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⛽NCDMB to Train 10,000 Nigerians for Oil Jobs

⛽NCDMB to Train 10,000 Nigerians for Oil Jobs

Plus: 📰 Elon Musk's Grokipedia to rival Wikipedia

Innovation Village
October 29, 2025

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Good morning Valued Subscribers👋

So, Elon Musk has finally launched Grokipedia—an AI-powered online encyclopedia from xAI positioned as a rival to Wikipedia. Closer to home, there’s a new name buzzing in Nigeria’s telecoms space: Vitel Wireless. The timing is interesting. Just when the market seemed set in its ways, a fresh contender arrives promising better service—and, let’s be honest, real competition.

You know how this goes: new players bring pressure, spark innovation, and sometimes surprise consumers who’ve had the same options for years.

Today feels like the right moment to explore what these moves say about the shifting dynamics of tech, business, and the digital economy across Africa.

Let’s dive in👇

Today’s Menu ☕️

⛽ NCDMB Rolls Out Field Readiness Program to Prepare 10,000 Nigerians for Oil Jobs
📰 Elon Musk launches Grokipedia as an alternative to Wikipedia
📶 Vitel Wireless to Launch Nigeria’s First MVNO on Oct 30
👨‍💻 Hackers Claim Theft of 2.15 Terabytes of M-Tiba Health Data Affecting 4.8 Million Users
💵 FinDev Canada commits $100M loan to Africa Finance Corporation to boost climate infrastructure
🗼Standard Bank backs Africa’s fibre rollout with $42M loan facility
⚙️Nigeria Environment Ministry Joins Nigeria’s 1Government Cloud Digital Drive

⛽OIL AND GAS

NCDMB Rolls Out Field Readiness Program to Prepare 10,000 Nigerians for Oil Jobs

At first glance, this might look like another government “train 10,000 youths” program — but this one’s different. The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) isn’t just doing this for show. They’ve basically cracked the oil industry’s cheat code — and they’re using it to train an army of specialists for Nigeria’s next energy boom.

The genius part is instead of guessing what skills the industry needs, the NCDMB looked at Expatriate Quota applications — the official forms oil companies send when they can’t find a qualified Nigerian for a role. Those forms became a treasure map showing exactly where the talent gaps are.

So now, they’re using that data to train 10,000 Nigerians in the 10 most in-demand oil and gas skills — everything from subsea engineering and underwater welding to automation, AI, drone tech, and even helicopter piloting. It’s like Nigeria is building a tech-powered oil and gas dream team.......…..…continue reading

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📰 INFORMATION

Elon Musk launches Grokipedia as an alternative to Wikipedia

Elon Musk has officially announced the launch of Grokipedia, an AI-run encyclopedia positioned as a rival to Wikipedia. The platform, which quietly went live on Monday, is being positioned as a direct challenger to Wikipedia, a site Musk has frequently derided as a bastion of “left-leaning propaganda.”

However, the ambitious “truth-seeking” project immediately stumbled, facing a technical crash within an hour of launch and widespread criticism for a glaring irony: many of its articles appear to be directly adapted from Wikipedia itself.

Unlike Wikipedia’s human, transparent editing, Grokipedia centralizes authorship in Grok, xAI’s LLM, which generates and “fact-checks” roughly 885,000 launch articles and may later accept user requests that the AI approves or rejects. Early entries reflect Musk-aligned framing—e.g., binary-only definitions of gender, minimizing January 6, and a laudatory Musk biography—raising concerns about opaque sourcing and algorithmic bias.

The Wikimedia Foundation stressed that knowledge is built by humans and powers AI systems like Grokipedia. After its rocky v0.1 debut, Grokipedia reads more like an ideological statement than a proven alternative so far...…..…continue reading

👨‍💻CYBERCRIME

Hackers Claim Theft of 2.15 Terabytes of M-Tiba Health Data Affecting 4.8 Million Users

So, here’s the deal — what started as a shady post on a Telegram channel has turned into one of the scariest data breach stories Kenya’s ever seen. A hacker group calling itself Kazu claims to have broken into M-Tiba, the country’s digital health wallet, and stolen over 2 terabytes of data — that’s about 17 million files, possibly affecting 4.8 million people.

To prove they’re not bluffing, they even dropped a 2GB “sample,” and what’s inside isn’t just boring spreadsheets — it’s real patient records. Names, phone numbers, ID numbers, doctor notes, diagnoses, invoices — the whole thing. Imagine your doctor’s report, your test results, even your clinic bills, being sold online. That’s how bad it is.

For context, M-Tiba isn’t some random startup. It’s one of Kenya’s big tech success stories — a digital health wallet backed by Safaricom and PharmAccess, built to help people save and pay for medical care. It was supposed to be a safe space for your health funds. Now that trust has completely cracked......…continue reading

💵 FUNDING

FinDev Canada commits $100M loan to Africa Finance Corporation to boost climate infrastructure

FinDev Canada just made a big move — they’re putting $100 million into the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) to help speed up Africa’s green infrastructure push.

The money will go into projects that actually move the needle — things like solar and wind power, and even a low-carbon railway system in the DRC that’s set to make city transport cleaner and more efficient.

Basically, it’s Canada’s way of saying: “We’re betting on Africa’s climate future.” FinDev’s VP, Paulo Martelli, said it’s all about backing an institution that’s already leading on infrastructure and sustainability — while also helping FinDev strengthen its footprint in Africa.......…..…continue reading

🗼DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

Standard Bank backs Africa’s fibre rollout with $42M loan facility

Standard Bank is putting serious muscle behind Africa’s digital future — it just arranged a $42 million loan for Bandwidth & Cloud Services Group (BCS) to help them expand fibre networks across the continent.

If you’re not familiar, BCS already runs over 80,000 km of fibre in 15 countries, connecting more than 80 million people. Now, with this new funding, they’re gearing up to push even further — reaching more remote areas and making the internet faster and more affordable.

It’s a big deal because better connectivity means better education, smoother healthcare, stronger businesses, and more people finally being part of the digital world.

For Standard Bank, this isn’t just another loan — it’s a statement of intent. As they put it, “Africa is our home; we drive her growth.” And with moves like this, they’re clearly backing that up by powering Africa’s next wave of digital inclusion......…..…continue reading

⚙️ DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Nigeria Environment Ministry Joins Nigeria’s 1Government Cloud Digital Drive

Nigeria’s digital transformation just got a major boost — this time from the Federal Ministry of Environment, which has officially joined the Galaxy Backbone 1Government Cloud Digitalisation Programme.

In simple terms, the government is moving its environmental operations to a secure, all-in-one digital platform built right here in Nigeria. The goal? To cut paperwork, improve efficiency, protect local data, and even reduce carbon emissions — talk about going green in every sense.

Through the 1Gov Cloud, agencies can now automate processes, sign documents digitally, hold virtual meetings, and securely share files — all on a homegrown system instead of relying on foreign platforms. The Ministry of Environment has already jumped in, with 15 departments onboarded, 316 workflows created, and 890 user accounts activated.......…continue reading