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MTN Renews Fight against Fraudsters

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MTN has again alerted its subscribers to the activities of fraudsters who are currently contacting unsuspecting subscribers across the country in attempts to dupe them.
Wale Goodluck, corporate services executive, MTN Nigeria said that fraudsters seeking to dupe members of the public have progressed from sending text messages to calling up unsuspecting subscribers, and informing them they have won cash and other gifts.
 In addition, unsuspecting members of the public are being asked to part with some form of consideration in the form of cash or airtime, in order to redeem their gifts. In many instances, victims have also been asked to provide personal and financial information.
It will be recalled that this is the second press conference this year that MTN Nigeria has called to address this issue.
“This is a new twist to existing fraudulent schemes wherein certain individuals rely on text messages to attempt to con unsuspecting subscribers out of their money. Calls are now being made, usually with withheld numbers by these individuals who are intent on luring subscribers to part with money or credit or give out information that can be used to dupe them,” said Akingbade.
He said the company had received a growing number of queries from subscribers seeking to find out the authenticity of such calls, emails and texts by people masquerading as MTN officials. “We wish to tell our valued customers that they should not fall prey to the antics of these fraudsters,” Goodluck said.
MTN officials, he stressed, would not request subscribers to send credit to them as part of the procedure for redeeming prizes won in a promotion. “Our officials will not ask you for personal information such as your account number, bank name and ATM number or PIN in order to process your winning in any of our promos,” he said.
According to him, MTN places high premium on the safety and well-being of its numerous subscribers and is committed to protecting them from the illegal activities of the con artists. “We are working with security operatives in the country to tackle this challenge. But more importantly, we have put in place a number of measures, including radio jingles in the three major languages and pidgin English, SMS warnings to our customers and advertorials in the national papers, to sensitize subscribers to this development and raise awareness level in order to ensure that these fraudsters are not successful in their illegal business. That is the best way to stop them.”
Bola Akingbade, chief marketing officer, on his part stressed that MTN as a matter of policy does not send text messages to winners of its promos, adding that instead; promo winners are usually called and directed to the nearest MTN office to redeem their prizes. In addition, he said the names of winners are published in national newspapers and on the company’s official website – www.mtnonline.com. He stressed that the company would never request any consideration, personal or bank information from any member of the public as a condition for receiving a prize.
According to Kola Oyeyemi, general manager, Brand and Consumer Marketing, MTN will not be discouraged by these criminal activities and will continue to launch various promotions in order to ‘reward and delight’ its customers. He however cautioned that the public should pay close attention to the conditions of each promotion and only respond to invitations to MTN offices.


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FG Unveils AI Public Services Platform

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Federal government has launched GovGuideNigeria, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered digital platform designed to streamline access to public service information through WhatsApp and the web.

The platform consolidates information from more than 35 federal ministries and over 60 government agencies, marking a significant step in Nigeria’s drive to expand AI-enabled public infrastructure and digital government services.

According to Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s minister of communications, innovation and digital economy, the initiative aims to simplify interactions with government services, particularly for underserved communities that often face challenges navigating complex public-sector systems.

Developed in collaboration with the National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Meta, and Publica AI, GovGuideNigeria uses conversational AI to provide real-time responses via WhatsApp and a web interface in English, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.

Sade Dada, head of public policy at Meta, said the multilingual rollout highlights the growing use of natural language processing within African public institutions to improve digital inclusion and broaden access to services.

Ignatius Willie, chief executive of Publica AI, said the platform demonstrates how Africa’s next generation of digital public infrastructure can be developed locally using African languages.

GovGuideNigeria is intended to address longstanding challenges in Nigeria’s public information system, where citizens often struggle to access reliable guidance because of fragmented government websites, poor communication channels and the expense of travelling to physical offices.

Through AI-driven automation, users can obtain information on immigration procedures, documentation requirements, public programmes and agency-specific services through chat-based interactions.

The launch also reflects Nigeria’s broader ambition to integrate AI into digital governance, while strengthening partnerships between government agencies, global technology companies and local AI startups to modernise public service delivery.


