General News
UNHCR, TGI Group Forge Alliance to Empower Nigeria’s Displaced Communities
Tropical General Investments (TGI) Group a contributor to Nigeria’s economy, and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have signed a five-year cooperation agreement to advance socio-economic inclusion and co-create sustainable solutions for forcibly displaced people in Nigeria.
This partnership was formalized by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at a ceremony attended by key representatives from both organizations in Abuja on Tuesday.
This novel partnership between UNHCR and TGI leverages both parties’ core expertise and knowledge to advance the socio-economic inclusion of forcibly displaced persons and their host communities in Nigeria.
This will be achieved by designing fit-for-purpose and market-relevant solutions that enable target populations to actively engage in agricultural income-generating activities.
TGI’s Vice Chairman, Farouk Gumel, commented on the partnership and TGI’s expertise in creating community-centric initiatives as part of its broader commitment to driving inclusivity and adding value to communities.
“We are proud to cement our partnership with UNHCR, which will see to the integration of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees into the forefront of Nigeria’s workforce.
“We believe in inclusive growth and community empowerment and we will leverage our work with smallholder farmers in our outgrower programmes as a model to integrate these communities.”
Nigeria is estimated to have an arable land area of 34 million hectares, of which only 6.5 million hectares are used for permanent crops. The agricultural sector in Nigeria accounts for about 23 per cent of the country’s GDP and employs around 70 per cent of the country’s workforce.
Leveraging the country’s growth potential in the agriculture sector and the skills of IDPs, refugees and host communities, the collaboration between TGI and UNHCR will explore prospects for investments that unlock livelihood opportunities for thousands of people in need.
“Nigeria is home to 3.6 million IDPs and 108,000 refugees. UNHCR is at the forefront of addressing their urgent needs. One of our key priorities is to create self-reliance opportunities for refugees and IDPs.
“This partnership with TGI is central to our collaborative approach, aiming for sustainable solutions and reducing dependence on humanitarian assistance,” said Arjun Jain, UNHCR’s Representative to Nigeria.
The collaboration will focus on value chain integration, land recovery, agricultural inputs, skills development, employment, and financial inclusion.
Working closely with government authorities, development actors, and community leaders, TGI and UNHCR will facilitate large-scale agricultural projects and other economic initiatives that provide employment opportunities and foster stronger connections between displaced communities and state services.
Approximately 120 million people worldwide are forcibly displaced today due to persecution, conflict, violence, and climate change. Over 3.7 million forcibly displaced people reside in Nigeria, representing almost 3% of the global displaced population.
Most IDPs in Nigeria have been living in the middle-belt, northeast and northwest of the country for over a decade, within states that face grave economic challenges. Some 70 percent of the refugees in the country live within the host community with the rest residing in settlements.
Additionally, there are around 400,000 Nigerian refugees who are living in exile, largely in the Lake Chad Basin countries; many are keen on returning home voluntarily, in safety and dignity.
UNHCR has been at the forefront of responding to the needs of IDPs and refugees. The increasing number of displaced persons has exacerbated resources and increased dependency on aid, prompting UNHCR and other humanitarian actors to shift strategies towards sustainable solutions and self-reliance.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery is reportedly nearing completion of a $2.5 billion private placement that values the company at about $40 billion ahead of its planned public listing.
Private placement is the direct sale of company shares or bonds to pre-selected investors instead of the general public and it is used to raise money quickly while avoiding strict public reporting rules.
People familiar with the transaction said investors acquired as much as 6 per cent of the refinery, according to a BusinessDay report.
The reported terms would value the business at approximately $40 billion.
Neither Dangote Group nor the refinery has publicly announced the final amount raised, the identities of most subscribers or the precise percentage sold.
The figures should therefore be treated as transaction details supplied by unnamed sources rather than confirmed company disclosures.
The reported $2.5 billion total is nevertheless significant as it indicates strong demand for exposure to a privately controlled refinery that has rapidly become central to Nigeria’s fuel supply and an increasingly important exporter of petroleum products.
The placement was said to have attracted more demand than the available shares, allowing the company to secure substantially more than the amount initially associated with the fundraising exercise.
Femi Otedola, chairman, First HoldCo, is the only major participant publicly identified in the report.
