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The UK needs a strategy to meet growing demand for data centres or risk losing its advantage in the race to develop artificial intelligence (AI), one of the sector's largest players has told Sky News.
Data centres - warehouses housing processors that power cloud computing - are central to the digital economy. They provide the power, connections and security required for the vast amount of processing power on which everything from personal device browsing to AI learning relies.
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The UK is currently Europe's largest data hub, with more than 500 data centres, the majority in the South East.
Slough in west London is the industry's historic base, largely because of its proximity to both transatlantic connectors and the City of London, whose financial services and banks were initially the biggest customers for computation power.
Last month the government classified data centres as 'critical national infrastructure', putting them on a par with power stations and railways but the industry says a broader strategy is required as it moves to meet the growing demand driven by power-hungry AI chips.
High land prices, competition for grid connections and the resistance of local residents have put a premium on further expansion in the southeast, leading some companies to look beyond the industry's traditional base.
Kao Data, which has an expanding campus in Harlow, Essex, is among those looking to beyond the South East, and broke ground this week on a £350m development at Stockport in Greater Manchester.
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"We are under pressure to be able to provide capacity and create data centre buildings to fuel the demand from AI, that's the challenge. Whether we as a country provide the environment for it is the big question mark," he said.
"If we want to be part of the global AI opportunity we need to deploy these resources in locations that are suitable, sustainable and have the opportunity for growth. We didn't really have a plan 10 years ago when cloud computing started, and by accident we've ended up where we are today which is in effect consuming all the power into the west of London.
"Now is the time to come up with a UK-wide data centre strategy and start deploying these facilities in other parts of the country, distributing them fairly."
Kao's expansion in Manchester exploits an existing industrial site - it will replace a concrete factory - and the availability of a grid connection, fundamental in a notoriously power-hungry industry in which a facility's size is measured in megawatts not square feet. A 100MW data centre consumes the same amount of electricity as 100,000 homes, a town roughly the size of Ipswich.
Mr Lamb said it is a model the government should heed. "A realistic opportunity would be to allocate two or three locations across the UK which have access to power as data centre planning zones, where the local authorities understand what a data centre is, are welcoming and we can develop these buildings simply and swiftly and remove a lot of the bureaucracy that exists."
The Stockport site also has the backing of the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, who sees data as part of the jigsaw of infrastructure required to boost economic development in the North West.
"This is now critical national infrastructure as designated by the new government, and it makes sense that all of that capacity is not just clustered in one part of the country. We now need to see the emergence of a large-scale data centre industry in the north of England," Mr Lamb said.
The challenge of further expansion in the South East is evident on the outskirts of the expanding village of Abbotts Langley in Hertfordshire, where a patch of green belt has become a frontline in the debate over data centres and the new government's commitment to growth.
The 31-hectare plot, once grazed by cows that produced milk for the nearby Ovaltine factory, has been bought by property developer Greystoke Land and earmarked for a data centre.
The local planning authority, Three Rivers Council, rejected it because of the loss of green belt, but on her first day in office, Angela Rayner, the housing minister, "called in" the application, beginning a process expected to end with her over-ruling the local authority.
Labour promised to back development in government but that does not make it popular. As well as concerns over the environmental impact of a data centre, residents believe the development will remove the only buffer between the village and the motorway.
Stephen Giles-Medhurst, Liberal Democrat leader of Three Rivers Council, 76% of which is made up of green belt, told Sky News communities need something in return.
"I'm not a total nimby, I can see which way the wind is blowing, but we will make the best case possible to say no to this development because it is an inappropriate site, which causes very high harm to the green belt.
"Ironically we do have some brownfield sites that landowners won't release, and we can't compulsory purchase, let's do something about that and bring them back into public ownership.
"But if at the end of the day we're overruled then we will be demanding the infrastructure that's for Abbots Langley and Three Rivers."
A Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: "Our reforms to the planning system will make it easier to build the key infrastructure this country needs - such as data centres - securing our economic future and giving businesses the confidence to invest.
"Development on the green belt will only be allowed where there is a real need and will not come at the expense of the environment."
[SkyNews]
- As Apple prepares Apple Intelligence to jump into Silicon Valley's AI race, it's relying on one of its strongest advantages: Its army of 34 million app developers.
- For Apple Intelligence to interact with the millions of non-Apple apps, it needs developers to create as much as hundreds of snippets of additional code called App Intents.
- If Apple's Siri is poorly supported by developers or it fails to impress, it could cool iPhone sales, and customers could wind up choosing to use a rival's voice assistant instead.
As Apple prepares Apple Intelligence to jump into Silicon Valley's AI race, it's relying on one of its strongest advantages: Its army of 34 million app developers.
