Business
3 Division Empowerment Training for Barracks Community in Jos: Pioneering Fish Farming Skills for Sustainable Livelihoods
The 3 Division Auditorium of Maxwell Khobe Cantonment, Jos, was the venue for an impactful empowerment training program designed to equip the barracks community with essential skills for life before and after retirement. This initiative, led by Major General Abdulsalam Abubakar, General Officer Commanding (GOC) and Commanding Officer of Operation Safe Haven, aims to foster self-reliance and sustainable employment among military personnel and their families.
This effort aligns with the vision of the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede, to encourage the Army workforce to explore farming and animal husbandry as complementary business ventures while continuing their primary duty of safeguarding the nation’s integrity.
The event featured a notable lineup of guests, including:
- Dr. Afiz Ogun Oluwatoyin, Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), as the Special Guest of Honor.
- Dr. Hosea Istifanus Finangwai, Former Commissioner of Agriculture, Plateau State.
- Dr. Samuel Adetunji (Dr. Fish), Chairman of Dr. Fish Farms.
- General Managers of Zenith Bank and First Bank, present to explore how financial institutions can support participants with grants and loans to establish their ventures.
- Commanding Officers and other High Ranked Military Personnel
In his opening remarks, Major General Abdulsalam Abubakar emphasized the program’s significance: “It is an honour to work with our partners on this project to enrich the lives of our people, especially those in the barracks. This program will equip participants with fish farming skills to promote self-reliance and employment opportunities for serving and retired personnel.” He encouraged participants to utilize the training fully and expressed his gratitude to all guests for their commitment to the cause before officially declaring the program open.
Dr Samuel Adetunji, popularly known as “Dr Fish,” shared his inspiring journey from humble beginnings as a National Youth Corps member in Jos to becoming a successful entrepreneur through fish farming. He pledged to empower participants with practical knowledge and provided each attendee with 50 fingerlings to launch their fish farming enterprises. “This business has changed my life, and I am confident it will empower everyone here,” he remarked.
The General Managers of Zenith Bank and First Bank also addressed the audience, reaffirming their institutions’ commitment to supporting the initiative. They highlighted plans to provide grants and loans tailored to help participants establish and scale their fish farming businesses, thus ensuring financial stability and growth.
The Special Guest of Honor, Dr. Afiz Ogun Oluwatoyin, in his keynote address, described the program as a pivotal initiative aligned with the Federal Government’s SkillUp Africa SUPA Training Program. This program empowers young artisans, including military personnel, with tech-enabled skills to promote industry-standard excellence.
“This program supports the vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Chief of Army Staff to empower the military workforce. I commend the GOC for his leadership and assure my continued support,” Dr. Ogun Oluwatoyin stated.
This training program represents a significant milestone in addressing the economic challenges faced by military families. By incorporating fish farming into their skill sets and leveraging financial support from partnering banks, participants are positioned to secure sustainable livelihoods and improve their quality of life.
The Nigerian Army, in collaboration with its partners, continues to demonstrate its dedication to uplifting the barracks community, empowering them with the resources and skills needed to thrive beyond their military careers.
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has revealed how entrenched interests benefiting from Nigeria’s fuel import and subsidy regime tried to frustrate the construction of his $20 billion refinery, describing them as a powerful “mafia” determined to preserve a lucrative subsidy system.
Mr Dangote said the resistance came from traders, shippers and local beneficiaries of Nigeria’s long-running petrol subsidy arrangement who saw the refinery as a threat to billions of naira in profits.
Speaking in an interview with Nicolai Tangen, chief executive officer of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, he said these interests worked to delay access to project land and frustrate the refinery’s take-off.
“All this would have been blocked by what you call the mafia in oil business to make sure that we don’t come and address these issues,” he said.
He said securing land to build his world-class refinery took five years, with one site delayed for three and a half years and another for one and a half years, as vested interests sought to stop the project.
“But we were not deterred at all. We were actually focused. We knew what we were doing,” he added.
Mr Dangote explained that for decades Nigeria spent huge sums importing refined petroleum products despite being a major crude producer, creating a system that enriched a few players at the expense of the wider economy.
He said subsidy payments alone reached nearly $10 billion annually.
“The people who were actually benefiting because Nigeria was giving almost about $10 billion every year as subsidy… there are shippers who are making tonnes of money, there are traders who are making tonnes of money,” he said.
He added that a small group also profited from local product allocations under the subsidy regime.
