General News
Piracy Hinders Investment in Nigeria-Takang
Dr. Armstrong A. Takang, managing director/chief executive officer of TSC Limited Nigeria, has over 15 years of worldwide experience in the provision of ICT consulting, project management and implementation services across multiple industry segments. He has worked and provided consulting services for such reputable organizations across the globe and in Nigeria provided consulting services to Intel, Microsoft, The World Bank Group, The European Commission, Federal Government of Nigeria, United Bank for Africa (UBA), One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation, Lagos State Government and so on. Takang spoke to Hilary okeke
Local Content and Software Development
First, let me start by talking generally about software and then I will come to discussing how we can leverage on local content. There are different areas of software development. One area is software systems – software products that are designed to control different systems; for instance, Microsoft Vista Operating System, used in controlling the activities within a computer. You also have embedded systems – such as intelligent systems embedded in our cars, phones. These typically are within the category of operating systems and are driven by the device manufacturers. The second category of software is software applications. In other words, these are software products that automate different business processes.
For instance, the productivity tool, word processing, presentation, spreadsheets – Microsoft Office. These are software applications because they automate the whole processes on a computer. You also have accounting applications used by accountants to run business. The important area is content; content that is produced using software platforms. If you look at digitising content for primary or secondary school or language based, religious based or politics based content, to enlighten our people; typically you will use different software platforms to do that. That is a third area where you can apply software. So within that spectrum, where do we believe that a lot of our indigenous companies can play a big role? They can play a big role across the 3 categories of software which is the Operating Systems, the Software applications and the Content. Where we believe the greatest opportunities exist for indigenous companies is building software for content – Nigerian content. That is the area where they have the greatest advantage. If you have a foreign company come here, they do not have as much knowledge and a good grasp of the peculiarities of our environment as much as the indigenous companies. So, content is the area where we believe a lot of the efforts; a lot of the awareness; a lot of the investments need to be driven to ensure that the Nigerian companies are well positioned to develop the content that can be used in different areas – schools, offices, social networking, learning, processing of transactions on the Internet, among others.
How to Achieve Local Content
There are different ways that can be achieved. First, Government has to play a key role in creating awareness that the software industry is one that is critically important for the development of the Nigerian economy. This has to become part of Government’s mandate; they need to focus a lot on enlightening Nigeria, enlightening companies in Nigeria about the opportunities that exist in that area. The second thing that has to happen is that a lot Nigerian companies themselves need to step up to the game to understand what it takes to play in that area; carve out a niche for themselves, build the resource base, have the capacity in terms of the people who are skilled and have the tools to actively participate in that sector. The third thing that has to happen is that there is a need to create the right financial structures and enabling environment for our financial institutions to invest in that sector. Unfortunately, a lot of them do not understand it and in investment, the golden rule is that if you do not understand an area, do not invest in it. Until when that is applied in the software sector, a lot of the investment companies or banks are reluctant in making investments there since they do not understand that business mode. So there is the need to enlighten the banks so that they would be able to invest in it because without that type of investment in that sector, it would be difficult to achieve the kind of objectives or targets that we need to achieve as a nation. The individual companies may have the skill sets, they have the intellect to do that work, but like every other business, you need the capital investment to grow at the skill that you need to grow; you need the capital investment to form and sustain a viable entity that develop these products and be able to ensure that they succeed out there in the market. So, lack of financial backup is a big challenge. The other challenge is really a re-orientation of the Nigerian consumer. Generally, Nigerian consumers thinks that a made in Nigeria product is of inferior quality compared to one that is made outside Nigeria. We have to be very honest with ourselves. This is a key barrier and needs to be properly addressed.
Protecting Intellectual Property
There are laws in place in place that to some extent, amend to curb the abuse of intellectual property, which is going to be a key determinant of success of the Software industry. There is a lot more that has to be done and I would say that there is no one size fits all approach – there has to be multiple approaches to curb the piracy issue. There is the issue of technology which can also be used to curb piracy. The second aspect of it is actually the legal and regulatory framework that is needed and the ability to enforce those laws because it is one thing having a law and it is another thing enforcing those laws and for people to be aware that if they break that law, they would be penalized accordingly. Government has a key role to play, not really the industry. The penalty for technology industry players found guilty of Software piracy should be stiffer than that for individual consumers because the effects of a corporate entity pirating Software is usually several times more than the effect of an individual doing the same thing. The ability to stop piracy would greatly determine whether or not people are going to invest in that area because nobody wants to spend hundred of millions of Naira to develop a product that someone else can just copy within an hour or two and start replicating them, making money. So, clearly the law needs to change to be able to address that challenge; that is critical and needs to be done.
