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Nigeria revoked, over 4,709 hoarded, mining licences held by speculators
Nigerian Mining Cadastre Office, MCO, has said that it revoked and erased over 4,709 licences kept by hoarders and speculators to exploit unsuspecting investors. This was made known by the Director-General, MCO, Engr Obadiah Nkom, during a live conversation on X (formerly Twitter) with the theme ‘A deep dive into the Mining Cadastre Office: Driving transparency and order in Nigeria’s solid minerals sector’ stating that the essence of the action is to ensure transparency and accountability, and also as a way to attract potential investors into the solid minerals sector. He said the revocation came after the MCO identified 4,709 licences, including 1,400 expired titles, 2,338 refused applications and 971 notifications of grant where applicants failed to pay. According to him, the sanitization covered expired, speculative, and inactive titles, which the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake revoked those licences.
He further stated that the clean-up was basically a signal sent to speculators who hoard mineral licences that they are not welcomed in the solid minerals sector, because they are clog in the wheels of the efforts of the Tinubu-led administration to attract serious and genuine investors to the sector, and that investors now have confidence in Nigeria’s solid minerals sector. He said “when you talk about backlog, for now, the ministry has had reasons to actually clear or revoke close to 4,709 mineral licenses. There were implementations in terms of revoked expiring titles of up to 1,400 licenses. We have had reasons to refuse applications in the system, 2,338. We have had a mineral title notification of 971. Can you imagine 971 notifications of grants that were notified, but did not come to pay? There are even instances where some people have collected the grants, but they refuse to pay. So what do we do? So this cleaning exercise that we are doing is to be able to now create that space in the minefield for people. So, imagine having over 4,709 erased from our system by way of revocations implemented. It has sanitised our sector, and investors now know that if they are not going to be involved in exploration and value addition, there will be consequences.
“We are cautious. We follow the law. And this is why I repeat, we have had 100 per cent success in litigations because we are an agency compliant with the provisions of the Act. Where we are wrong, we are not shy away from trapping ourselves and doing the right thing. I would hope that at the end of the day, we will not have any risk by following the provisions of the Act because there are some people who you find out that they have collected, they have too many licenses, and are not contributing to the sector. The was the view of the minister in terms of those fees reviewed. Again, like I said from the beginning, it is to be able to sanitise the sector.
Not allowing somebody to have plenty of licenses. And after all, you say, how much is the total fee for renewal per year and since the amount was small.
“They just kept hold of it. But now, many of them have had to relinquish their licenses. Surrender their licenses. And I can tell you that there are citizens out there who come in, and then when they look at the system, they look at those things, they really are overpopulated with licenses. And then, unfortunately, you find the license there. You find somebody calling some people, maybe he has never heard of them. You say, Oh, you want this license, that is completely over, that period is over. People are now coming to surrender their licenses because it’s toxic for them, and this is the sanity that is needed.” Meanwhile, the DG sent strong warning to people who parade themselves as staff of MCO but are impostors as they will soon be arrested and prosecuted if they don’t stop their criminal activities.
According to him (Nkom), the Department of State Services, DSS, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have been duly informed to track, arrest and prosecute the impostors. He also saidthat in a bid to protect investors and their investments, his Agency partnered with the Corporate Affairs Commission on real-time verification system to ensure that only legally registered companies could obtain mineral titles, which also are required to present bank statements and letters. “We are going to bite, and bite hard. These impersonators deceive innocent investors by giving the impression that they are staff of the cadastre. They collect money and documents illegally, tarnishing the image of the sector. We appreciate legitimate consultants and company representatives, but no one should impersonate us. The era of touts and fraudsters thriving around our offices is over. The CAC has given us the API to instantly confirm, in real time, whether a company is legally registered. If not, the application cannot move forward. Beyond that, applicants must also present bank statements and letters to demonstrate financial capacity”, he added.
He maintained that the reforms under the Tinubu administration and the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, were not to stifle the sector but make it transparent and attractive to investors in a sustainable manner. “Government reforms are attracting more companies. Foreign investor interest is rising, while local small-scale operators are also organising themselves into cooperatives. Mining is no longer seen as just breaking stones; it is now big business”, he said. He also said all litigations have recorded 100 per cent success, “We have 100 per cent success in litigations because we follow the law. That is why the courts uphold our actions. The mineral sector is no longer what it used to be before. We are repositioning it for the growth of Nigeria”, he added.
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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