“So these are the people that are not agreeing for us to settle down because they believe that no, we are coming here to displace them. Of course, that’s what we have done now,” he said.
The refinery, which required the construction of an entirely new port, roads and water infrastructure, employed 67,000 people during construction, the African billionaire said.
Mr Dangote said the project became far larger and more difficult than initially imagined, but abandoning it was never an option.
READ ALSO: Dangote rejects NNPC’s bid for bigger refinery stake, pushes for wider ownership
“When you get to the middle of the ocean, you realise that the tide was bad. When you go forward, it’s bad. When you go backwards, it’s bad. So you have to work forward,” he said, using the analogy to paint a broader picture of the difficulties he encountered while building the refinery.
He said the refinery has now changed the market structure and significantly reduced the influence of those who depended on imports and subsidy payments.
The plant currently sources over half of its crude from Nigeria while also importing from Angola, Libya and the United States.
“We source about 56 per cent from Nigeria and some from Angola. We buy quite a bit from Angola, we buy from Libya, and we buy from the US. At one point, we were doing about seven to eight cargoes of WTI from the US. But we’re getting more of Nigeria’s crude now, he said.
Mr Dangote explained that the refinery is currently buying 21 cargoes every month in Nigeria. “That’s how big we are,” he added, stating that they are more than doubling the refinery.
“You know, in the next 30 months, we will be at 1.4 million barrels per day, which is huge,” he noted.
BY NECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR—The Securities and Exchange Commission has said it is placing artificial intelligence, data analytics and technology-driven regulation at the centre of Nigeria’s capital market reforms to attract both local and foreign investments.
Speaking at the FSDH Investor Conference 2026 in Lagos, the Director-General of the SEC, Emomotimi Agama, said the future of global investing would increasingly depend on the quality of intelligence, data and technology supporting investment decisions rather than the size of capital alone.
According to him, the era of “intelligent investing” has already arrived, driven by artificial intelligence, real-time analytics, distributed ledger technology and algorithmic systems that are reshaping how investments are priced, allocated and protected globally.
He said, “We are at the threshold of what scholars and practitioners are calling the era of intelligent investing — a paradigm in which data does not merely inform decisions, but actively participates in them.”
Agama noted that the SEC had embarked on what he described as the most comprehensive regulatory reform agenda in its history to ensure Nigeria remains competitive in the evolving global investment environment.
He explained that the Commission’s reforms were aimed at creating a forward-looking market structure capable of supporting intelligent investing through faster settlement systems, tokenised securities and deeper derivatives markets.
According to him, the Commission’s seven-pillar capital market infrastructure vision includes plans to achieve T+1 settlement cycles, expand digital assets regulation and build a comprehensive framework for tokenised securities.
The SEC boss said the Commission was also developing governance frameworks for artificial intelligence applications in the capital market to ensure transparency, accountability and investor confidence.
“We are developing AI governance frameworks for capital market participants — frameworks that demand explainability, accountability and algorithmic fairness. An investor in Nigeria deserves to know not only what decisions were made on their behalf, but how those decisions were reached,” he said.
Agama stated that intelligent investing must be inclusive and accessible to ordinary Nigerians, adding that the SEC’s fintech-bank integration strategy targets about 20 million retail investors across the country.
He said technology and data-driven investing tools could democratise access to wealth creation opportunities for small businesses, artisans and low-income earners who had previously been excluded from formal investment systems.
The SEC DG also stressed the importance of collaboration between regulators, financial institutions, fintech firms and investors in building a resilient and technology-driven market ecosystem.
According to him, Nigeria’s capital market reforms and adoption of intelligent investing frameworks would strengthen investor confidence, improve market transparency and position the country as a leading investment destination in Africa.
He added that the Commission was strengthening investor protection through enhanced enforcement mechanisms, financial literacy programmes and the establishment of a dedicated Investor Protection Department.
Agama said, “Confidence is the ultimate asset in a capital market. Every disclosure we enforce, every fraud we prosecute, every investor we educate adds to the stock of market confidence.”
He further noted that Nigeria’s growing role in African capital market integration and digital finance initiatives would help channel long-term investments into infrastructure, gender finance and other critical sectors of the economy.
The SEC DG commended FSDH Merchant Bank for creating a platform for stakeholders to discuss the future of intelligent investing, adding that collaboration and data-sharing among market participants would be critical to building globally competitive financial markets in Nigeria.
The post SEC positions AI, data-driven regulation to attract investments appeared first on Business Today NG.
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