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HOSTCOM lists priority areas for FG
In order to ensure that directly impacted communities benefit immensely from the Petroleum Industry Act PIA 2021, the Host Communities of Nigeria producing oil and gas HOSTCOM has listed nine priority areas for the federal government. Speaking at the official commissioning of HOSTCOM’s Abuja Liaison Office and end of year community sensitization on the PIA, HOSTCOM president, His Highness, Dr Benjamin Tamaranebi said the communities should be allowed to monitor every project from inception to decommissioning. He charged the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission NUPRC and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority NMDPRA to incorporate HOSTCOM’s budgetary provisions in their budgetary framework.
Other priority areas are; “to partner with the Commission and Authority for environmental intelligence gathering and data collation; to be provided with every project draft Environmental Impact Assessment EIA to ensure the effective implementation of Sustainable Development processes; to be shortlisted in the NUPRC and NMDPRA protocol list; and, to participate and assist in providing environmental field management plan from field to field basis”. Other demands are; “to participate in ensuring building cryogenic plants on build, operate and own basis in order to strategically end gas flaring; to ensure payment of gas flare funds, and its remittance to Host Communities Development Trust Fund on project development and investment basis for Community sustainable development; as an entity to have license to operate modular refinery in the producing states to end illegal refining and crude oil theft; and, to have license to lift petroleum products for fairness and equity”. Tamaranebi noted that the accomplishment of the aforementioned objectives will inevitably be the foundation that would overhaul the legacy mistakes to improved livelihood and socio-political and economic advancement of the Host Communities of Nigeria Producing oil and gas.
According to him, it is “a legacy error and a repulsive danger” to the industry to subjugate the producing and directly impacted Communities. He said HOSTCOM is the missing third leg of the industry, and that closing the gap of interdependent linkages among the process drivers would address the previous anomaly and protect the interest of all. “HOSTCOM has developed a data base of every Community that hosts any critical facility of oil and gas in order to foster harmonious and seamless synergy with the regulators and operators. With HOSTCOM structures at the national level, the State, Local Government Area, cluster and Community level, has become the gate way to efficiently and effectively in the current petroleum legal framework has the capacity and competence to address any burning issues in the producing and directly impacted oil and gas Communities, if given the opportunity to serve in the interest of our national economy. The oil and gas sector has IPMAN, NUPENG and PENGASSAN as the voice of petroleum engineers, while the NLC, TUC all speak for the larger group of their interest; so also is the Host and directly impacted Communities as represented by HOSTCOM as the umbrella body and mouth piece of the grassroots. We leave you to imagine and think about reaching out to more than 3,600 Communities simultaneously for the effective dissemination of information to address cogent issues”, he stated.
Also speaking, a former Minister of Petroleum Resources and Chairman, HOSTCOM’s Board of Trustees BoT, His Eminence, King Edmund Daukoru urged collaborative efforts to ensure effective implementation of the PIA. The Boat chairman who was represented said; “No matter how good a law is, until the implementers come to terms with the spirit and intendment of the law, they will be just working with the letters. “It is important for HOSTCOM and others to collaborate on how to enforce or insist on the implementation of the PIA. There is need to enforce the principles, the law. Until we come together as one to see to the implementation of these principles, what is contained in that document may not see the light of day because as it is, there are forces that are out to sabotage the efforts of government”, he added. On his part, NUPRC chief executive, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, commended HOSTCOM’s drive towards ensuring that host communities are fully involved in the actualisation of the gains of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 while enhancing peaceful and harmonious coexistence between operators and their hosts. He said the commission has continued to prioritise those aspects regarding the integration and well-being of host communities in its operational considerations to ensure fairness and justice.
“Evidence of our commitment to this objective can be seen in the tremendous efforts made by the Commission within the first six months of its inception in generating ideas, formulating proposals, and engaging stakeholders towards formulating a navigational aid for the implementation of the Host Community Development Trust Fund (HCDT), in line with the provisions of section 235 of the PIA, 2021. You will recall that in the seventh month of our stewardship, (June 28, 2022 precisely) the Commission unveiled the Nigeria Upstream Host Communities Development Regulation and Procedure Guide”, said Komolafe. Also speaking, Executive Director, Health, Safety, Environment and Community of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority NMDPRA, Capt. John Tonlagha said ‘Regulations and Guidelines’ have been developed in accordance with the PIA and are in the final stages of approvals. According to him, the Federal Government through the NMDPRA and NUPRC is determined to put a stop to gas flaring practices which will once and for all guarantee environmental sanity in the oil and gas value chain of the country.
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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