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AfDB, World Bank Collaborate to Transform Africa’s Energy Access, Connect 300 million by 2030

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Connecting 300 million Africans to electricity within the next five years is within reach through collaborative effort and commitment to implementation, participants at the Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, heard on Monday.

The summit is organized by the Government of Tanzania and Mission 300, an unprecedented collaboration between the African Development Bank Group, the World Bank Group and global partners to address Africa’s electricity access gap using new technology and innovative financing.

Nearly 600 million Africans lack electricity, a critical resource for economic development and job creation.

Speaking during the first panel discussion of the opening day of the two-day Summit, African Development Bank President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina set the summit’s tone of action and implementation, emphasizing practical solutions to achieve the ambitious goal, from regulatory reforms to private sector engagement.

He called for active involvement from a wide range of stakeholders, including bilateral and multilateral institutions, private sector entities, civil society organizations, and foundations.

“This is mission critical… Our mission here is to say we need everybody… It’s not about us, it’s about those who are not here, and we must listen and hear and make sure this is an action-driven summit… We can’t do Mickey Mouse business…

“We can’t have a situation where Africa does not have enough electricity,” Adesina told the audience, which included several African energy ministers, international development partners and private sector titans, civil society organizations, and foundations, attending the first day of the summit.

The second day of the summit will see the participation of several heads of state from across Africa, who will join more than 1,500 other participants. Together they will chart Africa’s course toward universal access to energy.

“We have a clear path to reaching these 300 million people,” Dr. Adesina stressed, distinguishing the initiative from previous efforts. He emphasized that the program seeks to transform Africa’s vast potential into reality through comprehensive electrification.

“With power, Africa will not just meet expectations but exceed them, becoming a competitive and prosperous continent,” he added.

Mission 300 will incorporate robust accountability measures, including country-specific monitoring and evaluation systems and the Africa Energy Regulatory Index to track progress. “This is all about accountability, transparency, and delivery while letting Africa develop with pride,” Adesina stated.

Adesina highlighted the devastating toll of traditional cooking methods based on firewood and charcoal, resulting in the death of 600,000 women and children annually due to smoke exposure.

The crisis extends beyond energy access, affecting environmental sustainability through deforestation and biodiversity loss. “It’s not just about energy transition,” Adesina said. “This is about dignity. Africa must develop with dignity and pride, and access to clean cooking solutions is fundamental to achieving this goal.” He praised Tanzania for developing a comprehensive national strategy to address this issue.

World Bank Group President Ajay Banga expressed optimism about the initiative, saying its ambitious objectives are achievable through hard work, particularly in ensuring a conducive environment for the private sector to participate. He emphasized the need for predictability of currencies, regulatory frameworks and land acquisition to incentivize investments supporting Mission 300.

In his remarks, Rajiv Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation, called global philanthropists to support the initiative.

“Please join us in getting behind the ideas of this initiative and the country compacts that the leaders will be signing. What is at stake is the future of African economies, the future of African young people, and the future of our world,” he said, adding that his foundation was committing $65 million to the program.

Speaking after the fireside chat, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed emphasized that energy access is not merely about power delivery, but about what that power will connect and enable.

“It is important that we see food systems at the helm of all of this, and that they are powered by the energy that you will connect,” she stated.

Mohammed explained how energy connectivity would catalyze transformative change in rural communities, particularly for women and youth, through access to digital financial services, online education, and e-commerce opportunities.

However, she stressed that realizing these ambitions would require significant financial engineering and private sector engagement. “The private sector’s got to lean in and it won’t lean in if the message is that your finance environment is not conducive to us,” she noted, calling for reforms in credit rating systems and financial architecture.

“When you want to put together the financing for energy it is not easy and it requires many people at the table in parallel with what we are doing, the policy and the regulation, designing these pipelines and getting the money ready.”

The summit is expected to yield two significant outcomes: the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration, outlining commitments and practical actions from African governments to reform the energy sector, and the first set of National Energy Compacts, which will serve as blueprints with country-specific targets and timelines for implementation of critical reforms.


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NIPOST Suspends Cash Transactions Nationwide

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Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) has declared July 1, 2025, as the deadline for phasing out cash transactions across all its offices nationwide.

NIPOST Suspends Cash Transactions Nationwide

This was disclosed in a statement issued on Monday by Frank Alao,  director of Corporate Communications,NIPOST.

The move is part of a broader reform initiative aimed at transforming NIPOST into a more innovative, efficient, and digitally driven organisation.

