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Broadband Missing in FG’s $2Bn Stimulus Package

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When do you think the Nigerian economy will improve?

The answers differ; to some the economy is already on the mend but others think it will take much longer. In all, there is no concrete sign to suggest early recovery for the Nigerian economy hobbled by reckless loose ranting and misplaced priorities.

For instance, the latest plan by the government to take $2billion from its oil windfall fund for an economic stimulus package is wrong.

The package is not focused enough to make an impact because while economic stimulus packages in other countries have targeted infrastructure projects, job creation, and tax cuts for small businesses, the federal government said it will spend half of her own package cash on clearing the debts of federal government contractors.

The rest of the money is to be handed out to states and local authorities, the same crop of politicians who are partly responsible for the present economic chaos because of their record of corruption and financial impropriety. 

Removing money from the fund which currently holds about $9 billion and set up as a way to protect Nigeria’s economy from unpredictable movements in the oil price may also backfire if recovery in the global economy suffers a setback.

Like all governments of the world, the federal government should stimulate Nigeria’s economy through massive funding of broadband Internet or at least create the enabling environment.

Broadband is the lifeline of many businesses and it is the only uncharted arm of the country’s burgeoning telecommunications industry.

Nigeria should take a cue from the United States of America which has initiated a $7 billion stimulus programme to narrow the digital gap.

But that is not likely to happen here, no thanks to the claims and counter charges that greeted the initial attempt by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) to license four players to operate on the 2.3GHz band.

The 2.3GHz band is considered very important in the race leading up to the broadband revolution because it helps operators to provide mobile Internet that is potentially more transformative than any lone technological item.

It is about a new age in entertainment and communications, as well as a major boost for e-commerce. Voice will only be a value added service as opposed to what currently obtains in the telecom industry.

The irony is that the same government which is pumping $2 billion to improve her comatose economy is sitting idly as more than $2 billion investment in telecommunications and chance to “cheetah pole-vault” her economy is slipping away because of personalities clashes.

The clash over the 2.3GHz licensing began since April this year and is costing Nigeria dearly. With N5.6 billion for all the four spectrums on offer and a minimum investment of $500 million from each of the companies in the medium to long term in their nationwide rollout, Nigeria would have been insulated from the effect of the global recession.

The licensing process was entangled in controversy at the close of the bid when three companies: Mobitel Limited, Spectranet and Galaxy Wireless were said to have met the obligations and later Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) claimed that Galaxy Wireless did not pay up as at when due and allegedly attempted to replace them with Multilinks-Telkom.
 
Piqued by the torrents of the complaints, Dora Akunyili, minister of information and communications, cancelled the licenses citing improper bidding and auctioning process and ordered a fresh sale, a decision President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua upheld

While it lasted, the dispute threw up serious questions of fairness, accountability, transparency, due process and sad impression that public institutions cannot be trusted and that nothing is certain in official transactions.

And the immediate spin off of the web of confusion is the general lull in the telecom industry as investors watch with caution.

The general lull has also resulted in massive lay off of workers in the industry while vendors, suppliers and contractors bite their nails.

 

 


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Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

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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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