News
High time world look to Africa for solution to global energy crisis—WEF
Amid the climate, energy and geopolitical crises that have been raging for some years now, it is time the world looked to Africa for energy, Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of Tanzania, said at a session on “Repowering the World” at the 53rd World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. “We have everything when we talk about green energy – cobalt, copper, nickel… You can extract and manufacture in Africa, provide energy to Africa and take it to other countries.” Making an appeal for greater private sector investment in Tanzania, Hassan said Africa needs a lot of energy as many Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies are being applied there and a lot of related manufacturing is carried out there. “We want to build regional power pools in East African and Southern African… if any region has a shortage, the other could supply it,” she said. Instead of Europe, Japan or India pursuing unilateral policies, more concerted efforts are needed to tackle the energy crisis that is truly global in nature, she added.
Chemistry is the mother of all industries, said Ilham Kadri, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Solvay, and it is imperative to create diversified supply chains of metals and rare earths such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper that are essential components of EV batteries and so many other applications in the energy transition. China has built rare earths value chains for decades and to avoid a “Russian gas supply syndrome”, she said Europe and countries around the world must find diversified sources of these metals and minerals as well as localise battery assembly. From reskilling workers to issuing permits, Europe needs policies that “get it done quicker”, Kadri said, when asked about the United States’ new Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that offers funding and incentives to accelerate the clean energy transition and has raised fears in Europe of an investment drain. Europe must boost its competitiveness to prevent de-industrialisation, she said. “The question is not IRA or not, but what does it take for Europe to have a competitive industrial policy? I need clean energy, at cost and at scale, and 365 days a year.”
In the same vein, Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, said the IRA is an opportunity for Europe to cut bureaucratic red tape, which would unleash opportunities for innovation, new jobs and working together at a European scale, or else “real action will move to Asia and other parts of the world”. Asked if Europe had been amiss in continuing to depend on cheap Russian gas for too long, Rutte agreed that Europe could have cut this dependence sooner, but added that it was a collective failure, and not just Germany’s, as it is sometimes made out to be. Natural gas will continue to be used as a transition fuel in the short- to medium term, he said, but longer term, the direction is decidedly towards renewables, green hydrogen and even nuclear. “I would not be amazed if many more countries start to reinvest in nuclear,” he said, adding that Belgium will build two new nuclear reactions. The Technology Perspective Report of the IRA got a thumbs-up from Francesco Starace, CEO and General Manager of Enel, for not only interpreting the need to transform energy systems but also to transform supply chains and industrial systems. “China and some Asian countries took the chance [to do so] earlier,” he said. The energy transition is taking place much faster than originally estimated, and will accelerate, he said, adding that this puts additional pressure on an industry used to longer time horizons.
The US has significantly increased its gas production to supply the EU, said Joe Manchin III, Senator from West Virginia (D). “Our friends and allies were hurting,” he said, referring to Russia’s curtailment of supplies to the EU, “And we couldn’t come to your rescue fast enough.” He added that the US would continue to ramp up gas production but would do it more cleanly than ever while simultaneously investing in carbon capture, methane capture, renewables, storage, and so on. “We will not get rid of something until we have [an alternative] that works at least as well,” he said. Taking a more measured stance towards fossil fuels, Keir Starmer, Leader of the Opposition of the UK, said his Labour Party supports the use of oil and gas during the energy transition but is against any new investments in fields in the North Sea or elsewhere. “We have a strict target for 2030 for green power,” he said, referring to Labour’s target of 60% renewables in the energy mix by 2030. Starmer said the British Prime Minister’s absence in Davos was in line with a general failure to grow the economy. “Britain has not had a strategic plan for 10 years, foreign direct investment in the UK is down to 4%,” he said, adding that it is essential to restore trust in institutions and match public investment with private to unlock the UK’s potential.
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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