Sahara Group Foundation dropped a new initiative called the Sahara Community Impact Project that wants to build specialized business hubs across African communities. Director Chidilim Menakaya said the foundation will connect local entrepreneurs with resources and training while cutting down on waste through their EXTRApreneurship approach. The pilot program launches in Nigeria before expanding to other regions.
The hubs will hook people up with shared production facilities, business mentorship, and financing connections through partner banks. Applications open next month for communities and entrepreneurs who want in. Bethel Obioma from corporate communications explained that the whole point is getting communities to compete globally...
PZ Cussons decided to keep its Africa operations after getting offers from buyers who wanted the whole thing. The consumer goods company is betting on population growth across the continent and plans to expand its brands like Imperial Leather, Venus, and Premier into men's grooming and beauty categories while pushing into new African markets from its Nigeria and Kenya bases.
The firm dumped its edible oils joint venture for $70 million but is holding onto family care and electricals businesses that pulled in £141 million in revenue last year. Nearly 80 percent of sales in Nigeria come from brands that rank first or second in their categories, and the company has more than doubled its direct store coverage since 2022.
Africa accounts...
Turkish Airlines and South African Airways are locked in a codeshare deal that kicks off next year, with Turkish boss Ahmet Bolat and SAA chief John Lamola signing papers in Geneva. Turkish gets to slap its flight codes on SAA routes, hitting Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Windhoek, Harare, Victoria Falls, and Mauritius. SAA scores the same deal for Turkish flights between Istanbul and a bunch of cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Frankfurt, Paris, and London.
Bolat called it a power move to expand Turkish's footprint across Africa, where they already run the biggest non-African airline operation with 65 destinations in 41 countries. Lamola said the partnership helps both carriers beef up connectivity...
PalmPay boss Chika Nwosu got on stage at the CeBIH conference and basically said the fintech game needs to stop half-assing it when it comes to reaching people who still can't access banking. The company runs around 500,000 agents who handle cash transactions for folks without bank accounts, and they built a USSD code that works on basic phones for people stuck in areas with terrible internet.
Nwosu explained how they study user behavior to roll out services like cheap health insurance and auto-save features that actually help people build financial habits instead of just offering yet another app nobody understands. The whole pitch revolved around getting grassroots agents into communities where trust matters more than slick marketing...
Federal tax collectors are linking up with security agencies and anti-corruption units ahead of the National Revenue Service Act kicking in next year. CSP Kyes Bakfur from the FIRS Special Enforcement Division told people at a Lagos meeting that hunting down tax dodgers needs way better intel sharing and joint ops between groups like the EFCC, Financial Intelligence Unit, and ICPC.
The whole push comes down to stopping smuggling, illegal mining, oil theft, and shady financial moves that keep bleeding government coffers dry. FIRS consultant Oladipo Olayemi pointed out that better tax collection means security agencies get more funding to actually do their jobs, and everyone needs to stop operating in silos if they want to catch...
Nigeria just rolled out a digital platform for gas trading that Minister Ekperikpe Ekpo says will make the whole market way more transparent and competitive. The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority teamed up with JEX Markets to build this thing that handles licensing, clearing, and settlement for natural gas deals across the country.
NMDPRA boss Farouk Ahmed promised tight oversight to make sure the platform actually works, and he wants to coordinate with the Securities and Exchange Commission to standardize contracts and get global-level clearing standards in place. The whole setup backs President Tinubu's plan to make natural gas central to industrial growth and energy security.
Ahmed said the real...
Bank of Industry teamed up with the National Credit Guarantee Company to drop N10 billion in backed loans for women running businesses across Nigeria. Managing Director Olasupo Olusi from BOI is pushing this GLOW program that gives women entrepreneurs easier financing with a seven percent interest rate and lighter collateral requirements. NCGC boss Bonaventure Okhaimo said his crew will cover 25 percent of the risk on these loans.
The whole thing targets sectors like manufacturing, tech, healthcare, renewable energy, and creative industries. BOI already got swamped with over 33,000 applications worth more than N65 billion, which shows how many women got locked out of regular business financing before this.
NCGC plans to start with N5...
The consumer protection agency locked down Ikeja Electric's head office in Lagos after the power company kept ignoring orders to split one hotel account into 20 separate residential meters. Providence Real Estate got stuck without electricity for over two years, even though they paid everything the utility asked for, and the building sat empty the whole time.
Ikeja Electric claims the hotel structure never actually got converted into separate apartments, as the customer said, so there's no physical setup to support 20 different connections. Corporate Communications Head Kingsley Okotie said they're ready to work with the customer once the property gets properly configured for multiple units, but the company needs to verify that the...
Nigerian lawmakers shut down any talk of subsidizing airline tickets for the holidays, but they want the government to slash airport fees by half instead. Representative Obinna Aguocha pushed for transparent cost assessments to figure out what airlines actually need to operate during the Christmas season, since ticket prices are making it impossible for families to travel home.
Billy Osawaru from Edo pointed out that around 90 percent of people can't even afford flights and rely on roads and trains, and he said it makes way more sense to subsidize ground transportation if anything gets subsidized at all.
Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo said competition is what brings prices down, and the whole industry is deregulated anyway.