IPhone users will get their first taste of Apple Intelligence, the company's artificial intelligence system, later this month. The company is relying on Apple Intelligence to be the strongest selling point for the iPhone 16, its latest generation of smartphones.
Apple's AI isn't as advanced as the state of the art coming out of the most advanced labs, such as rivals like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Meta's Llama. Apple isn't using the biggest models, nor can it pull off some of the more show-stopping tricks of the bleeding-edge voice models — OpenAI's latest can sing, for example.
Where Apple is hoping to distinguish its AI is that Siri may actually be able to do things on your phone — send emails, decipher calendars and take and edit photos. That's something other company's AI chatbots cannot currently do, and to accomplish this, Apple is beckoning its army of third-party developers to fine tune their apps to collaborate with Apple Intelligence. Eventually, Siri may be able to trigger any action in an app that a user can take, part of the company's long term vision for Siri, Apple said in June.
"Siri will have the ability to take hundreds of new actions in and across apps," said Apple's Kelsey Peterson, director of machine learning, in the Apple Intelligence launch video.
Apple can easily make this happen for its own apps, but for Apple Intelligence to interact with the millions of non-Apple apps, it needs developers to embrace a new way of programming their apps. This means developers will need to create as many as hundreds of snippets of additional code called App Intents.
Apple has a strong history of getting its developers to support new platform initiatives, and it's running a well-worn playbook to get them on board — personal attention from developer relations, a party-like atmosphere at the company's annual developer's conference and most importantly, it dangles App Store promotion that can lead to millions of downloads for developers who get on board.
If third-party developers jump on board and the Siri system works as advertised, it could represent one of Apple's biggest and most durable advantages in the AI race.
"You should be able to string things together and kind of get that future we've all been envisioning where you can use Siri conversationally, to do a bunch of things at once," said Jordan Morgan, an iOS developer who's written a tutorial about App Intents.
Whether Apple is successful at cajoling its millions of developers is a critical question, and the stakes are high for the company.
The company is relying on Apple Intelligence, which only works on last year's iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 models that came out this year, to spur a wave of upgrades and boost flat iPhone sales. If Apple's improved Siri is poorly supported by developers or it fails to impress, it could cool iPhone sales, and customers could wind up choosing to use a rival's voice assistant through an app instead of the built-in Siri.
Inside the Music app, for example, Apple has built about 10 intents, including actions like "Add to Playlist," "Play Music," or "Select Music." A single app intent should define a single action, programmers say.
If you take a caffeine tracking app, for example, one intent would be the ability to show an overview of exactly how much caffeine the user has logged today, Morgan said.
When that App Intent is finished, Apple's various "system experiences," such as widgets, live activities, control center and Shortcuts, will be able to quickly display a current running tracker of how much caffeine has been logged without the user ever opening up the tracking app.
System search is another big draw for some developers. App Intents will allow apps to surface specific emails or other more granular data inside Spotlight, Apple's system search.
App Intents don't take that long to write, developers say, often requiring only a few lines of code.
In previous years, Apple recommended that developers adopt App Intents for their most important features, said Michael Tigas, the developer of Focused Work, a productivity app.
"Now, if there's a way to adjust your app to perform any general action then you should create an App Intent for it," Tigas said.
Fortunately for developers, they still have time to write all the code necessary for App Intents. While Apple Intelligence is starting to roll out next month, the biggest improvements to Siri aren't scheduled to be released until next year.
Apple has to incentivize developers
Apple's new Siri system will better understand questions even if a user makes a speaking error, a direct result of Apple's work with language models, a relative of the large language models that power systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT.
That means that Siri will be much more flexible in understanding the hundreds of different ways a user could phrase, for example, "apply a photo filter to an image I took yesterday."
Apple has to train and test its model to understand the range of the most likely commands and questions for any given category of apps.
A downside to Apple's approach is that only a few categories of apps will be supported by the new Siri at first, starting with photo and email apps. Eventually, Siri will support apps that focus on books, journaling, whiteboards, managing files, word processing, browsers, camera and photos, the company said.
Developers are already imagining how they might plan for users to interact with their apps with their voices.
A representative for Superhuman, a premium email app, told CNBC that it plans to use Apple's AI system to enable questions about the contents of emails, such as "Hey Siri, when does my flight depart?" or "Hey Siri, when am I meeting with James to review his proposal?"
There's a downside to Apple's plan in the eyes of some developers who worry that users will spend less time inside their apps or confuse Apple Intelligence with the AI features they've built themselves.
