Elon Musk, a billionaire internet entrepreneur, was held responsible by a federal jury in San Francisco for deceiving Twitter shareholders during his contentious $44 billion takeover of the social media site.

Elon Musk

Following a three-week trial in a federal court in California, the verdict was handed out on Friday.

It found that Musk had made false and misleading representations in tweets that were posted in May 2022.

The jury concluded that at a crucial point in the purchase process, these remarks caused Twitter’s share price to decline.

Investor Giuseppe Pampena filed the action on behalf of stockholders who sold their Twitter stock between mid-May and early October 2022, a time when Musk’s commitment to closing the purchase was questionable.

Jurors determined that Musk violated US securities laws prohibiting deceptive statements capable of influencing market prices.

Legal representatives for the plaintiffs estimate potential damages at approximately $2.6 billion, exposing Musk to a significant financial penalty if the ruling is upheld.

In order to give Musk leverage to renegotiate the purchase price or back out of the transaction, plaintiffs contended that the statements were meant to lower Twitter’s valuation.

Musk finished the transaction in October 2022 after Twitter filed a lawsuit to enforce the arrangement, despite early attempts to end it. Later, he changed the platform’s name to X.

The ruling has been disputed by Musk’s legal team, which has confirmed plans to appeal and described it as a temporary setback.

For Musk, who has won a number of well-known court cases, the decision represents a rare setback.

Meanwhile, he was cleared in a separate defamation case in Texas and had also won a similar shareholder lawsuit in 2023 related to his 2018 tweets about taking Tesla private.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have formalised a strategic partnership aimed at embedding financial literacy and anti-Ponzi education into the national service programme.

This is in a move to shield young Nigerians from the growing menace of fraudulent investment schemes.

The collaboration, sealed through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in Abuja, marks a significant step toward strengthening investor education at the grassroots level by targeting thousands of corps members annually.

The agreement was executed by Emomotimi Agama, director-general, SEC, and Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu, his NYSC counterpart, at the NYSC headquarters.

At the heart of the initiative is the integration of anti-Ponzi scheme campaigns into the NYSC’s Community Development Service (CDS), specifically under its Education and Enlightenment arm.

The move is designed not only to educate corps members on identifying fraudulent investment schemes but also to cultivate a culture of responsible and informed investing among Nigeria’s youth population.

Under the terms of the agreement, the SEC will spearhead the development of comprehensive educational materials and training modules covering capital market operations, safe investment practices, and strategies for identifying and avoiding Ponzi schemes.

The Commission will also fund and facilitate specialised training sessions for selected corps members and NYSC officials, who will, in turn, serve as facilitators within their host communities.

The NYSC, on its part, will ensure the seamless integration of these training modules into its existing CDS framework. This will include structured workshops, sensitisation campaigns during orientation camps, and continuous engagement throughout the service year.

By leveraging its nationwide presence across all local government areas, the scheme is expected to amplify awareness and significantly reduce the vulnerability of young Nigerians to financial fraud.

Both institutions also pledged to collaborate on extensive public awareness campaigns using a blend of traditional media, digital platforms, and grassroots outreach initiatives.

In addition, mechanisms will be established for data sharing and performance tracking to assess the impact and effectiveness of the programme over time.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Agama underscored the SEC’s longstanding commitment to youth development through the NYSC scheme.

He revealed that the Commission currently hosts between 160 and 180 corps members, one of the highest among public institutions in the country.

“We have consistently demonstrated our belief in the capacity of young Nigerians by providing them with opportunities to learn and grow within the capital market ecosystem.

“These corps members are not just participants; we regard them as integral members of our workforce. By equipping them with the right knowledge and values, we are preparing them to become ambassadors of sound investment practices in society,” he said.

Agama further emphasised that the initiative aligns with the Commission’s broader mandate of investor protection and market development, noting that early education remains a critical tool in combating financial scams.

In his remarks, Nafiu described the partnership as a milestone achievement and a key performance indicator for both organisations.

He commended the SEC for its proactive role in promoting trust and participation in Nigeria’s capital market, noting that the collaboration would have far-reaching benefits for the nation.

“It is important to catch them young,” he said, referring to corps members. “By instilling the right financial habits at this stage, we can prevent them from falling prey to Ponzi schemes and other fraudulent ventures.”

He assured that the NYSC would remain fully committed to implementing the agreement, adding that the execution phase would be carried out diligently to ensure maximum impact on Nigerian society.

The initiative comes at a time when Nigeria continues to grapple with the proliferation of Ponzi schemes and unregulated investment platforms, many of which have resulted in significant financial losses for unsuspecting citizens.

The Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet have crossed the $100 million threshold in funding for Mission 300, the World Bank and African Development Bank’s flagship effort to bring electricity to 300 million Africans by the end of the decade, a more than tenfold increase from their initial $10 million pledge made just 19 months ago.

The announcement, made at the Powering Africa Summit in Washington, underscores a deepening philanthropic bet on electricity access as the most direct lever for poverty reduction across sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 85 percent of the world’s 730 million people without power live.

Rajiv Shah, president of Rockefeller, disclosed during a fireside chat with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, a pairing that itself signalled the cross-partisan political currency that energy access has gained in development circles.

Shah framed the commitment in stark terms. “The Rockefeller Foundation has made its biggest-ever bet on connecting people to electricity as the single best pathway out of large-scale poverty,” he said.

The $100 million is split roughly 47 percent from Rockefeller and its public charity arm, RF Catalytic Capital, and 53 percent from the Global Energy Alliance.

The funding now spans 23 countries, including Nigeria, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Mozambique.

From pledges to pipelines

Mission 300, launched by the World Bank and African Development Bank in April 2024, has signed National Energy Compacts with 30 countries to define investment targets and policy reforms. Since its inception, roughly 44 million people across Africa have been connected to electricity, with tens of millions more anticipated by the end of 2026.

The Rockefeller-Alliance capital has been deployed across several workstreams. A significant portion funds technical assistance to more than a dozen National Energy Compact Delivery and Monitoring Units, government bodies tasked with coordinating and tracking electrification progress, along with 18 Mission 300 Fellowships embedded within those units.

The initiative has also expanded a productive-use financing facility run jointly with CLASP that subsidises clean, energy-efficient appliances for small businesses and farmers, and has invested in Zafiri, Mission 300’s permanent capital fund, which provides patient equity into distributed renewable energy programs.

Clean cooking moves to centre stage

A notable addition to the agenda is clean cooking, a sector that has historically struggled to attract capital despite its enormous public health implications. Across sub-Saharan Africa, 70 percent of households rely on charcoal or wood for cooking, fuels linked to respiratory disease and deforestation. The alliance has launched a Clean Cooking Accelerator Initiative and is piloting a dedicated Clean Cooking Delivery Unit in Kenya as a potential continental model.

For development finance veterans, the $100 million figure matters less as a standalone number than as a signal to commercial investors.

Kevin Kariuki, vice president of the African Development Bank, said the philanthropic capital is designed explicitly to de-risk investments and “mobilise much larger flows of public and private finance.”

The initiative has already channelled funds through the World Bank’s DARES program in West and Central Africa and the African Development Bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa.

Woochong Um, CEO of Global Energy Alliance, stressed the focus on durable economic returns. “New electricity connections translate into durable economic opportunity for people and communities,” he said, pointing to productive-use programs as the mechanism for turning infrastructure into income.

According to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, electricity access is the single strongest predictor of whether a household escapes extreme poverty, a data point that both the World Bank and its philanthropic partners have leaned on heavily to build the political case for Mission 300’s ambitious 2030 target.