The management explained that the reforms are aligned with global best practices and tailored to meet the demands of Nigeria’s rapidly evolving digital economy, as well as the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Alao stated, “We are assuring Nigerians of a revitalised NIPOST that delivers superior service and embraces the future.

“A major highlight of the reform package is the transition to a fully cashless system. Beginning July 1, 2025, all post office counters nationwide will no longer accept cash payments for their services. Customers will be required to use approved electronic channels for all transactions.

“This is a crucial step in our modernization journey, one that ensures safer, faster, and more transparent service delivery.”


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FG Faults AfDB’s Adesina on Nigeria’s GDP Per Capita Figures

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The Presidency has faulted claim of Akinwumi Adesina, president, African Development Bank (AfDB),  on the current Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita figures versus the level it was in 1960 when Nigeria attained independence.

FG Faults AfDB's Adesina on Nigeria's GDP Per Capita Figures

Akinwumi Adesina, president, African Development Bank

The outgoing AfDB President had in a recent viral statement claimed that Nigerians are worse off today than in 1960 when Nigeria’s GDP per capita was $1847..

The AfDB President claimed that in contrast to the level of the GDP per capita at Nigeria independence, the country’s current GDP stands at $824 today, a reflection of the current rampant poverty and low human development in the country.

But in a rebuttal of the claim, the presidency, in a statement by Bayo Onanuga, the spokesperson to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu accused the AfDB President of failure to carry out proper research and speaking like a politician in his assertions.

“Adesina spoke like a politician, in the mould of Peter Obi and did not do due diligence before making his unverifiable statement,” the presidency said while faulting the claim of the AfDB President.

While countering the claim of Adesina, the presidency noted in the statement that available data indicated that Nigeria’s GDP was $4.2 billion in 1960, and per capita income for a population of 44.9 million was $93, not even one hundred dollars.

“Our country’s GDP did not rise remarkably until the 1970s, when crude earnings ballooned. In 1970, our GDP rose to $12.55 billion. In 1975, it was $27.7 billion, $64.2 billion in 1980, and $164 billion in 1981. Up until 1980, per capita income did not exceed $880. It rose to $2187 in 1981 and dropped to $1844 in 1982. In 2014, after rebasing, it reached an all-time high of $3,200.

“These facts raise questions about the source of Dr Adesina’s figures,” Onanuga said.

However, the presidency also faulted the AfDB President, a former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture of making inferences on the state of poverty or human development in Nigeria solely based on the GPD per capita numbers. .

“Dr Adesina should know that GDP per capita is not the only criterion used to determine whether people live better lives now than in the past. Indeed, it is a poor tool for assessing living standards.

“Its primary usefulness is in giving us the metrics to compare economic output in a country or between countries.

“GDP masks many activities in a country’s economy. It neither discloses wealth distribution or income inequality nor accounts for the informal economy, which experts have said is enormous. It does not account for subsistence farming or income transfer from one family member to another,” the presidency said.

The Presidency also noted that GDP per capita is not reflective of the fact that Nigerians in 2025 have better access to healthcare, education, and transportation, such as rail and air transport, than in 1960.

“This premise alone suggests why Dr Adesina should not have arrived at his conclusion.

“Compared with 1960, Nigeria today has more primary, secondary, and tertiary schools.

“We have more road networks and more medical facilities, private and public. We have phenomenal access to telephones.

“At Independence, we had 18,724 operational phone lines for a population of about 45 million. Over 200 million Nigerians now enjoy near-universal access to mobile phones and digital services, indicating we are better off today than 65 years ago.”

Furthermore, the presidency noted that Nigerian policymakers know that whatever GDP figure NBS publishes may not capture our economy’s full depth and breadth as it usually excludes the greater part of the informal economy, which some pundits have said may even be more significant than the formal economy.

“This underscores why Dr. Adesina should have considered all aspects of our economy before concluding.”

“When Vodacom, a telecommunications company, considered entering the Nigerian market in 1999 or 2000, its consultants, using the available GDP metrics, advised against it.

“They believed that Nigerians were too poor to afford GSM services. However, MTN and other companies that entered the market later proved them wrong, demonstrating that GDP figures alone do not provide a complete picture of a country’s economic potential or the living standards of its people.

“MTN and other adventurers came later, and they laughed all the way to the bank. More than 20 years later, they are still laughing despite some setbacks in 2023 and 2024. In its first-quarter results this year, MTN declared revenue of N1 trillion and an increase of 8.2 percent in subscriptions, which took the number of its voice and data users to 84 million. Does this MTN experience correlate with a country worse off than in 1960, when we had analogue telephones and the number of lines was fewer than 20,000?