Competent IT Workforce in Nigeria
The first one is to really go back to our educational institutions and ensure that we have programmes in place which would enable those institutions produce high quality human capital through influencing the curriculum in terms of the content of the courses that they teach, determining the type of project works that are given to those students so that they can actually gain relevant practical experience from those project works. We also need to ensure that those educational institutions have close working relationship with the private sector – the industry, so that they would have an opportunity of actually spending some time in those private companies to understand how the real world works. There is always a risk that a lot of people in the academia are out of touch because they really do not live in the real world. So, they need to create exchange programmes not only for the students but also for the lecturers themselves to give them the opportunity to work in the industry; in private sector companies and that is a good way of strengthening the educational institutions. Secondly, for those that are already out of the educational institutions and are out there in the job market, what can we do for them? There is a programme that we have been advocating which we call ‘Technology Finishing School’ whereby Nigerian youth are being given an opportunity to be exposed to technology, not only as consumers but as producers. They become a part of the supply side of it; they would have the knowledge, skills and tools to fully participate in the Information and Communications Technology area as the service providers. In that case, you do not need to have an Engineering or Science background to be part of it because the beauty of the ICT sector is that it welcomes contributions from people with diverse academic backgrounds. The Finishing school would provide an opportunity for Nigerians from diverse academic background and profile, to be merged into the ICT industry whereby they would have something to contribute to the pool of knowledge. What would be required is for them to be given some basic grounding in that area so that they can do well in that space. The third thing that needs to be done is really using the whole concept of catching them young. We need to develop a technology culture from primary school. We need to ensure that the technology culture is imbibed by the teacher, the students as well as the administrators. Sooner than later, literacy is going to be redefined not in terms of whether or not you can read and write, but in your ability to use the computer to carry out various operations. And so, we need to re-orientate the educational system to ensure that the effective use of technology becomes part and parcel of learning in primary school, teaching, as well as administering in those schools. The Technology Finishing School is created for those who have graduated in diverse areas and are interested in upgrading their technology capability. Technology is introduced to these kids as early as Primary One so that by the time they are through with Primary school, the use of technology is part of them – it becomes equivalent to being able to read and write. That way, those who want to specialize in specific areas such as Software Engineering, Programming, Designing; would already have some basic grounding to be able to do that. Even if they do not go to the University, they already have a lot to offer and if we can do that, we have created a critical mass that is needed to serve as a feeder system into the industry to enable us have not only the number of people who are qualified but the quality of those people to fully participate in that industry, not only within Nigeria but also outside the country. Our view is that there is a lot Government can do in creating or at least, catalyzing the uptake of the Technology Finishing School programme. It does not necessarily have to be the one to conduct those programmes, but what Government can do is to actually provide the enabling environment and incentives for private sector operators to take ownership of that and operate those schools.
General News
FG New Approves Biometric Passenger Verification System for Airports Security

Federal government has signed a concession agreement for the deployment of a contactless biometric passenger verification system across Nigeria’s domestic airports.

The initiative, known as VPASS, is designed to strengthen aviation security, improve data integrity and boost revenue generation.
Festus Keyamo, minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, said the agreement followed the concurrence of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, the Attorney-General of the Federation and approval by the Federal Executive Council.
Keyamo said the system will eliminate discrepancies in passenger records, curb unauthorized boarding and ensure all domestic air travellers are properly identified, closing existing gaps in standard identification procedures.
General News
STBMAN, NBC Bicker over Alleged Due Process Breaches

Association of Licensed Set-Top Box Manufacturers of Nigeria (STBMAN) has waxed worriedly over the National Broadcasting Commission’s (NBC) repeated violations of due process in managing the country’s Digital Switch Over (DSO) project.

In a statement released in Abuja, Sir Godfrey Ohuabunwa, chairman, STBMAN, stated that the NBC’s actions are slowing down Nigeria’s transition from analogue to digital broadcasting and discouraging local investors who have committed resources to the project.
Ohuabunwa noted that Nigeria began serious discussions on DSO in 2008, yet 17 years later, the country has made little progress, while nations that once sought Nigeria’s assistance have completed their own transitions.
“STBMAN has repeatedly called for the protection of local manufacturers, strict compliance with the federal government’s White Paper on DSO, and full respect for the rule of law, but these calls have been ignored,” Ohuabunwa said.
The NBC’s alleged plan to import hybrid set-top boxes from China has been criticized by STBMAN, which says this move disregards the heavy investments already made by licensed Nigerian manufacturers and contradicts the President’s directive to prioritize locally made products.
“The manufacturers have invested in equipment, technology upgrades, and workforce training, expecting government support and policy stability,”he added.
General News
REVEALED: How Nigeria’s Energy Crisis is Driven by Debt and Global Forces

By Blaise Udunze
For months, Nigerians have argued in circles. Aliko Dangote has been blamed by default. They have accused his refinery of monopoly power, of greed, of manipulation. They have pointed out the rising price of petrol and demanded a villain.