"If this story were only about App Intents, developers would worry that their products might be reduced to the role of the plumbing that powers Siri, and leave them unclear on how to build sustainable businesses around it," Igor Zhadanov, CEO under of Readdle, which makes email app Spark, wrote in an email.
Another drawback is that Apple Intelligence features will only be available on the latest iPhones, a small subset of the total iPhone user base. That limited market of iPhone users may discourage developers from investing time and effort into supporting the technology in the near term.
"Apple are limiting these kinds of Apple Intelligence features to the new 2024 iPhones and the expensive models from last year, so you won't be able to build something for the masses anyway," Tigas said.
[cnbc]
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Derivatives Company Limited (FDC), Mr. Bismarck Rewane, has warned that sustained monetary tightening could discourage investments and slow down economic growth.
Rewane, therefore, called for an urgent handshake between the fiscal and monetary authorities to avert a situation where continued monetary tightening would lead to economic recession.
He expressed these views in his October 2024 presentation at the Lagos Business School (LBS) Breakfast Session in which he stated that the new minimum wage of N70,000 was a money illusion.
The LBS’ breakfast session presentation was titled, “The World Awaits in Nervous Anticipation….for Madam President?,” an allusion to Vice President Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party winning the November 5, 2024, United States of America’s presidential election.
Arguing that monetary policy was necessary but not enough, Rewane stated that, “sustained monetary tightening can slow down economic growth as higher borrowing costs discourage investment and consumption.”
He, therefore, highlighted that, “the necessity for a handshake between monetary and fiscal policy in Nigeria is critical,” warning that “without this balance, monetary tightening could lead to a recessionary environment.”
According to him, “Businesses are struggling under the weight of high borrowing costs while consumer spending contracts.”
Rewane, also observed that the high cost of borrowing was already taking its toll on the private sector’s economic activities, which contracted for the second consecutive month to 49.8 in September 2024, by 0.2 per cent from 49.9 in August 2024
“The decline is largely attributed to weak consumer demand and rising cost of inputs, amid the lingering inflationary pressures.
“Activities are projected to fall further to 49.7 in October 2024 due to the high-interest environment and expected rise in inflation,” he said.
He stated that the handshake between the monetary and fiscal policies would enable the central bank to focus on controlling inflation through contractionary monetary policy such as higher rates, higher cash reserve requirements (CRR), sales of treasury bills, open market operations (OMO), etc, to mop up liquidity while fiscal measures could target underlying structural problems in the economy, such as insecurity affecting food supply chains, investing in infrastructure and social programs that enhance productivity.
He noted that higher borrowing cost at 33-34 per cent would, “stifle investment growth as businesses adopt a wait-and-see approach focus” and cause a “potential shift in investment.”Commenting on the minimum wage, Rewane stated that, “a minimum wage hike in an inflationary environment can often be considered a money illusion
“The core issue of rising prices persists, leaving workers with little or no real improvement in their financial situations” because “real wages may not significantly improve due to rising prices.”
He observed that workers have been focusing on the N70,000 nominal value of their minimum wage without considering its real value, which he put at slightly below N53,000 in the face of the current 32.15 per cent inflation rate.
Rewane also warned that the impact of further increase in the pump price of petrol for the market would be heightened inflationary pressures, reduced consumer disposable income, lower consumer demand, and supply chain disruptions.
He also highlighted that the impact of further surge in petrol prices on investors is that “inflation will put pressure on the currency” and cause investors to “become wary of sectors affected by low consumer demand due to petrol price increase.”
But for business and corporate organisations the impact would be “increased cost of production, reduced output, shift to alternative sources of energy like solar.”
He added: “SMEs will be hit the hardest due to lower capital reserves and less ability to absorb increased costs,” which could trigger shutdowns or job losses.
Rewane also projected that the Naira would come under renewed pressure through “persistent forex demand stemming from stockpiling ahead of the festive season, high import demand, and speculative activities.”
He, therefore, recommended that “a scheduled and systematic forex supply program could provide the much-needed support to stabilise the Naira” that have already “fallen to a low of N1,700/$ at the parallel market on September 30.”
[ThisDay]
Meta challenges OpenAI’s Sora with Movie Gen: What is it and how is it different from other AI video models
Admin
Meta seems to be leaving no stone unturned in its bid to dominate the AI landscape. On Friday, the Mark Zuckerberg-led tech giant announced that it had created a new AI model named Movie Gen which can generate realistic video and audio clips in response to prompts. The company claims that it can rival some of the most capable AI video tools from the likes of OpenAI and ElevenLabs.
This development comes months after OpenAI introduced its video model Sora to the world. Even though Sora is not yet out in public, demos shared by OpenAI created a frenzy on the internet especially owing to its hyperrealistic footage and motion that seemed straight out of Hollywood.
