News
Cash call arrears drops from $6.8bn to $5.1bn, saving $1.7bn
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, yesterday has said that it saved the nation the sum of $1.7 billion as it secured a reduction in the cash call arrears from $6.8 billion to $5.1 billion. This is as it keeps to the terms of the agreement of the $5.1 billion repayment plan it entered into with international oil companies with respect to the Joint Venture Cash Call, JVCC. In a statement in Abuja, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of the NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, said that the Federation Account Allocation Committee meeting is regularly briefed on this development and would receive a briefing update at the next scheduled FAAC engagement.
He said that the NNPC was able to secure a reduction in the cash call arrears from $6.8 billion to $5.1 billion, saving the country $1.7 billion, adding that it was agreed that the balance would be paid over a five-year period through incremental crude oil production. He said, “The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari inherited a cash call arrears of $6.8 billion, unpaid by previous administrations. President Buhari subsequently directed NNPC to resolve this challenge which had led the IOC JV partners to drastically reduce investment in the Nigerian oil sector.
“Based on Mr. President’s directive, NNPC engaged the IOCs and negotiated the cash call arrears down from $6.8 billion to $5.1 billion saving the country $1.7 billion. NNPC then set a repayment plan in place. The key point with the repayment plan was that the arrears would be repaid from incremental production over a five-year period so that base production would be preserved. This arrangement was translated into a Repayment Agreement which was further endorsed by the Governors at National Economic Council and approved by Federal Executive Council.
“To date, NNPC has kept to the terms of the Repayment Agreement. The FAAC Meeting is regularly briefed on the Repayment status and will receive a briefing update at the next scheduled FAAC engagement.”
Meanwhile, NNPC also said that two of the country’s refineries, Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical Company, KRPC and Port Harcourt Refining Company, PHRC, processed 204,877 metric tonnes of crude oil in the month of January 2017. The corporation in its January 2017 Financial and Operations Report, signed by Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, said that while PHRC accounted for 183,022 metric tonnes of crude oil, KRPC processed 21,855 metric tonnes. The NNPC said that the production by the two refineries during the period translated into a combined yield efficiency of 89.97 per cent as against the 88.99 per cent in December 2017. The report noted that in the month under review, 1.463 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS and 33.79 million litres of Dual Purpose Kerosene, DPK, were supplied into the country through the Direct Supply Direct Purchase (DSDP) arrangements.
It added that the corporation’s supply of PMS into the country during the period was far above the normal daily supply of 35 million litres per day to ensure products availability nationwide. The report reiterated that the NNPC was inching closer to choosing financiers for its refineries with a view to achieving 90 per cent capacity utilisation per stream day before the end of 2019. The report, however, listed crude oil pipeline vandalism among the biggest challenges that plagued the downstream operations of the corporation in the month of January 2018, saying the malaise put the corporation at disadvantaged competitive position. It stated that during the period under review, 194 pipeline points were vandalised, with Port Harcourt -Aba and Aba-Enugu pipeline segment of the network accounting for 187 points or 86.57 per cent of the affected pipeline.
The report further noted that the NNPC has increased the supply of gas to the power sector between January 2017 and January 2018 by 88.89 per cent. It explained that gas-to-power supply as at January 2018 stood at 731 million metric standard cubic feet (mmscf) per day as against 387 mmscf/d in January 2017, representing 88.89 per cent increase.
It said, “An average of 731mmscf/d of gas was sent to over 20 domestic thermal power plants in the month of January 2018, generating a thermal power output of 3,076 megawatts (mw) to the national grid, representing 76.7 per cent of the total national power generation.” The report indicated that an additional 365mmscf/d of gas was supplied to the industrial sector to power over 50 companies in the period under review to boost the nation’s economy.
According to the report, the total gas production for the month was put at 8.169 billion scf/d out of which 14 per cent was supplied to the domestic market, 43 per cent for export, while 31 per cent was re-injected and the balance flared. The report gave the average international Brent crude price for January 2018 as $69.08/barrel as against $64.37/barrel in December 2017, saying that over the last 12 months the crude oil price had risen to about 26.57 per cent. It stated that the continuing efforts by OPEC and non-OPEC producers to stabilise the market, as well as crude inventory pulls in the middle of the healthy economic growth and improving oil demand were reasons for the stability in the price of the black commodity.
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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