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Nigeria seeks AfDB’s support on SAPZ, green legacy initiative
Nigerian government has solicited the support of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in funding phase two of the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ). Vice-President Kashim Shettima made the request during a bilateral meeting with AfDB president, Sidi Ould Tah, on the sidelines of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. SAPZ phase two is expected to scale up climate-resilient infrastructure and inclusive agro-industrial growth across an additional 24 states. It will expand from the initial eight states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to diversify Nigeria’s mono-product economy into a value-added agricultural export. The vice-president averred that Nigeria was the largest shareholder in AfDB, while the country’s portfolio hovered in the neighbourhood of over 10 billion dollars. “We urge you to further support us in the phase 2 Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ). You assisted us with 300 million dollars when you were in Liberia. We want to thank you but, like Oliver Twist, we are asking for more because we are poised to diversify our mono-product economy into agriculture, especially value-added agricultural export.
And we have the potential, with all due respect, your Excellency, in all the agro-ecological zones in Nigeria. From the mangrove swamps forest in the South to the Sahelian region in the far North, you can virtually grow anything. In states like Kebbi, you can plant money and if money can grow, it shows that the soil is fertile,” he stated. Seeking AfDB’s support for SAPZ, the second phase of Nigeria’s green legacy initiative, Mr Shettima pointed to the relationship between the economy and ecology in the Sahel region.
“We are from the same part of the world, essentially same terrain, same geography and same challenges, especially challenges of armed banditry and extremism. So, we want to solicit your support; our doors are ever open,” he added. Mr Shettima asserted that Nigeria was hungry for development because Nigerian youths were eager to be co-opted into the workforce of the 21st century. He assured that young Nigerians have the entrepreneurial zeal and passion enough to be captured in the workforce of the 21st century. The vice-president implored the AfDB chief to also look into the issue of the bank’s support for innovation-driven enterprises, instead of only MSMEs. Shettima said the digital space offered a vista of opportunity for Africa’s development. “And we can catalyse and accelerate the digital space in Africa for Nigeria, and we can have deep tech enterprises to come out of Africa. Of the eight unicorns in Africa, five are from Nigeria – Moniepoint, Jumia, and the rest. We want to once again reiterate that we are with you, we are for you, and we will stand by you,” he said.
Responding, AfDB’s boss assured that under his leadership, he would waste no effort in making the bank provide Nigeria with the support it deserves in terms of developing its human capital. “My vision for the bank is not a lending institution, it is a catalyst institution with which to mobilise resources, capital from all over the world to bring. I hope we can really bring capital to the continent to make transformation of our continent and bring value to the agricultural sector. This is why my four cardinal points are mobilising large-scale capital through partnerships, reforming Africa’s financial architecture, and converting the continent’s demographic dividend into economic strength for job creation. These points form my roadmap to guide the bank’s strategy and accelerate Africa’s development and I’m confident that with your support, the bank will be able to bring transformation to the continent,” the AfDB president said.
Earlier, Mr Shettima held a bilateral meeting with the prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Terrance Drew, with both leaders recommitting to strengthening economic and cultural ties. He assured Mr Drew that President Bola Tinubu was determined to rekindle friendship and brotherhood between both nations. He said: “Going forward, we should have a robust engagement and understanding. We should stand by each other. We should stand for one another. We should stand on each other’s interests. For St. Kitts and Nevis, and Nigeria, what binds us together supersedes whatever divides us. The majority of the population of the Caribbean is of African descent. A chunk of them are English-speaking countries. Quite a large number of them belong to the Commonwealth.
So, the commonalities we share are so high but contact has been low, relative to what it ought to be. So, your Excellency, I want to assure you that my boss is very keen on rekindling that friendship, that sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, and see to it that going forward, we should have a robust engagement and understanding.”
Mr Shettima further recalled that Mr Tinubu was in Saint Lucia earlier in the year as part of his broader package of reaching out to the Caribbean Africans in diaspora. “The president had also established contact with our brothers in Brazil. The largest African population in the world outside of Nigeria is found in Brazil,” the vice-president said. On his part, Mr Drew, who decried the low level of trade and contact between Caribbean countries and Africa, expressed his country’s readiness to work closely with the Nigerian government to boost trade on the African continent.
(NAN)
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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