What is Movie Gen?
Meta’s Movie Gen generates videos with the help of text inputs and it can even edit existing footage or still images. Reportedly, the audio added to the video is also generated by AI and this is in sync with the visual. Meta’s AI model also allows users to generate videos in different aspect ratios.
“Our latest research breakthroughs demonstrate how you can use simple text inputs to produce custom videos and sounds, edit existing videos, or transform your personal image into a unique video,” Meta wrote on its official website.
According to the research paper shared by Meta, Movie Gen is an advanced AI video creation tool that has been designed to create high-quality 1080p HD videos from prompts in natural language along with synchronised audio. Along with producing videos in various aspect ratios, it is capable of doing specific edits to videos and even creating personalised content using images provided by a user.
How does Movie Gen work?
Movie Gen is powered by large AI models also known as foundation models to create media. However, the main components of the model are Movie Gen Video and Movie Gen Audio. Movie Gen Audio is a 30bn parametre model that can produce videos based on text prompts. This model combines text-to-image and text-to-video capabilities to come up with realistic videos that last up to 16 seconds at 16 frames per second. On the other hand, Movie Gen Audio is a 13 bn parametre model that generates audio to match the video or text prompt. This can create realistic sound, ambient noise, or even music that fits the scene being described in a prompt.
According to the research paper, Movie Gen uses methods like temporal autoencoding to compress video information to make it easy for the model to process longer and higher-quality videos. Much similar to language models, Movie Gen also uses Transformer Architecture, but for visual and audio data.
How is it different from OpenAI Sora?
Movie Gen stands out with its superior video resolution, synchronised audio generation, ability to personalise videos based on images provided by users, and advanced video editing capabilities. Based on the paper, Movie Gen is more a dynamic and high-quality tool for AI video generation.
When it comes to video quality and resolution, Movie Gen creates 1080p HD videos and Sora although produces similar output but its overall quality is not as high as the latter. Generating synchronised audio to match visual content is Movie Gen’s distinction as so far Sora solely focuses on video creation and lacks audio generation capabilities. We do not know if Sora is capable of offering personalisation based on user-provided images or if it will come with built-in editing capabilities.
On the technical side, Movie Gen uses a 30bn parametre model for video generation and a 13 bn parametre model for audio. It needs to be noted that the larger the model size and extensive training data, would make this model come with complex scenes.
Sora was demoed in February this year. The AI video generation model from OpenAI can create HD videos spanning a minute using prompts in natural language. Sora can be described as a diffusion model that is capable of creating videos and even extending existing videos. Much like movie Gen, Sora uses a transformer architecture that allows for superior scaling in performance. At the time of its launch, OpenAI revealed that the model has been built upon past research conducted for DALL-E and GPT Models.
When it comes to availability, the paper does not offer any specific details of Movie Gen’s release. For now, the model is in the research and testing phase.
[indianexpress]
When children are chronically ill and unable to attend school, it’s not just the illness that can be debilitating — the separation from the classroom and friends can also take a toll.
For young people undergoing long-term treatment or struggling with mental health issues, Norwegian company No Isolation developed the AV1 robot, which can take a child’s place in class, serving as their eyes, ears, and voice, and helping them stay connected with their classmates.
The AV1 looks like a blank, simplified version of a human head and torso. It can rotate 360 degrees and is fitted with a camera, microphone and speaker. Teachers place it on a classroom desk and the student controls it remotely using an app, for which they are given a unique password.
“They can tap or swipe their finger around the screen to look at different corners of the classroom,” said Florence Salisbury, marketing director for No Isolation. The student can talk to the teacher or their classmates through the speaker, and the app has a “raise hand” option that makes a light flash on the robot’s head. They can also select emojis that display in the robot’s eyes.
Salisbury says there are 3,000 active AV1 units in 17 countries, mostly in the UK and Germany, both of which have over 1,000 of the robots in operation.
In the UK, schools can rent the AV1 for around £150 ($200) per month, or opt for a one-time purchase for £3,700 (just under $4,960), with an additional service package of £780 (around $1,045) annually.
Salisbury says that perhaps the robot’s biggest benefit is its ability to maintain social bonds. She shared the story of a 15-year-old student in Warwickshire, England, using AV1 whose friends take the robot to lunch with them, keeping him included in their social circle.
“During a long absence, where classmates might not see their friend for an extended period, this connection to school really becomes a lifeline for that student, especially for those with a medical condition,” Salisbury said.
According to the most recent government statistics, more than 19% of students in England were persistently absent from school in the autumn of 2023/24, 7.8% due to illness alone, which is higher than pre-pandemic levels.