“No objective observer can claim that Nigeria has not made progress since 1960. Today, as we await the NBS’s recalibration of our GDP, we can comfortably say without contradiction that it is at least 50 times, if not 100 times, more than it was at Independence.”

 

 

 


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SeamlessHR, AOPN Push Payroll Innovation for Nigeria’s Outsourcing Growth

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Nigeria’s outsourcing industry, valued at approximately $980 million in 2023 and projected to exceed $1.8 billion by 2028, is at a pivotal moment. Despite an impressive annual growth rate of 12.56 per cent, the sector is weighed down by financial inefficiencies. Thin margins, inconsistent client payments, and outdated payroll systems have created conditions where salary delays are frequent and talent attrition is on the rise.

Across the industry, many workers now view delayed wage disbursements as normal, with employees often waiting weeks or even months to be paid. For outsourcing firms, the consequences extend beyond cash flow. Delayed salaries damage brand perception, undermine operational efficiency, and threaten long-term growth. The urgency for innovation in payroll and financial operations has never been greater.

In response, SeamlessHR, Africa’s leading human resource and payroll technology company, in partnership with the Association of Outsourcing Professionals of Nigeria (AOPN), convened over 30 CEOs and managing directors from Nigeria’s top outsourcing firms on Thursday, April 30, 2025. Hosted at Four Points by Sheraton, Victoria Island, the high-level roundtable focused on transforming financial operations across the sector.

Themed “Enhance Business Efficiency Through Automation and Immersive Workflows,” the session spotlighted how intelligent financial infrastructure, fully integrated within HR and payroll systems, can drive business continuity, and improve employee satisfaction.

Key industry leaders in attendance included David Asama Dogeni, Senior Vice-President of Technology, UAC Group; Adebola David, Group Head, Human Capital at Halogen; Victor Adebayo, Chief Executive Officer, Diversity Talent Management Ltd; and Oke Egbi, Director, Embedded Finance, SeamlessHR. Also present were leading outsourcing firms such as Resource Intermediaries Ltd, Phillips Outsourcing Ltd, Workforce Group Ltd, Tribest Corporate Support Ltd, HR Indexx Ltd, among others. Together, they explored how the convergence of financial technology and workforce automation is emerging as a critical advantage for progressive businesses navigating economic uncertainty.

Speaking at the event, the President, Association of Outsourcing Professionals of Nigeria (AOPN), Mope Abudu, said, “This roundtable addresses a critical challenge in our industry. As key contributors to Nigeria’s economy, we cannot afford to be left behind in the wave of digital transformation shaping the future of work. The outsourcing sector must lead in efficiency and innovation, and the integration of intelligent systems that support workforce management. Today’s theme speaks directly to that need. By exploring solutions like embedded finance, we open new opportunities to enhance value delivery and improve operational efficiency across our industry. I extend my gratitude to SeamlessHR for bringing this event to life.”

A key focus of the discussion was the transformative impact of SeamlessHR’s Embedded FInance for employers and employees. SeamlessHR’s solution enables workers to access earned wages on-demand, bypassing the traditional pay cycle. Through seamless integration with payroll systems, employees can withdraw accrued earnings in real-time to address emergencies or manage cash flow gaps. Additionally, low-interest salary advances and built-in financial tools empower staff to avoid exploitative lenders and plan their finances with confidence.

For employers, the benefits are equally compelling. The solution provides up to ₦1 billion in payroll credit while offering bulk disbursement capabilities, enabling seamless salary payments for entire workforces at once. Tailored to Nigeria’s outsourcing realities, It eliminates reliance on external loans and equips companies with real-time access to funds, making salary payments faster, more efficient, and more transparent This financial infrastructure not only stabilizes businesses but restores worker trust, a critical factor in an industry where talent retention is of great importance.

“Outsourcing companies face daily liquidity issues, irregular cash flow, and growing payroll obligations,” said Oke Egbi, Director, Embedded Finance, SeamlessHR. “SeamlessHR’s Embedded Finance closes that gap by integrating capital into the payroll system to ensure people get paid on time, operations run seamlessly, and CEOs sleep better at night. When employees no longer stress about delayed salaries, their engagement and output improves dramatically. ”

The partnership between SeamlessHR and AOPN signals a shared commitment to transforming Nigeria’s outsourcing sector through smarter, more efficient financial systems. By combining SeamlessHR’s embedded finance solution with AOPN’s industry reach, the collaboration delivers a scalable model that boosts competitiveness, simplifies workforce operations, and supports sustainable growth.


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