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Nigeria Unveils $618m Investment to Create Digital Skills, Jobs

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Nigeria has unveiled a $618 million investment programme, to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the digital, technology and creative industries targeted at job creation.

Nigeria vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who presided over the launch of the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (I-DICE) programme, revealed the project culminated from his conversation with Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, president of African Development Bank (AfDB), in South Africa five years ago.

Osinbajo said: “What you may not have been told is the incredible effort that Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, President of AfDB put into this to make it happen. The thinking came from a discussion he and I had in 2018 on how to leverage technology and industry for jobs for young people. He told me at the time that the AfDB was already thinking along the lines of committing some funding to some iteration of the idea.”

Fast-forward to Tuesday, the i-DICE programme was unveiled, aimed at upscaling entrepreneurship and innovation in digital technologies and creative industries.

“The fruit of that discussion and the hard work of many is what we witness here today. The fund as we were told is $618 million, out of which the AfDB provides $170 million, the Agence Française de Développement provides $100 million and the Islamic Development Bank will provide $70 million in co-financing,” said Osinbajo.

“The Bank of Industry, representing the federal government, will provide $45 million as a counterpart contribution, to be availed through loans for qualifying start-ups. And as we heard from the President of AfDB, we expect, by leveraging this fund, another maybe $271 million from the private sector and institutional investors.”

The I-DICE programme is anticipated to help to fill critical gaps in Nigeria by supporting enterprise and skills development, access to demand-driven digital and creative skills, entrepreneurship skills, ICT enabled infrastructure, as well as access to finance.

Turning point

Adesina said the I-DICE programme is set to be ‘a real game changer’ in Nigeria.

“It will help to create 6.1 million direct and indirect jobs and equip more than 175 000 young people with the technology and creative skills needed to drive innovation and foster entrepreneurship.

“To start with, I-DICE will support 451 digital technology start-ups, 226 creative enterprises and 75 enterprise support organisations. The benefits of the programme to Nigeria’s economy are projected to be worth $6.4 billion,” he said.

“Yes, we gather to launch the initiative, but what we are really launching is more than this. We are launching hope for the youth. We are launching platforms that will enhance the ability and capacity of Nigeria’s youth to thrive. We are launching the creation of millions of jobs.

“We are retooling Nigeria to be more competitive in an increasingly digital world. We are creating hope for a new Nigeria, driven by the power of the youth.”

Adesina said the size of Africa’s digital economy will rise from $115 billion today to $712 billion by 2050, hence the need to prepare young people.

“Most of this growth is already being driven by four countries, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt,” he said.

“We are already witnessing in Nigeria the power of digital technologies, tools and platforms. Nigeria currently has five out of the 11 digital companies that have reached the status of unicorn, with a market valuation exceeding $1 billion. Names that come to mind include Jumia, Interswitch, Opay, Flutterwave and Andela, mainly in the fintech space.”

Further, Adesina said the AfDB is ‘making great strides’ in empowering youth on the continent.

From 2016 to 2021, he said, the ADB supported the creation of over 12 million jobs, 3.1 million of which were direct and nine million indirect.

He explained: “This has been made possible through our high employment impact operations and special initiatives in key sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and financial sectors, as well as in the digital and creative industries.

“Additionally, the Bank’s Coding for Employment programme has provided onsite centres and digital training platforms that have equipped 23 200 youth from 45 countries with the skills needed to succeed in the digital job market.

“We have invested $2 billion in 37 tech projects to improve national and regional broadband infrastructure, foster private investment, and support digital enterprises.”

Looking ahead, Adesina said: “The African Development Bank is currently designing and will soon roll out youth entrepreneurship investment banks, new financial institutions that will build robust financial ecosystems around the businesses of young people across Africa.”

 


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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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Meet the 39-Year-Old Genius Replacing Oloyede at JAMB

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President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has appointed 39‑year‑old Professor Segun Aina as the new Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), succeeding Professor Is‑haq Oloyede whose two‑term tenure expires on July 31, 2026.

Meet the 39-Year-Old Genius Replacing Oloyede at JAMB

Professor Segun Aina

Aina, who will turn 40 in July, will become the youngest registrar in JAMB’s history, marking a generational shift in the leadership of Nigeria’s premier tertiary‑admissions body.

In a statement issued in Abuja by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the new registrar was described as a distinguished academic and systems expert with extensive experience in national examination systems, digital infrastructure and public‑sector institutional reform.

A professor of Computer Engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile‑Ife, Aina holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Kent, an MSc in Internet Computing and Network Security and a PhD in Digital Signal Processing, both from Loughborough University, United Kingdom. He also completed the Senior Management Programme at Lagos Business School.

His early career with JAMB began during his National Youth Service Corps scheme, where he gained foundational experience in national admissions and data‑driven institutional processes; those insights have since shaped his contributions to examination reform and systems optimisation.

At 39, Aina became one of Nigeria’s youngest professors of Computer Engineering and has advised federal and state governments on system design, digital transition and operational reform, while also consulting major examination bodies such as NECO and NABTEB on ICT systems and examination integrity.

He is a member of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

President Tinubu expects Aina to leverage his experience, knowledge and practical insight to further strengthen JAMB’s operations and to build on the achievements recorded under Professor Oloyede’s leadership.


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