E-Business
WACOT Rice Limited Boosts Nigeria’s Food Security, Distributes Agri-Inputs to Farmers in Kebbi

WACOT Rice Limited has concluded the distribution of agri-inputs to smallholder rice farmers in Argungu, Augie, Suru and Dandi Local Government Areas of Kebbi State. This is in demonstration of its commitment to the success of the Argungu Outgrower Expansion Program (AOEP).
The AOEP which is a partnership between WACOT Rice Limited and the West African Trade and Investment Hub (TH) seeks to increase the quality of smallholder farmer livelihoods via access to required agri-input financing, capacity building trainings on Yield Enhancement Techniques (YET) and Good Agronomic Practices (GAP).
The input distribution was carried out at village and community levels. The Emir of Argungu, His Highness Alhaji Samaila Muhammad Mera (CON), flagged off the 2021/2022 Dry Season agri-input distribution exercise at his palace in on the 8th of December 2021.
The ongoing program involves 3,464 registered farmers in four LGAs. These farmers, comprising of 10% women and 25% youth, have received agri-inputs and as the season progresses, they will also be supported with both on and off-field training sessions.
Commenting on the exercise, the Chairman of WACOT Rice Limited – Farouk Gumel, said the distribution of certified seeds, agrochemicals, and fertilizer to the project participants will enhance their productivity and thus, income.
He added that, “I am excited about the significant participation of youth and women this season who continue to play a critical role in Nigeria’s agricultural value chain. I will encourage more to sign up as this will support our ambitions to become a self-sufficient nation”
One of the beneficiaries, Hajia Kulu Augie, who has a three-hectare rice farm at Kasuwanamu Fadama area of Kebbi, commended WACOT and its partner, the Trade Hub, for the kind gesture, noting that it had made life easier for the farmers by empowering them.
She said, “they are helping many people with the input they give us. I got NPK, Urea, fertilisers and herbicides for this planting season, which will boost my yield.
“Then, the terms are convenient because I only need to provide them with rice worth the value of inputs I got from them.
“The arrangement is also beautiful in that I can sell the remaining rice to them at the going rate or take it elsewhere; there is no compulsion at all.”
Recall that in December 2020, WACOT Rice signed a co-investment partnership with the Trade Hub to the tune of $10.5 million to support the company’s Argungu Rice Outgrower Expansion Project based in Kebbi State.
In this partnership, WACOT Rice will register an additional 5,143 farmers to complement its already existing outgrower network in the state.
These new farmers are expected to cultivate over 5,000 additional hectares of land thereby producing over 20,000 tons of paddy which will be utilised at WACOT Rice’s 120,000-ton rice mill in Kebbi
WACOT Rice Limited – a member of the TGI Group, operates an integrated state-of-the-art rice mill in Argungu, Kebbi State. The mill is one of the largest rice mills in Sub-Saharan Africa and sources paddy from various paddy producing states across Nigeria.
The mill was commissioned by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo in 2017 and produces premium household brands of parboiled rice Big Bull and Patriot.
E-Business
Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

China’s Huawei Technologies unveiled an AI computing system on Saturday that an industry expert said rivals Nvidia’s most advanced product, as the company aims to expand its footprint in the country’s booming AI sector.
The CloudMatrix 384 system made its public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai, attracting a large crowd to Huawei’s booth with its showcase of cutting-edge AI innovations.
The system has attracted significant interest from the global AI community since Huawei (HWT.UL) first introduced it in April. Industry analysts see it as a direct challenger to Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, the most advanced system-level offering currently available from the U.S. chipmaker.
In an April article, Dylan Patel, founder of semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, stated that Huawei now possesses AI system capabilities that could surpass those of Nvidia.
Huawei staff at its WAIC booth declined to comment when asked to introduce the CloudMatrix 384 system.
A spokesperson for Huawei did not respond to questions.
Huawei has become widely regarded as China’s most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces U.S. export restrictions.
Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang told Bloomberg in May that Huawei had been “moving quite fast” and named the CloudMatrix as an example.
The CloudMatrix 384 system features 384 of Huawei’s latest 910C chips and, according to SemiAnalysis, surpasses Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 in certain performance metrics, despite the latter using 72 B200 chips.
SemiAnalysis attributes this performance advantage to Huawei’s strong system design, which offsets the lower power of individual chips by leveraging a greater number of them and incorporating system-level innovations.
Huawei describes the system as utilizing a “supernode” architecture that enables ultra-high-speed interconnectivity between chips.
In June, Zhang Pingan, CEO, Huawei Cloud confirmed that the CloudMatrix 384 was already operational on Huawei’s cloud platform.
E-Business
Transcorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend

Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.
The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.
In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.
Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.
E-Business
Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
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