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Plateau, Katsina, Ekiti others to benefit $650M from world bank project

Published

3 years ago

November 2, 2022

vicky

Plateau,others benefit $650M from world bank project

Plateau, Katsina, Ekiti, and four other States have been selected to benefit from the World Bank’s $650 million long-term sustainability of water, sanitation, and hygiene project in Nigeria.

Other States listed as beneficiaries of the project include Kaduna, Imo, Delta, and Gombe States.

Chief Executive Officer, Male Integrated Limited, Mr. Michael Ale, made this known during the maiden national Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), sustainability conference with theme:’Achieving SDGs Through Independent Evaluation And Mutual Accountability’ held at Kakanfo Inn, Ibadan, Oyo State capital on Tuesday.

Ale, further noted that:” WASH is also about COVID-19, Flooding, health, sanitation, wellness, livelihood, food system, drought, hygiene, even Nation Building. WASH cut across every sector of our existence most importantly power. Imagine the great importance attached to WASH but is grossly neglected by Nigerians because of inadequate information to the populace.

“In the main time, Nigeria is basely affected by flooding and this is evident by the recording of casualties, it is pertinent to note that, the basic infrastructures needed to curb seasonal flooding has been neglected over decades and the consequences are what we are experiencing now.”

“This has led to the loss of lives and properties through different means and contamination from our water bodies most importantly our groundwater. Almost 22 states out of 36 states of the country had witnessed one devastating issue relating to flooding but almost all the groundwater in Nigeria must have been affected.”

He, therefore, called for urgent action by the authorities concerned that certain immediate and proactive actions are required beyond humanitarian and emergency responsiveness to the affected areas.

Speaking on why Oyo State was not included in the project, Ale said:” Oyo State excluded because there are procedures which have to be followed before you can be given that access to part of those that would benefit from the project. So if you do not have those institutional arrangements in place, then it is very difficult to be part of this beautiful gesture from the World Bank.”

Related Topics:$650M Plateau & others world bank project

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Lasaco Assurance’s ₦18.47bn Rights Issue Closes May 13

Published

24 minutes ago

April 21, 2026

Preport

BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR—Lasaco Assurance Plc has announced that v will officially close on May 13, 2026, marking the end date for eligible shareholders to participate in the capital raising exercise.

The offer is part of the company’s strategy to strengthen its financial base, boost underwriting capacity, and support its expansion plans within Nigeria’s insurance sector.

The offer comprises 9,236,321,546 ordinary shares of 50 kobo each, priced at ₦2.00 per share, on the basis of five (5) new shares for every six (6) existing shares held. The Rights Issue is open to shareholders whose names appeared on the Company’s register as at the close of business on February 20, 2026.

The exercise is expected to raise approximately ₦18.47 billion, which will be strategically deployed to strengthen the Company’s capital base, enhance underwriting capacity, and support the expansion of its market presence within Nigeria’s competitive insurance landscape.

Meristem Capital Limited is acting as Lead Issuing House, while PAC Capital serves as Joint Issuing House on the transaction.

Commenting on the development, the Managing Director of Lasaco Assurance Plc, Ademoye Shobo, reaffirmed the Company’s commitment to maintaining a robust capital position to meet its obligations and deliver sustained value to policyholders and stakeholders.

This initiative aligns with broader efforts across the Nigerian insurance industry to meet evolving regulatory capital requirements, strengthen balance sheets, and position operators to underwrite larger and more complex risks across key sectors of the economy.

The post Lasaco Assurance’s ₦18.47bn Rights Issue Closes May 13 appeared first on Business Today NG.

News

AI research lab NeoCognition lands $40M seed to build agents that learn like humans

Published

1 hour ago

April 21, 2026

Preport

Investors are aggressively courting AI researchers to build startups that can make AI more reliable and efficient.

Yu Su, an Ohio State professor leading an AI agent lab, said he initially resisted the pressure from VCs to commercialize his work. He finally took the leap last year and spun out his work into a startup when he saw that foundational model advances could make agents truly personalized.

NeoCognition, a startup Su describes as a research lab developing self-learning AI agents, has just emerged from stealth with $40 million in seed funding. The round was co-led by Cambium Capital and Walden Catalyst Ventures, with participation from Vista Equity Partners and angels, including Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica.

“Today’s agents are generalists,” Su (pictured left) told TechCrunch. “Every time you ask them to do a task, you take a leap of faith.”

According to Su, the issue lies in a lack of consistency. Current agents, whether from Claude Code, OpenClaw or Perplexity’s computer tools, successfully complete tasks as intended only about 50% of the time, he said.

Since agents are still so unreliable, they are not ready to be trusted, independent workers, Su told TechCrunch. NeoCognition intends to change that by developing an agent system that can self-learn to become an expert in any domain, similar to how humans learn.

Su argues that while human intelligence is broad, its real power is our ability to specialize. When we enter a new environment or profession, we can rapidly master its unique rules, relationships, and consequences.

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NeoCognition is building agents to mirror this exact approach.

“For humans, our continued learning process is essentially the process of building a world model for any profession, any environment,” Su said. “We believe for agents to become experts, they need to learn autonomously to build a model of any given micro world.”

Su views this capacity for rapid specialization as the critical missing link to getting AI to work reliably on its own.

While it is possible to train agents for autonomous tasks, they must be custom-engineered for a specific vertical. NeoCognition is different because it’s building agents that are generalists capable of self-learning and specializing in any domain.

NeoCognition intends to sell its agent systems primarily to enterprises, including established SaaS companies, which can use them to build agent-workers or to enhance existing product offerings.

Su highlighted that an investment from Vista Equity Partners is especially valuable for this reason. As one of the largest private equity firms in the software space, Vista can provide NeoCognition with direct access to a vast portfolio of companies looking to modernize their products with AI.

NeoCognition currently has about 15 employees, the majority of whom hold PhDs.

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