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Airtel Returns with Rising Stars Season 4

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(L-r): Segun Ogunsanya, chief executive officer and managing director, Airtel Nigeria, presenting a gift to ex-Nigerian International, Mutiu Adepoju at the launch of Airtel Rising Stars (ARS) Season 4 U-17 football tournament held in Lagos, with them is Olympic Gold Medalist, Chioma Ajunwa-Opkara.
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Airtel Nigeria, on Wednesday announced the commencement of the 4th edition of Airtel Rising Stars (ARS) U-17 male and female tournament, a grass-root football talent search programme aimed at identifying and nurturing budding soccer talent from the grassroots onto a national stage.

This announcement is coming barely ten months after a successful hosting of the 3rd edition of the ARS, an Africa-wide grassroots tournament that underscores the company’s avowed commitment to creating excitement for sports lovers as well as providing empowerment opportunities for Nigerian youth.

 Speaking at an event to announce the commencement of ARS 4 in Lagos, Segun Ogunsanya, chief executive officer & managing director of Airtel Nigeria, noted that the soccer initiative is the company’s contribution to sports development and youth empowerment in Nigeria.

Ogunsanya who was in the company of ex Super Eagles and Falcons Stars including Peter Rufai, Ann Chiejine, Chioma Ajunwa, Garba Lawal and Mutiu Adepoju said football in Nigeria elicits passion, creates fun and engenders unity.

“Airtel wants to be an integral part of local communities and our association with football has strong elements of creating positive change and engagement. ARS is our contribution to building and sustaining a rich pool of football talents for the Super Eagles and Falcons,” he said.

While highlighting the success of the Airtel Rising Starts intervention, the Airtel CEO also noted that the initiative has provided strong platforms for empowering exceptionally talented Nigerians.

“It is on record that the Airtel Rising Stars Football programme has produced exceptional talents some of whom are: Musa Mohammed Shehu- Captain Golden Eaglets U17- (ARS 2011); Zahradden Bello- U17- ARS (2012); AL Hassan Ibrahim Abdullahi- U17- ARS (2011); Muri Lawal- Sunshine Stars FC Akure- ARS (2011) and Josephine Mathias- Falconets, Pelican Stars FC Calabar- ARS (2011),” he said.

 According to Ogunsanya, fourth edition of the Airtel Rising Stars programme will be played in different regions across the country, culminating in the National Finals, a three-day soccer fiesta. Thereafter, the successful male and female teams will travel to Gabon to compete for continental glory in Africa’s biggest youth football tournament with participation from 17 countries.

With over 50,000 active participants over the last 3 seasons, ARS enjoys the endorsement and support of football bodies such as Lagos State Football Association (LSFA), Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria (YSFON), Arsenal Football Club and Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF).

This year, Airtel is partnering ex super eagles and falcons stars to offer technical support and advisory services to the youngsters.

Beginning with Open Screening Camps in five locations, where the participants will be screened for age compliance and given the opportunity to showcase their talents, the selected male and female teams in each camp will proceed to Lagos to challenge for honors at the National Finals.

The Airtel Rising Stars U-17 Tourney, a unique pan African initiative of Airtel Africa, is designed to provide support for the development of football talents across Nigeria. It aims at discovering talented students (male and female) of secondary school age and providing them the opportunity to gain football skills and develop into renowned stars.

The Airtel Rising Stars registration will kick-off from today, June 4th, 2014 to Friday, June 27th, 2014 and is expected to draw thousands of participants across the country. The registration forms will be available at Airtel Express shops nationwide.

 

 


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Truecaller Targets Global Market with Powerful New Business Chat Push

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Truecaller, the leading global communications platform, today announced the expansion of its Business Chat platform, making it accessible to global channel partners and enterprise solution providers. By “opening up” market access to its platform, Truecaller is empowering partners to transition their enterprise clients from legacy, low-trust SMS to a verified, smart, media-rich, and conversational communication experience.

Truecaller Targets Global Market with Powerful New Business Chat Push

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Through this partner-led expansion, Truecaller empowers businesses to reclaim customer attention and establish immediate trust and credibility.

“The definition of success for modern enterprises has fundamentally evolved. It’s no longer just about delivery – it’s about earning attention, establishing credibility, and driving meaningful conversion,” said Priyam Bose, Global Head, GTM at Truecaller.