During the Covid pandemic, remote learning became the norm, but as students returned to school, for many it’s no longer an option. AV1 was launched before the pandemic, but some schools have reported using the robots to help students who have struggled to reintegrate with the classroom environment.
“They make the child important”
The UK’s Chartwell Cancer Trust has a supply of 25 AV1 robots it provides to children with serious illness. Founding trustee Michael Douglas told CNN that the robots enable children to stay engaged with their education even while in intensive care. “They are loved by the parents and make a real difference,” he said. “They make the child important.”
But he acknowledged that there can be administrative challenges around their use and that “red tape can be a real issue” when trying to get the AV1 system into schools or hospitals.
He added that some schools may also struggle to maintain the necessary technical infrastructure for seamless operation, because of weak Wi-Fi or mobile signal dark spots.
Technical training
In June, research published in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Digital Health, examining the use of the AV1 in Germany and of the OriHime avatar robot in Japan, found the technologies “bear high potential for children to stay socially and educationally connected.”
However, it added that there was a need to establish structures to give equal access to avatar technologies, and that training sessions for teachers on the technical and social aspects of the robots are important for successful implementation.
Last August, No Isolation rolled out AV1 Academy, a library of training materials and resources aimed at improving the usability of the robot.
According to Salisbury, the AV1 is designed with robust privacy features. No personal data is collected, and the app prevents screenshots or recordings. Encryption secures the livestream, and only one device can connect at a time, with the robot’s head and eyes lighting up to signal active use.
There are other avatar robots on the market and some, like VGo and Buddy, have wheels and can move around the school or workplace, while some have a screen that shows the user’s face. Salisbury said that not having wheels is more practical for AV1, and weighing around 1 kilogram, the robot is easy for teachers or students to move between classes in a bespoke backpack.
She added that the absence of a screen showing the child’s face can also be an advantage. “Removing that pressure to be on camera, we’ve seen, increases the likelihood of the robot being used for students with emotionally based school avoidance,” Salisbury said.
[CNN]
Google has released a new feature which will allow people to search the internet by taking a video.
Video search will let people point their camera at something, ask a question about it, and get search results.
Android and iPhone users globally will gain access to the feature from 1700 GMT by enabling "AI Overviews" in their Google app, but it will only support English at launch.
It is the latest move from the tech giant to change how people search online by utilising artificial intelligence (AI).
It comes three months after ChatGPT-maker OpenAI announced it was trialling the ability to search by asking its chatbot questions.
Google introduced AI-generated results at the top of certain search queries this year, with mixed results.
In May, the feature drew criticism for providing erratic, inaccurate answers, which included advising people to make cheese stick to pizza by using "non-toxic glue".
At the time, a Google spokesperson said the issues were "isolated examples". The results have since become better, with fewer inaccuracies.
Since then, there have been further moves to include AI in search, which included the ability to ask questions about still images using Google Lens.
The firm said this feature has increased the popularity of Lens, within its mobile app, which has motivated it to expand the feature further.
Hooked on video
Google's head of search Liz Reid said the new capability would let people ask questions about the world around them more easily.
She gave the example of a person at an aquarium, who might want to find out why a group of fish are swimming in unison.
Instead of having to search for the fish online and write out the query, the new feature will let them point their camera, record a short clip and ask a question out loud.
Google's AI will analyse the video, identify the fish, combine that with the question and produce search results.
Industry analyst Paolo Pescatore said this was a "big thing" for Google.
"We are now seeing AI in everything and people connect best with visuals," he said.
"This latest development further demonstrates new ways of bringing content to life with something like search which is one of the most common tasks carried out on the internet.
"Here lies scope for AI to be truly collaborative and an innovator in everyday life - we are on the brink of AI becoming personalised and unique based upon our usage patterns and habits."
Other ways to search
As well as introducing a way to search by video, Google has also released several other updates.
It says it has improved its shopping results, which will now incorporate reviews and pricing information from different sellers.
And it is also introducing a competitor to the music-identifying app Shazam, which is owned by Apple.
The rival tool, accessible through Circle to Search on an Android device, will let people identify songs from a website they're on or a show they're streaming without leaving the app.
Google's new features come as it faces growing challengers in the search space, where it is estimated to have cornered more than 90% of the market globally.
This includes OpenAI, which revealed in July it was trialling a search feature within ChatGPT.
SearchGPT lets people search the internet by asking questions to a chatbot, and it is being tested by a limited number of users in the US.
OpenAI's value surged to $157bn (£120bn) on Wednesday after it raised $6.6bn in its latest funding round from high-profile investors including Microsoft.
Google's new announcements are likely a way to combat the growth of rival firms - though none are yet to truly threaten its massive dominance.
