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IBB condemns dubious bizmen
President Ibrahim Babangida has called for an urgent change of heart among the Nigerian businessmen, whom he accused of “unwholesome business malpractices.”
Particularly, the president is unhappy at the way companies are maximising profits at profit at the expense of healthy development of the economy.
President Babangida who was addressing chief executives of business and banking industry in Abuja, Monday night also frowned at the low level of local content in the Nigerian made goods, despite several government incentives.
This situation, he said would no longer be tolerated by the government. Among several malpractices, General Babangida noted that companies are reducing outputs, and retrenching workers, to reduce overhead costs and maintain sizeable profit margins.
This practice, he said is contrary to what obtains in the developed countries, would rather reduce the price of their products to boosts their sales, as well as maintaining their market share and pre-target profit margins.
In the case of Nigeria, Babaginda said, “industries prefer to sacrifice labour, thereby compounding the country’s unemployment problems.”
Apart from these practice, he indicated Nigerian companies of introducing ‘implicit price increase’ through the manipulation of quality and content of produced goods sold to consumers.
…Solicit banks‚Äô support
Government’s decision to ask banks to participate in the collection of custom duties, was in recognition of their capacity to respond to fundamental changes in the country’s policy, President Ibrahim has said. Addressing bank chiefs and business executives at Abuja on Monday, General Babangida said, “Government has noted a healthy competition among the banks in the mobilisation of savings, since the lifting of government control on interest rates.”
He said, custom tariffs no matter how finely designed, can only be effective in providing the needed protection to local industries as well as yield the expected revenue of implemented effectively.
The president told the bank executives “I hope you will see this measure as an additional expression of confidence in the banks and as such rise up to the occasion.
General Babangida urged them to be more creative particularly in the area if venture capital and other initiative financial products.
He also urged them to improve the quality of service to their customers and strive to minimise incidences of fraud either among bank employees or customers wit the collusion of staff. The president further asked banks in the country to continue to strictly abide by the banker’s tariff and stop finding ways to circumvent Central Bank guidelines.
On research and development, President Babangida said that there appears to be a total neglect of research investments and development, a factor which he said, determines the country’s high dependence on foreign inventions, technologies and fresh innovations.
I am aware that a number of industry oriented research institutes and their findings are being increasingly made use of by industry. You must recognise that this is not enough, particularly so since the activities of these institutes are limited by the amount of resources made available to them by government.
It is time therefore, said the president, for the large industrial concerns to establish research and development units for which appropriate tax incentives exist.
President Babangida also noted that both government and the private sector have been partners in the economic development of the country.
This time around, the president expects that the private sector will emerge as the bigger partner with government providing the needed services and infrastructure to keep the wheels of development moving.
A new technology transfer agreement between the Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) and the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) is expected to open more job opportunities, improve local skills, and expand access to advanced technology for ordinary Nigerians.
In a press statement reaching Vanguard on Friday, the MoU aims to strengthen industrial development, support local content, and create clearer pathways for Nigerians to benefit from China’s growing investments in the country.
PICTT Chairman, Dr Dahiru Mohammed, said the partnership will immediately begin coordinated programmes that support local participation in infrastructure and industrial projects.
Special Adviser to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr John Uwajumogu, said the deal will help attract high value investments that can stimulate job creation and strengthen Nigeria’s economy.
NCSP Head of International Relations, Ms Judy Melifonwu, highlighted that Nigerians stand to gain from expanded STEM scholarships, technical training, access to modern technology, and collaboration across key sectors including steel, agriculture, automobile parks, and cultural industries.
The NCSP Director-General reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to measurable results, noting that the partnership with PICTT will prioritise initiatives that deliver direct national impact.
The MoU signals a new phase of Nigeria–China cooperation focused on practical delivery, local content, and opportunities that improve everyday livelihoods.
EU regulators launched an antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms on Thursday over its rollout of artificial intelligence features in its WhatsApp messenger that would block rivals, hardening Europe’s already tough stance on Big Tech. The move, reported earlier by Reuters and the Financial Times, is the latest action by European Union regulators against large technology firms such as Amazon and Alphabet’s Google as the bloc seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its expanding influence.
Europe’s tough stance – a marked contrast to more lenient U.S. regulation – has sparked an industry pushback, particularly by U.S. tech titans, and led to criticism from the administration of U. S. President Donald Trump. The European Commission said that the investigation will look into Meta’s new policy that would limit other AI providers’ access to WhatsApp, a potential boost for its own Meta AI system integrated into the platform earlier this year.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the move was to prevent dominant firms from “abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors”. She added interim measures could be imposed to block Meta’s new WhatsApp AI policy rollout. “AI markets are booming in Europe and beyond,” she said. This is why we are investigating if Meta’s new policy might be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space.”
A WhatsApp spokesperson called the claims “baseless”, adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms had put a “strain on our systems that they were not designed to support”, a reference to AI systems from other providers. “Still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.” The EU was the first in the world to establish a comprehensive legal framework for AI, setting out guardrails for AI systems and rules for certain high-risk applications in the AI Act.
Meta AI, a chatbot and virtual assistant, has been built into WhatsApp’s interface across European markets since March. The Commission said a new policy fully applicable from January 15, 2026, may block competing AI providers from reaching customers via the platform. Ribera said the probe came on the back of complaints from small AI developers about the WhatsApp policy. The Interaction Company of California, which has developed AI assistant Poke.com, has taken its grievance to the EU competition enforcer. Spanish AI startup Luzia has also talked to the Commission, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Marvin von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of The Interaction Company of California, said if Meta was allowed to roll out its new policy, “millions of European consumers will be deprived of the possibility of enjoying new and innovative AI assistants”. Meta also risks a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog opened a parallel investigation in July into allegations that Meta leveraged its market power by integrating an AI tool into WhatsApp, expanding the probe in November to examine whether Meta further abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from the messaging platform. The antitrust probe is a more traditional means of investigation than the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation currently used to scrutinize Amazon’s and Microsoft’s cloud services for potential curbs. Reuters
The spouses and children of billionaires inherited more wealth in 2025 than in any previous year since reporting began in 2015, according to UBS’s Billionaire Ambitions Report published on Thursday. In the 12 months to April, 91 people became billionaires through inheritance, collectively receiving $298 billion, up more than a third from 2024, the Swiss bank said. “These heirs are proof of a multi-year wealth transfer that’s intensifying,” UBS executive Benjamin Cavalli said.
The report is based on a survey of some of UBS’s super-rich clients and a database that tracks the wealth of billionaires across 47 markets in all world regions. At least $5.9 trillion will be inherited by billionaire children over the next 15 years, the bank calculates.
Most of this inheritance growth is set to take place in the United States, with India, France, Germany and Switzerland next on the list, UBS estimated. However, billionaires are highly mobile, especially younger ones, which could change that picture, it added. The search for a better quality of life, geopolitical concerns and tax considerations are driving decisions to relocate, according to the report.
In Switzerland, where $206 billion will be inherited over the next 15 years according to the bank, voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected 50 per cent tax on inherited fortunes of $62 million or more, after critics said it could trigger an exodus of wealthy people.
Switzerland, the UAE, the U.S. and Singapore are among billionaires’ preferred destinations, UBS’s Cavalli said. “In Switzerland, Sunday’s vote may have helped to increase the country’s appeal again,” he said. Reuters
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