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GSI Raises Alarm over Growing Slavery in Nigeria

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Child labour is also an issue,
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Nigeria has an estimated number 740,000 people in slavery despite her massive oil reserves and recent plans for rapid socio-economic development, according to Global Slavery Index 2013 which provides a ranking of 162 countries around the world.

The index based on a combined measure of three factors: estimated prevalence of modern slavery by population, a measure of child marriage, and a measure of human trafficking in and out of a country, stated that about 60% of the Nigerian population lives at, or below the poverty line with the average income at US$1 per day.

This widespread poverty, rabid urbanization, exponential population growth coupled with the lack of enforcement of legal instruments and high levels of crime and corruption increases the vulnerability of Nigerians – particularly children – to various forms of modern slavery, both within and outside the borders of Nigeria.

Child labour is also an issue, where high levels of poverty and unemployment means children are more likely to be forced to work to outside their family network to support themselves and their family. 8

The majority of enslaved Nigerians are subjected to forced labour and sexual exploitation within the country, throughout Africa and overseas in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

There is a connection between people recruited in rural areas and vulnerability to modern slavery, as women and children from these areas often do not have access to accurate information regarding the position for which they are applying.

Often, once they arrive at their new job, they are subjected to domestic servitude and sexual exploitation, particularly in neighbouring regions of Africa. 9 A large number of children in particular are exploited in this manner.

According to the index, Nigerian women and girls represent a large proportion of women enslaved in Europe for commercial sexual exploitation, with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimating that in Italy alone, between 10,000 and 12,000 Nigerian women have been enslaved in the sex industry.

In addition to sexual exploitation, many Nigerians – particularly men and boys – are in forced labour and exploited in street vending, domestic service, mining, stone quarrying, agriculture or begging.

Nigeria has high numbers of child labourers, with an estimated 47% of children aged 4- 15 in child labour. Nigeria has been highlighted in the 2010 Child Labour Index as being one of 68 countries of ‘extreme risk’ of the most widespread abuse of child workers, with a ranking of eighth on the Index.

Children take part in many different forms of labour, including mining (particularly for solid minerals like coal, cassiterite, kaolin, gypsum, columbite, gold, gemstones, barites, graphite, marble and tantalite) and stone quarrying, domestic service and cocoa harvesting.

Children are also vulnerable to domestic servitude through the traditional practice of child-fosterage. Evidence suggests that families in rural areas send their children to work as domestic helpers in homes of wealthier families in cities, in exchange for board and education.

In recent times, traffickers (“agents”) have taken advantage of this practice to recruit children and “farm” them to employers for wages that are meant for the children, and remit a small percentage of the wages either to the parents or teenagers among them.16 Many of these children are physically, mentally and sexually abused and denied access to any education.

The index advised that Nigeria should recognise that Boko Haram is using forced marriage and sexual slavery as a weapon of fear and social control. Nigerian response to Boko Haram should be the intensification of efforts to eradicate Boko Haram and other terrorist groups.
   
It also urged Nigeria to intensify efforts to pursue modern slavery investigations and prosecutions, including trafficking and forced labour; as well as intensify current efforts at training  police and immigration officials to identify victims of modern slavery among vulnerable populations, such as young women  and children.


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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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