He reportedly committed $100 million to the transaction and sold his investment in Geregu Power Plc to finance the acquisition.
Nigeria’s pension industry was also reportedly cleared to participate.
Access to more than $17 billion in retirement assets would broaden the refinery’s potential investor base beyond wealthy individuals and conventional institutional buyers.
Participation by Pension Fund Administrators would, however, require careful attention to valuation, liquidity and portfolio-concentration limits.
Retirement funds must balance the attraction of a large Nigerian industrial asset against their responsibility to protect contributors’ savings.
The implied $40 billion valuation represents investor expectations about the refinery’s future earnings rather than only the physical cost of constructing the facility.
Its ability to process 650,000 barrels of crude daily gives it a central role in supplying Nigeria and other markets, but its commercial performance remains connected to crude availability, product prices, exchange rates and regulation.
The refinery has struggled to obtain all the Nigerian crude it requires under the government’s naira-for-crude arrangement.
It has consequently purchased some feedstock internationally and recently moved local petroleum-product pricing into dollars to align sales revenue more closely with its foreign-currency expenses.
Those constraints will be important during any public offering.
Prospective shareholders will want greater clarity on crude-supply contracts, debt, operating margins, export revenue and the company’s relationship with Nigerian regulators.
It is also unclear whether the private placement involved newly issued shares, a sale by existing owners or a combination of both.
That distinction determines whether the reported $2.5 billion becomes fresh capital for the refinery or proceeds received by selling shareholders.
The transaction could provide a useful price reference for the planned initial public offering.
Federal government will next month launch Nigeria’s first national organized crime strategy to strengthen the country’s response to terrorism, cybercrime, human and drug trafficking, kidnapping, illicit financial flows, and other forms of organized crime.
Major General Adamu Laka, national coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre under the Office of the National Security Adviser, disclosed this in Abuja during the validation of the strategy document.
He said the strategy provides a coordinated national framework for tackling organized crime through improved intelligence sharing, stronger collaboration among security agencies, and closer cooperation with the criminal justice system, civil society organizations, and international partners.
Major General Laka explained that the document was developed through a partnership involving the Federal Government, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United States Government, and other stakeholders.
Speaking at the event, Cheikh Toure, UNODC representative, said the strategy would strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to combat transnational crimes, including drug trafficking, cybercrime, human trafficking, kidnapping, and illicit financial flows.
Also speaking, Douglas Grane, acting director of the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, reaffirmed the U.S. government’s support for Nigeria’s efforts to tackle organized crime through stronger inter-agency and international cooperation.
Representatives of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, and the National Cyber Security Centre also endorsed the initiative, describing it as a major step towards improving Nigeria’s fight against organized crime.
FATE Foundation, with funding from the Citi Foundation, has launched the Youth Entrepreneurship Incubation Programme to equip young people in Nigeria with financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills.
Delivered through free, safe, and accessible platforms, the programme supports the incubation and scaling of youth-led enterprises, enabling income generation and job creation.
In October 2025, FATE Foundation was selected as a recipient of Citi Foundation’s 2025 Global Innovation Challenge to Accelerate Youth Employability. Joining the cohort of 50 organisations globally, the Foundation will receive $500,000 over two years to advance its youth employability initiative.
“We are excited to be selected for Citi Foundation’s 2025 Global Innovation Challenge,” said Ayomide Akindolie-Igwe, Executive Director of FATE Foundation.
“This support enables us to equip young entrepreneurs in Nigeria with the financial literacy and skills needed to build and scale sustainable businesses.”
The programme addresses youth employability by tackling Africa’s growing jobs crisis. By 2030, the African continent will be home to 40% of the world’s youth, and with one in three under 35 already unemployed, this initiative will support Nigerian youth with a two-phase approach. It begins with financial literacy training before progressing to entrepreneurship development, incubation support, and access to tools needed to build viable, job-creating businesses.
“Through this innovative initiative, FATE Foundation is supporting low-income Nigerian youth to develop essential financial and entrepreneurial skills using accessible platforms.
“This support is not just helping individuals to succeed; it is building a solid foundation for sustainable enterprises that will drive job creation and contribute significantly to our nation’s economic vitality. This initiative is empowering and investing in the future of Nigeria, one youth at a time,” said Nneka Enwereji, MD/CEO Citibank Nigeria Limited.
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