[BBC]
Ireti Kingibe, senator representing the federal capital territory (FCT), says being a woman in the national assembly is pretty difficult.
Kingibe spoke on Thursday, when an anonymous person at the 2024 edition of Voice of Women (VOW) conference and awards, accused her of abandonment and ingratitude after women cast their votes for her.
The event had the theme: ‘Achieving Women Inclusion for a Sustainable Nigeria’.
The anonymous speaker said FCT women voted for the senator due to a trust in the capabilities of women, but that since last year, there has been no avenue or town hall organised by the senator to show her gratitude.
“Now, those women we mobilised are now looking at us and saying that they have given us money, they have given us salt, rice, when there is nothing as such. They didn’t even call us to their inauguration, they didn’t come back to say thank you,” she said.
Responding, Kingibe said there is a misconception on what governance entails.
She said instead of going to meet people individually, she believes in bringing governance to the people through her initiatives.
“I have been a senator for a year and half, I am primarily a legislator. I have bills waiting to be passed, creating the nursing and midwifery school In Gwagwalada, I have a maternal free healthcare for women. I have a few of such bills still pending,” she said.
“But notwithstanding, since I have been a senator, I have empowered and I have everything on record. I have empowered 10,000 people. Now, it is not possible… FCT has 4 to 5 million people and for me to personally see everybody that voted for me.
“I am also building a 50-bed hospital, I am putting up an ICT centre in Gwagwalada and Nyanya. I paid with my personal money 2,000 JAMB forms for free.
“So, at the end of the day, governance means to me… bringing things for the general good and not for the individual.
“The truth is that being a woman in the national assembly is very, very, very hard. So, I have to lobby for everything. When I leave here, I will go to the national assembly, sign in and then go from ministry to ministry so that all those things that doesn’t get attention by the executive, I can slip them into the budget from lobbying different ministers to put it in their budget.
“I have also renovated with my personal money and made allowance for the ante-natal centre in Gwagwalada teaching hospital. Any of you can go and verify all these things.
“So, I’m sorry. Yes, women complain, I haven’t come to them one by one; it is not possible. It is either I do that and then you don’t get anything else.
“So that is my frustration and I want women to understand that you are voting for other women so that our general lives will improve not because she is going to come and meet you personally.”
Also speaking during the event, Toun Okewale Sonaiya, chief executive officer of Women Radio, urged President Bola Tinubu to lend his voice and political will to the inclusion of women in Nigerian politics and socio-economic spaces.
“I call on President Bola Tinubu to lend his voice to securing the 74 seats allocated to women. Use your voice and political will to elevate women inclusion in Nigerian politics and society to global standards,” she said.
Sonaiya also called on female participants at the event to put aside their emotions, societal limitations and support women in the election of women to leadership positions.
“I don’t believe the saying that women forget other women when they get into positions of power. I say, let’s get them into government first,” she said.
“That way, we can have more people representing our needs. If you have money, no matter how little, support the campaign of a woman seeking elective positions.”
The House of Representatives member for Ideato North and South, Imo Ugochinyere, has called on Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors to fly to Rivers State to show solidarity with Governor Siminalaya Fubara.
The PDP Chieftain lamented that no PDP governor has deemed it fit to show open support to Governor Fubara as the political crisis heightens for the slated October 5 local government election.
Ugochinyere, in a statement, on Friday, stated that the Rivers State Governor has shown courage by standing against threats from police and other political interests in the state.
“Serious opposition Governors would have flown to Rivers State right now and be seen with Governor Fubara side by side as show of strong solidarity. The right of Rivers people to vote is under attack from federal agents and you are drinking tea. Please stop making opposition look like jokers.
“Let the PDP and opposition Governors fly down to Rivers State, and boldly stand with Governor Fubara who has displayed great courage to defend democracy at all costs,” Ugochinyere said.
The Ideato North and South Reps member reminded PDP governors that their states may be attacked by the same political interests at play in Rivers State.
“Those at the gate of democracy in Rivers will soon launch attack on your states, and what you do today can make or mar our democracy.
“The alleged failed attempt by police officers to run away with electoral materials for the LGA election is a treasonable action, that requires strong condemnation and solidarity from opposition Governors. Show that you are indeed leaders of this party for once as not adults scared of pro-Wike group’s rantings,” he stated on his X handle.
[NaijaNews]
Gilead Sciences has announced that cheaper versions of its “gamechanger” HIV prevention drug, lenacapavir, will be made available in 120 low and middle income countries.
Lenacapavir is an approved HIV treatment given as a twice-yearly injection.
It stopped infection in a trial involving girls and women in South Africa and Uganda, and offered almost complete protection in a second trial that mainly involved men across Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Thailand and the US.