“By opening up market access to our global partners, we’ve created a powerful gateway for brands to engage with over 500 million active users where they already interact daily through communication that is contextual, trusted, free from clutter, and designed to initiate actions. For existing customers, the outreach opportunity extends to an additional high-impact channel, strengthening the overall customer experience journey.”

Truecaller Business Chat enables a clutter-free, high-trust conversational experience between businesses and consumers. The Business Chat platform equips partners with actionable insights, including real-time data and rich engagement metrics. This facilitates a more sophisticated, data-driven communication strategy that adapts at every stage of the customer journey.

Partners, including Gupshup and OneXtel, are already live in India along with Globe Teleservices, Cloudcom, and Sling Africa in other global markets, rapidly scaling the product in their respective regions. Global partners can now leverage Truecaller’s massive footprint to offer their clients a trustworthy engagement channel in an increasingly crowded digital world.


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Meta Unveils Muse Spark: MSL’s Groundbreaking People-First AI Model

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Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) unveiled Muse Spark Tuesday, its first large language model in a new Muse series, designed from scratch to deliver “personal superintelligence”—an AI assistant tailored to users’ real-world needs like complex reasoning in science, math and health.

Meta Unveils Muse Spark: MSL’s Groundbreaking People-First AI Model

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A New Model: Muse Spark

Over the last nine months, Meta Superintelligence Labs rebuilt our AI stack from the ground up, moving faster than any development cycle we have run before. Muse Spark is the first model in our new Muse series — a deliberate and scientific approach to model scaling where each generation validates and builds on the last before we go bigger. This initial model is small and fast by design, yet capable enough to reason through complex questions in science, math, and health. It is a powerful foundation, and the next generation is already in development. Muse Spark now powers the Meta AI assistant in the Meta AI app and meta.ai, built to support complex reasoning and multimodal tasks.

What’s Changed with Meta AI

The Meta AI app and meta.ai are getting an upgrade today, along with a new look. Whether you need a quick answer or help with complex problems that need strong reasoning, Meta AI now handles both. You can switch between modes depending on the task, and Meta AI can launch multiple subagents in parallel to tackle your question. Like planning a family trip to Florida where one agent drafts the itinerary, another compares Orlando vs. the Keys, and a third finds kid-friendly activities — all at the same time, giving you a better answer, faster.

Ask Meta AI: It Understands

The real world moves fast, and most of it does not fit into a text box. That is why we built strong multimodal perception into Muse Spark, so Meta AI can see and understand what you are looking at, not just read what you type. Snap a photo of an airport snack shelf and Meta AI can identify and rank the snacks with the most protein — no label-squinting required. Scan a product and ask how it compares to alternatives. It is the difference between an AI that waits for you to explain the world and one that can simply look at the world with you. And when Meta AI powered by Muse Spark comes to our AI glasses, the assistant will be able to better see and understand the world around you.

Multimodal perception is especially valuable for health. With Muse Spark, Meta AI is now able to help you navigate health questions with more detailed responses, including some questions involving images and charts. Health is one of the top reasons people turn to AI, so we worked with a team of physicians to develop the model’s ability to provide helpful information on common health questions and concerns.

Muse Spark excels at visual coding, letting you create custom websites and mini-games straight from a prompt. Ask Meta AI to build a dashboard for planning a big surprise party, spin up a retro arcade game to chase a high score, or launch a whimsical flight simulator — and share any of them with friends.

Ask Meta AI: It’s Plugged Into What You Care About

Meta AI can now help you discover what to wear, how to style a room, or what to buy for someone you know. Shopping mode draws from the styling inspiration and brand storytelling already happening across our apps, surfacing ideas from the creators and communities people already follow.

And when you are looking up a place to go or a topic that is trending, Meta AI surfaces rich and relevant context right alongside the conversation. Tap into a location and see public posts from locals who know the area. Ask what people are buzzing about and get the full picture, pulled from content and community posts. It is context from your people, right where you need it.

Looking Ahead

The Meta AI app and meta.ai will have the upgraded experience with Instant and Thinking modes everywhere they are available today. The new Meta AI features are starting to roll out in the US on both. In the coming weeks, we will bring these new modes and capabilities to more countries and to the places where people use Meta AI, including Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and our AI glasses — where these perception capabilities become even more powerful. We are also opening access to the underlying technology. It will be available in private preview via API to select partners, and we hope to open-source future versions of the model.