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Elon Musk to Become First World’s Trillionaire with SpaceX Historic IPO

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Elon Musk is poised to become the world’s first trillionaire after  SpaceX, his company, confirmed plans to go public.

Elon Musk to Become First World’s Trillionaire with SpaceX Historic IPO

Elon Musk

Because Musk owns the majority of the shares, it could push his net worth over the trillion dollar mark.

The entrepreneur is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and xAI.

Musk has been the wealthiest person in the world since 2025; as of May 2026, Forbes estimates his net worth to be $788 billion.

SpaceX has filed for a blockbuster public listing in the United States, paving the way for what could become the largest stock market debut in Wall Street history.

The company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, announced plans to begin trading under the ticker symbol “SPCX” as early as next month.

The listing values SpaceX at about $1.25 trillion, with Musk’s majority ownership potentially worth more than $600 billion alone.

Combined with his existing holdings in companies including Tesla, the IPO could push Musk’s personal wealth above the $1 trillion mark.

The long-awaited filing also offered investors a rare look into SpaceX’s finances.

The company reported $18.6 billion in revenue last year but recorded a net loss of $4.9 billion. In the first quarter of this year, SpaceX generated $4.7 billion in sales while posting a $4.3 billion net loss.

Financial disclosures showed the company holds $102 billion in assets, including rockets, launch infrastructure and satellite systems, while carrying debts totalling $60.5 billion.

Despite the losses, analysts suggested investors were unlikely to be deterred given SpaceX’s dominance in commercial space launches and satellite internet services.

Ruth Foxe-Blader, managing partner at Citrine Venture Partners, described the planned flotation as “extremely exciting.”

“SpaceX is just an absolutely sprawling, enormous project with so many different selling points, and so many points that really point to the future,” she said.

SpaceX operates the Starlink satellite internet network and also owns Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI.

The IPO filing revealed that xAI recently reached a major commercial agreement with rival AI company Anthropic, maker of the Claude chatbot.

Under the arrangement, Anthropic will reportedly pay $15 billion annually to access data centre infrastructure linked to xAI operations in the American South.

The filing also disclosed that SpaceX expects to incur more than half a billion dollars in legal costs from multiple ongoing lawsuits and regulatory disputes.

Among the cases listed were claims alleging that xAI’s chatbot Grok had been used to create sexualised deepfakes of women and girls, alongside patent infringement disputes, music copyright claims, data breach allegations and investigations into compliance with European Union content moderation rules.

Musk has previously said he plans to dissolve xAI as a standalone company and pursue his AI ambitions directly under SpaceX.

The filing came shortly after Musk lost a high-profile legal battle against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman.

Musk had accused OpenAI of abandoning its non-profit mission after shifting towards a commercial model, but a jury dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that he had waited too long to bring the claims.


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Moniepoint Boosts UK Payments Security

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African financial services platform Moniepoint has partnered with open banking software-as-a-service provider tell.money to deploy a transaction security system in the UK market.

The companies said the partnership will allow Moniepoint to implement Confirmation of Payee, an account name-checking service designed to verify recipient details before payments are processed.

The integration will be rolled out through Monieworld, Moniepoint’s UK remittance subsidiary, as part of the company’s broader European expansion strategy.

Tell.money will provide the underlying verification technology, which the companies said is intended to reduce misdirected payments and help protect users against cross-border fraud.

Ravi Jakhodia, CEO of Monieworld, said: “Our goal with Monieworld is to build financial services for Africans in the diaspora.”

He added that tell.money was selected because it manages compliance and accreditation requirements, allowing the fintech company to focus on customer service.

Moniepoint is entering a competitive UK-to-Africa remittance market that includes established providers such as Wise, WorldRemit and Remitly, as well as African fintech firms including Flutterwave’s Send App.

According to data from the World Bank’s KNOMAD programme, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are estimated at about $620 billion annually, with digital -first platforms capturing increasing market share through open banking integrations and automated compliance systems.

The rollout reflects a broader trend of African fintech firms expanding into developed markets by adopting local regulatory and open banking standards.

Industry analysts expect diaspora-focused platforms to evolve beyond money transfers into services such as multi-currency banking, credit and investment products.


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