded a similar trend, with interest income rising from N211 million to N251 million, an increase of 19 percent. UPDC REIT was the exception, with interest income declining slightly from N634 million in H1 2025 to N613 million in H1 2026, representing a 3.3 percent decline.

Despite the decline, UPDC remains the largest generator of interest income among the three funds based on the H1 2026 figures.

The growth in interest income at SFS and UH also highlights how REITs can supplement rental earnings with returns from cash and other interest-bearing investments, particularly in an environment where interest rates remain elevated.