In a statement, the company said it had signed non-exclusive, royalty-free voluntary licensing agreements with six pharmaceutical manufacturers, to make and sell generic lenacapavir to these countries.
The manufacturers are Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited, Emcure, Eva Pharma, Ferozsons Laboratories Limited, Hetero and Mylan, a subsidiary of Viatris.
Gilead Sciences said the agreements were signed in advance of any global regulatory submissions, to enable these countries to quickly introduce generic versions of lenacapavir for HIV prevention.
The company said it would also bridge the gap until those manufacturers were up and running, by providing Gilead-supplied product, prioritising registration in 18 countries with high HIV rates.
These countries are Botswana, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“The agreements advance Gilead’s strategy to enable broad, sustainable access to lenacapavir for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) globally if approved, and align with Gilead’s vision of ending the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere,” the company said.
“Gilead will support low-cost access to the drug in high-incidence, resource-limited countries through a two-part strategy: establishing a robust voluntary licensing program, and planning to provide Gilead-supplied product at no profit to Gilead until generic manufacturers are able to fully support demand.
“Additionally, the agreements cover not only lenacapavir for HIV prevention (pending approval), but also lenacapavir for HIV treatment in heavily treatment-experienced (HTE) adults with multi-drug resistant HIV.”
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A cross-section of Nigerian workers on Friday in Abuja expressed growing frustration over the increasing cost of transportation, attributing it to the persistent rise in fuel prices.
In separate interviews, the workers decried the impact of high transportation costs on their finances and overall well-being.
Godson Anosike, a dentist, noted that his regular route to work now costs N500, up from N200 a year ago.
“The difference is staggering, and it has drastically affected my daily expenses,” said Mr Anosike.
Mr Anosike decried that salaries have remained stagnant despite the steep increase in transportation costs, adding, “And it’s tough.”
Ubokabasi Ekam, an engineer, called for fuel price control to reduce transportation fares.
“Transportation prices have tripled, making it unmanageable,” said Mr Ekam.
Ubong Udoekpo, a lawyer, said transportation now consumes more than half his salary. “Most workers consider resigning due to unsustainable salaries.”
Joy Light, a civil servant, stated that transportation expenses equal her salary.
“I’ve had to reduce my workdays. How can one survive if all the money earned goes to transport?”
The workers emphasised that the fuel hike has triggered a ripple effect across the economy, driving up prices of essential goods and services.
(NAN)
BDCs accuse IMTOs of ambushing external remittances, creating dollar scarcity in the parallel market
Admin
Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in Nigeria have attributed the recent depreciation of the Naira in the parallel market to scarcity of forex in the sector as major sources become drastically reduced.
The Chairman of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON), Aminu Gwadabe told Nairametrics that sources of forex to that segment of the forex market have been severely impacted by the recent policies of the CBN.
According to him, members of the Association no longer get as much forex from relevant sources such as exports and external remittances and now rely on irregular intervention from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
However, Mr. Gwadabe explained that the major culprit for the condition of BDCs is the International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs).
He said, “The liberalisation of the market has hindered supply inflows which is being reduced drastically and has made it difficult for our people. The International Money Transfer Operators (IMT0s) have ambushed the international remittance payment as most remittance payment now go their direction.”
“Another source of FX for us, which is non-oil exports, has also been reduced and the CBN intervention is not regular. In the past, we use to do up to $40k weekly but now it’s not more than $20k.”
Need for CBN intervention for BDCs
Mr. Gwadabe noted that the Naira will continue to depreciate in the parallel market except there is regular intervention by the CBN. He explained that the BDCs is the language of the invisible players in the retail end of the market and any sentiment of scarcity by buyers as well as sellers affects the value of the Naira.
The Naira fell to the lowest point in seven months in the parallel market by the end of September at N1,700/$ but recovered marginally at the beginning of trade on the 2nd of October. Although, the official market saw a wide depreciation of up to 8%.
The CBN in the past one year has sought to regulate the IMTOs and enable them to play a more prominent role in attracting foreign exchange into official channels from international sources. In 2023, Nigeria received around $19.5 billion- around 35% of total remittances to Africa according to the World Bank.
However, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms stated that only about 10% of the nearly $20 billion remittance entered the official forex exchange market as the parallel market swallowed up almost 90% of remittance inflows.
CBN regulation of IMTO and increase in international remittance inflow
In light of this, the CBN instituted reforms in the IMTO industry first in January by removing the exchange rate cap of +2.5% and –2.5% around the previous day’s closing rate for transactions. The removal of the -2.5% to +2.5% cap marked a major move by the CBN towards liberalizing Nigeria’s foreign exchange market.