When examined closely, the truth is uncomfortable, layered, and deeply geopolitical because the real story is not at the fuel pump and this is what Nigerians have been missing unknowingly. The truth is that the real story is happening behind closed doors, across continents, inside financial systems most citizens never see and the actors will prefer that the people are kept in the dark. And once you see it, the outrage shifts. The questions deepen. The implications expand far beyond Nigeria.
In October 2024, it was obvious and clear that the world would have noticed that Nigeria made a move that should have dominated global headlines, but didn’t. Clearly, this was when the government of President Bola Tinubu introduced a quiet but radical policy, which is the Naira-for-Crude. The idea was simple and revolutionary. Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, would allow domestic refineries to purchase crude oil in naira instead of U.S. dollars. On the surface, it looked like economic reform. In reality, it was something far more consequential. It was a challenge to the global financial order.
For decades, oil has been traded almost exclusively in dollars, reinforcing the dominance of the United States in global finance. By attempting to refine its own oil using its own currency, Nigeria was not just making a policy adjustment. It was testing the boundaries of economic sovereignty. And in today’s world, sovereignty, especially when it touches money, debt, and energy, comes with consequences.
What followed was not loud. There were no emergency broadcasts or dramatic policy reversals. Instead, the response was quiet, bureaucratic, and devastatingly effective just to undermine the processes. Nigeria produces over 1.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, though pushing for 3 million by 20230, yet when the Dangote Refinery requested 15 cargoes of crude for September 2024 what it received was only six from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC), which means its yield for a refinery with such capacity will be low if nothing is done. Come to think of it, between January and August 2025, Nigerian refineries collectively requested 123 million barrels of domestic crude but received just 67 million, which by all indications showed a huge gap. It is a contradiction and at the same time, laughable that an oil-producing nation could not supply its own refinery with its own oil.
So where was the crude going? The answer exposes a deeper, more uncomfortable truth about Nigeria’s economic reality. The crude was being sold on the international market for dollars. Those dollars were then used, almost immediately, to service Nigeria’s growing mountain of external debt. Loans owed to the same institutions, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank had to be paid, which are the same institutions applauding this government. Nigeria was not prioritizing domestic industrialization; it was prioritizing debt repayment.
And the scale of that debt is no longer abstract. Nigeria’s total debt stock is now projected to rise from N155.1 trillion to N200 trillion, following an additional $6 billion loan request by President Tinubu, hurriedly approved by the Senate. At an exchange rate of N1,400 to the dollar, that single loan adds N8.4 trillion to a debt stock that already stood at N146.69 trillion at the end of 2025. This is not just a fiscal statistic. It is the central pressure shaping every major economic decision in the country.
On paper, the government can point to rising revenue, improving foreign exchange inflows, and stronger fiscal discipline as witnessed when the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, always touted the foreign reserves growth. But a closer review of those numbers reveals a harsher reality. Nigeria is exporting its most valuable resource, converting it into dollars, and sending those dollars straight back out to creditors. The crude leaves. The dollars come in. The dollars leave again. And the cycle repeats.
This is not growth. This is a treadmill powered by debt. Let us not forget that in the middle of that treadmill sits a $20 billion refinery, built to solve Nigeria’s energy dependence, now trapped within the very system it was meant to escape.
By 2025, the contradiction had become impossible to ignore, which is a fact. This is because how can this be explained that the Dangote Refinery, designed to reduce reliance on imports, was increasingly dependent on them. The narrative is that in 2024, Nigeria imported 15 million barrels of crude from America, which is disheartening to mention the least. More troubling is that by 2025, that number surged to 41 million barrels, a 161 percent increase. By mid-2025, approximately 60 percent of the refinery’s feedstock was coming from American crude. As of early 2026, Nigerian crude accounted for only about 30 to 35 percent, which was actually confirmed by Aliko Dangote.
The visible contradiction in this situation is that the refinery built to free Nigeria from dollar dependence was running largely on dollar-denominated imports. Not because the oil did not exist locally, but because the system, shaped by debt obligations and global financial structures, made it more practical to export crude for dollars than to refine it domestically, which leads us to several other covert concerns.
Faced with this troubling reality, there is one major issue that still needs to be answered. This is why Dangote pushed back by filing a N100 billion lawsuit against the NNPC and major oil marketers. He further accused the parties involved of failing to prioritize domestic refining. For a brief moment, one will think that the confrontation, as it appeared, was underway is one that could redefine the balance between state control and private industrial ambition, but these expectations never saw the light of day.
Yes, it never saw the light of day because on July 28, 2025, the lawsuit was quietly withdrawn. No press conferences. No public explanation. No confirmed settlement. Just silence.
