General News
GE Attracts Foreign Investors to Nigeria
General Electric (GE), global infrastructure giants has attracted 3 Italian based investor-companies to Nigeria to explore partnership opportunities with indigenous Nigerian Engineering companies. The companies include Allimep, Duemme and Sime.
Their investment in Nigeria will help boost the capacity of indigenous engineering companies that will support GE’s operations in Nigeria. The move is in line with the Federal Government’s local content law which mandates that a substantial part of the operations of foreign companies in Nigeria must be localized.
To this end, GE has in the last one year held supplier fairs within and outside the country in sear of indigenous Nigerian companies and foreign ones that they can partner with to boost their operational capacity in supporting GE’s growing operations in Nigeria like the Calabar plant, which will be GE’s biggest investment in sub Saharan Africa. The facility will manufacture and assemble machinery for Nigeria’s Power and the Oil & Gas sectors.
Speaking at a dinner organized in honour of the visiting foreign companies, GE’s Supply Chain leader for Africa Phil Griffith said with this visit, the string of supplier fairs are beginning to pay off. According to Griffith GE remains resolutely committed to working with local companies and enhancing their capabilities to support GE’s operations in Nigeria.
Apart from being in line with Nigeria’s local content policy Griffith said GE believes that building local capabilities in all the places where GE does business was the right thing to do.
Speaking at the event, Ernest Nwakpa, executive secretary of the Nigerian Local Content Monitoring Board (NCDMB) commended GE’s localisation initiative, which he said was flagged off by the Country-to-Company agreement which GE signed with the Federal Government to partner with other stakeholders in bridging Nigeria’s infrastructure gaps in critical sectors like Oil & Gas, Power, Transportation, Healthcare and Aviation. Nwakpa said other multinational companies had a lot to learn from GE’s holistic approach to local content.
He said the visit of the Italian companies and GE’s increased investments in Nigeria was ample evidence that Nigeria was a fertile ground for foreign direct investment.
Speaking on behalf of the Italian companies, Matteo Bertolini, chief executive officer of Sime Engineering said they were pleasantly surprised at the technical depth of the Nigerian companies they would be partnering with in supporting GE’s facilities in the country.
He said Sime was convinced about the potentials of the partnership and would commit resources to ensure that it has deep rooted tentacles in Nigeria.
Seun Faluyi, managing director of Global Ocean Engineers Limited, a Nigerian company and one of GE’s suppliers applauded the initiative of facilitating partnerships between Nigerian companies and their foreign counterparts in building adequate capacity.
He said it was very inspiring to see a foreign multinational like GE invest tremendous resources to improve the capacity of local companies that will ultimately support GE operations in Nigeria.
Chinonso Akujobi, former staff of Access Bank in Lagos, has been remanded in Ikoyi prison after she was arraigned on a five-count charge bordering on stealing to the tune of N294.5m.
Akujobi who is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was arraigned before Justice I.O. Ijelu of the State High Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos.
EFCC alleged that Akujobi stole the money between January and December 2025 while under the employment of Access Bank Plc.
As stated in one the charges, the defendant stole the money through unauthorized payments from the general ledger of Access Bank to her account number 0036668871 with the name Chinonso A., Uchechi A. and Florence A., thereby committing an offence of stealing, contrary to Section 280 and punishable under Section 287 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The defendant pleaded “not guilty“ to the charges when they were read to her.
In view of this, S.M.Yabo, prosecution counsel, asked the court for a trial date and also prayed for the remand of the defendant in a Correctional centre.
Justice Ijelu, thereafter, adjourned the case till October 8, 2026, for the hearing of the bail application and the commencement of trial.
The Judge also ordered that the defendant be remanded in the Ikoyi correctional Centre.
The Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) says the flight captain of the VMO Aero aircraft that landed on a roadway near Asaba Airport in Delta State told investigators that the observer pilot mistakenly identified the paved road as the runway before touchdown.
The bureau disclosed this in a preliminary report released on Thursday on the June 10 incident, which prompted the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to ground the private jet.
The aircraft had seven people on board, including the pilot-in-command (PIC), second-in-command (SIC), an observer pilot, a cabin crew member and three passengers.
According to the report, the aircraft was cleared by Air Traffic Control (ATC) to approach Runway 11 at Asaba Airport after the crew requested a right orbit.
The crew initially discontinued the approach, executed a missed approach and repositioned for a second landing attempt.
NSIB said the crew reported that the aircraft’s navigation systems indicated it was correctly established on the published RNAV Runway 11 approach.
“The PIC and SIC reported that the observer pilot identified the paved surface ahead as the runway,” the report stated.
However, the observer pilot gave investigators a different version of events.
According to NSIB, he said the aircraft remained inside cloud until late in the approach and that the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) repeatedly issued “TERRAIN, TERRAIN, PULL UP” alerts.
He also said he observed a telecommunications mast directly ahead and instructed the flight captain to abandon the approach and climb immediately.
The bureau further disclosed that a cabin crew member reported that one of the passengers became concerned after overhearing discussions among the pilots and asked whether one of them was undergoing training. The passenger was reportedly reassured that all three pilots on board were experienced captains.
NSIB said no abnormal events were reported in the cabin before touchdown.
The aircraft eventually landed at about 8:57 a.m. on an under-construction paved roadway near Asaba Airport instead of the designated runway.
The bureau said its investigation into the incident is ongoing, while the preliminary report highlights conflicting accounts among the cockpit crew over the circumstances that led to the erroneous landing.
European Union has warned Meta Platforms Inc. that it could face a significant financial penalty unless it changes what regulators describe as the “addictive design” features of Facebook and Instagram.
The European Commission issued the warning in preliminary findings released on Friday, saying Meta had failed to sufficiently address risks posed by its platforms, particularly to children and vulnerable users.
The Commission said features such as infinite scrolling, personalised content recommendations and automatic video playback were designed in ways that encouraged excessive engagement with the platforms.
EU Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna Virkkunen, said protecting the physical and mental well-being of European citizens should be a priority for social media companies.
The Commission said Meta should consider introducing design changes, including disabling autoplay and infinite scrolling by default, providing effective screen-time reminders and adjusting recommendation systems to reduce the focus on maximising user engagement.
The findings were issued under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which sets obligations for major online platforms to address risks associated with their services.
Meta, however, rejected the Commission’s conclusions, saying it disagreed with the findings but would continue engaging with European regulators.
The company said it had already implemented measures aimed at protecting younger users, including Teen Accounts that allow parents to manage screen time limits and restrict access during night hours.
The EU said its investigation, which began in 2024, found that existing time-management tools on Facebook and Instagram could easily be bypassed, while parental controls required technical knowledge that limited their effectiveness.
Regulators also expressed concerns over children’s nighttime use of the platforms and the possibility that features such as Reels and Stories could encourage compulsive behaviour.
If the Commission’s preliminary findings are confirmed, Meta could face a fine of up to six per cent of its annual global revenue under the DSA.
The warning comes as the EU steps up efforts to strengthen online safety measures for children, with an expert panel established by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expected to present recommendations on protecting minors online.
Several EU member states, including France, have also supported discussions on restricting social media access for children, following Australia’s decision to ban users under 16 from accessing social media platforms.
Meanwhile, the Commission is continuing a separate investigation into whether Meta’s recommendation algorithms create “rabbit hole” effects by directing users towards increasingly extreme content.
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