By the end of January, the apex bank issued revised guidelines for IMTO operations, raising the IMTO licence application fee from N500,000 in 2014 to N10 million, a 1,900% increase over 10 years. The CBN also set a minimum operating capital requirement of $1 million for foreign IMTOs and an equivalent amount for local operators.
These regulation coupled with the approval in principle given to 14 new IMTOs by the CBN has resulted in increased remittances from IMTOs this year. During the last MPC meeting, the Governor of the CBN, Mr. Yemi Cardoso stated that international remittances via IMTOs increased by 130% to $585 million in August 2024 compared to the same period of last year.
International remittance inflows in the first quarter of 2024 reached $1.07 billion, a 39% rise from the $770.23 million recorded in the same period in 2023. Compared to the last quarter of 2023, which had inflows of $965.82 million, this represents an 11% increase.
CBN data reveals that international remittance inflows have been gradually increasing monthly from $383 million to $585 million in August 2024.
It can be inferred that the regulation by the CBN on IMTOs is paying off as witnessed in the rise in international remittances from the IMTO sector. How BDCs deal with this challenge remains to be seen as intervention from the apex bank become rare.
The decline in FX supply to the BDC segment of the currency market comes on the heels of recent guidelines for BDC operations from the apex bank where it increased where it increased the minimum capital requirement for tier-1 BDCs by over 5000% from N35 million to N2 billion.
[Nairametrics]
VIDEO: Adam Touched His ‘Tithe’, Reason God Sent Him Out Of Garden Of Eden – Pastor Ibiyeomie Asserts
AFOLABI
The founder and presiding shepherd of Salvation Ministries, Pastor David Ibiyeomie, has asserted that God sent the first creation, Adam, out of the garden of Eden because he touched his tithe.
Naija News reports that Pastor Ibiyeomie’s claim regarding the biblical figure Adam and his purported connection to tithes has generated heated arguments on social media.
In a viral video seen online, Pastor Ibiyeomie linked Adam’s tragic downfall as a result of eating the ‘forbidden fruit,’ the Apple to imply an ill-fated decision to handle what God had explicitly commanded him to avoid.
With passionate conviction, Pastor Ibiyeomie explored the profound implications of tithing, framing it as a religious obligation and a divine principle of immense significance.
He asserted that the essence of Adam’s transgression was rooted in his failure to adhere to God’s directive concerning the tithe, claiming that this act of disobedience ultimately set the stage for humanity’s fall from grace.
Naija News reports that Christians have been familiar with scriptures that vividly depict the apple as the forbidden fruit, representing the alluring temptation God specifically instructed humanity to shun.
This fruit, taken from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, has long been associated with the Genesis of sin.
It is worth noting that Adam and Eve’s ill-fated choice led to their expulsion from the idyllic paradise of Eden.
However, Pastor Ibiyeomie has shared a different belief with his congregation on the issue of Tithing and Adam’s punishment for allegedly refusing to pay the tithe.
Watch the video clip below.
Media
The World Bank has given the green light to a $500 million loan to support the Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria (SPIN) initiative to mitigate challenges of climate conditions.
World Bank’s Regional Director, Sustainable Infrastructure Development for West and Central Africa, Chakib Jenane, announced this during a visit to the Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation on Thursday in Abuja.
Jenane said the SPIN project was approved during the World Bank’s Board meeting on September 26, adding that it was scheduled to commence in January 2025.
He added that the project is designed to address climate-related issues, including floods and droughts, through enhanced dam safety, improved water resource management, and expanded irrigation services.
Janane stated that the project would benefit approximately 950,000 people, including farmers and livestock breeders, emphasising the need for Nigeria to continue preparations to meet the remaining conditions for the project to be effective by the target date.
The World Bank team also provided an update on the Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) project, which is nearing completion.
The team also gave an update on the Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene (SURWASH) programme, and stressed the importance of involving more states in the initiative.
Jenane encouraged the ministry to explore the establishment of a National WASH Fund, a key objective under the SURWASH programme’s Disbursement Linked Indicator (DLI) 1.
The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, expressed his appreciation to the bank for its continued support of Nigeria’s development, particularly in sustainable infrastructure and water resource management.
He assured the delegation that the Nigerian government would provide the counterpart funding support to ensure the successful implementation of all World Bank-backed projects.
Utsev also emphasised the importance of completing the TRIMING Project on schedule and reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to meeting the January 2025 deadline.
Minister of State for Water Resources and Sanitation, Dr Bello Goronyo also thanked the World Bank for its approval of the SPIN project, reiterating the ministry’s commitment to the project through collaborative efforts.
[Leadership]