There are only a few plausible or credible explanations. As a practice and well-known in the country, institutional pressure may have made continued confrontation untenable. A strategic compromise may have been reached behind closed doors. Or the realities of the system itself may have made victory impossible, regardless of the merits of the case. None of these scenarios suggests a system operating with full autonomy or aligned national interest. All of them point to constraints, political, economic, or structural, that extend far beyond a single company.
Then came the shock that changed everything.
On February 28, 2026, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting a channel through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply flows. Prices surged past $100 per barrel. Global markets entered crisis mode. Supply chains are fractured. Countries dependent on Middle Eastern fuel suddenly had nowhere to turn.
And they turned to Nigeria. Nations like South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya began seeking fuel supplies from the Dangote Refinery. The same refinery that had been starved of crude, forced into dollar-denominated imports, and entangled in domestic disputes suddenly became the most strategically important energy asset on the African continent.
Nigeria did not plan for this. It did not negotiate for this. With this development, the world had no choice but simply run out of options, and Lagos became the fallback.
And then, almost immediately, attention shifted. This swiftly prompted in early 2026, a United States congressional report to recommend applying pressure on Nigeria’s trade relationships within Africa. Shortly after, on March 16, 2026, the United States launched a Section 301 trade investigation into multiple economies, including Nigeria. This is not a sanction, but it is the legal foundation for one. At the same time, the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which had provided duty-free access to U.S. markets for decades, was allowed to expire in 2025 without renewal.
The sequence is difficult to ignore. As Nigeria’s strategic importance rose, so did external scrutiny. As its potential for regional energy leadership increased, so did the instruments of economic pressure.
To understand why, you must look at the system itself. The global economy runs on the U.S. dollar, which the Iranian government tried to scuttle by implementing a policy that requires oil cargo tankers being transported via the Strait of Hormuz to be made in Yuan. Most countries need dollars to trade, to import essential goods, to access global markets. The infrastructure that enforces this is the SWIFT financial network, which connects banks across the world. Control over this system confers enormous power. Countries that step too far outside it risk exclusion, and exclusion, in modern terms, means economic paralysis.
Nigeria’s attempt to trade crude in naira was not just a policy experiment. It was a subtle deviation from a system that rewards compliance and punishes independence. The response was not military. It did not need to be. It was structural. Limit domestic supply. Reinforce dollar dependence. Ensure that even attempts at independence remain tethered to the existing order.
And all the while, the debt clock continues to tick. N155.1 trillion.
That number is not just a fiscal burden. It is leverage. It shapes policy. It influences decisions and it also determines priorities, which tells you that when a nation is deeply indebted, its room to maneuver shrinks. In all of this, one thing that must be understood is that choices that might favor long-term sovereignty are often sacrificed for short-term stability. Debt does not just demand repayment. It demands alignment.
Back home, Nigerians remain focused on the most visible symptom, which is fuel prices. Unbeknownst to most Nigerians, they argue, protest, and assign blame while the forces shaping those prices include global currency systems, sovereign debt obligations, trade pressures, and geopolitical realignments. The price at the pump is not the cause. It is the consequence.
Nigeria now stands at an intersection defined not by scarcity, but by contradiction. What is more alarming is that it produces vast amounts of crude oil, yet struggles to supply its own refinery. It earns more in dollar terms, yet its citizens feel poorer. It builds infrastructure meant to ensure independence, yet operates within constraints that reinforce dependence. This is not a failure of resources and this is because there is a conflict or tension between what Nigeria wants, which reflects its ambition and structure, and between sovereignty and obligation.
And so the questions remain, growing louder with each passing month and might force Nigerians, when pushed to the wall, to begin demanding answers. If Nigeria has the oil, why is it importing crude? Further to this dismay, more questions arise, such as, why is the refinery paying in dollars if Naira-for-crude exists? One will also be forced to ask if the lawsuit had merit, why was it withdrawn without explanation? If revenues are rising, why is hardship deepening? And if Nigeria is merely a developing economy with limited influence, why is it attracting this level of global attention?
These are not abstract questions. They are the pressure points of a system that extends far beyond Nigeria’s borders.
Because this story is no longer just about one country. The reality is that perhaps unbeknownst to many, it is about the future of African economic independence. It is about the structure of global energy markets, the dominance of the dollar and the role of debt in shaping national destiny. Honestly, the question that comes to bear is that if Nigeria, with all its resources and scale, cannot fully align its production with its domestic needs, what does that imply for the rest of the continent?
The next time the conversation turns to petrol prices, something must shift. Because the number on the pump is not where this battle is being fought. It is being fought in allocation decisions, in debt negotiations, in regulatory frameworks, in international financial systems, and in quiet policy moves that rarely make headlines.
The Dangote Refinery is not just an industrial project. It is a test case. A test of whether a nation can truly control its own resources in a world where power is rarely exercised loudly, but always effectively. And right now, that test is still unfolding.
Blaise, a journalist and PR professional, writes from Lagos and can be reached via: [email protected]
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