This is only the start. As we expand these features, expect richer, more visual results, with Reels, photos, and posts woven directly into your answers, with credit back to the content creators. And as our models improve, we’ll continue to build safeguards for things like safety and privacy, starting with the strengthened risk framework and other protections we’re sharing today.

The future of Meta AI is rooted in the relationships and context already at the center of your life. We are building toward personal superintelligence — an AI that does not just answer your questions but truly understands your world because it is built on it.


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From Import Dependency to Local Capacity: Nigeria’s Tech Manufacturing Journey

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The recent escalation in the US-Israel conflict with Iran has delivered a sharp reminder of Nigeria’s economic vulnerability. As oil prices surged past $100 per barrel and fuel costs climbed by 35% at Nigerian pumps, a troubling paradox emerged: Nigeria, a major crude oil producer with Africa’s largest privately-owned refinery now operational, still found itself buffeted by global energy shocks originating thousands of miles away.

From Import Dependency to Local Capacity: Nigeria's Tech Manufacturing Journey

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The closure of the Strait of Hormuz and resulting disruptions to global energy markets exposed the deeper structural challenge facing Nigeria’s economy. Despite domestic crude production and the operational Dangote Refinery, Nigeria has struggled with rising inflation, which reached approximately 27% in 2025. The crisis illuminated an uncomfortable truth: decades of import dependency have left Nigeria’s economy precariously exposed to external shocks, even in sectors where the country possesses natural advantages.

This vulnerability extends beyond energy. Nigeria’s technology sector offers a particularly instructive case study in the costs of import reliance, and the transformative potential of local capacity as the pathway to economic stability and technological sovereignty.

Against this backdrop, Zinox Technologies stands as a compelling counternarrative. Founded in 2001 by technology entrepreneur Leo Stan Ekeh, Zinox operates West Africa’s only computerized digital assembly plant. As Nigeria’s first indigenous computer manufacturer, Zinox demonstrates what becomes possible when vision, investment, and commitment to local capacity converge.

The company’s reach extends beyond traditional computing. Zinox’s innovation spans renewable energy through iPower and home electronics with iTEC, addressing Nigeria’s chronic power challenges with locally-assembled solar solutions and backup systems designed for Nigerian conditions. This diversification reflects sophisticated understanding: true technological sovereignty requires integrated capabilities.

Zinox’s journey offers a clear case study in how indigenous companies can drive transformation. By focusing on local assembly and manufacturing of computer hardware and digital devices, the company has contributed to building a domestic technology ecosystem that supports government institutions, educational systems, and private enterprises. This approach not only reduces reliance on foreign imports but also creates jobs, transfers knowledge, and strengthens national capacity.

The implications are significant. Every locally assembled device represents a step away from foreign exchange exposure. It also signals a shift in mindset — from consumption to production. In a country where demand for technology continues to rise, especially with the acceleration of digital adoption, the importance of local manufacturing cannot be overstated.

Beyond economics, there is also a strategic dimension. Technology is no longer just a commercial tool; it is a defense tool and a national asset. Countries that control their technology supply chains are better positioned to innovate, secure their data, and compete globally. In this context, companies like Zinox are not merely businesses; they are enablers of national development.

Furthermore, local capacity development has a multiplier effect. It stimulates ancillary industries such as logistics, retail, maintenance, and technical services. It also fosters entrepreneurship, as more Nigerians gain access to affordable and reliable technology tools needed to participate in the digital economy.

Yet, while progress has been made, there is still work to be done. Scaling local manufacturing requires sustained policy support, infrastructure investment, and a deliberate focus on skills development. It also calls for stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors to create an environment where indigenous innovation can thrive.

Encouragingly, the momentum is building. There is a growing recognition that Nigeria must move beyond being a consumer market to becoming a production hub. This shift is not only necessary, it is urgent. Global uncertainties will continue to test economies, and only those with strong internal capabilities will remain resilient.

The current global crisis offers clarity. If the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened or supply chains to imports are fractured, only countries with strong domestic manufacturing capacity will weather the storm. Those dependent on imports suffer disproportionately.

The story of Zinox Technologies underscores what is possible. It shows that with the right mix of vision and execution, Nigeria can chart a new course, one defined by self-reliance, innovation, and sustainable growth. As the country navigates an increasingly complex global landscape, the message is clear: the future belongs to economies that build, not just buy.


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