Agence de Presse Ouest-Africaine
Agence de Presse Ouest-Africaine
Breaking Nigeria news and analysis — politics, the economy, security and business across Abuja, Lagos and the 36 states, from West Africa News Agency.
The Africa Credit Rating Agency is being read by some as a challenger to Fitch, Moody's and S&P Global. Misheck Mutize argues its real purpose is to deepen African capital markets, where fewer than 5% of an estimated US$4 trillion domestic capital base carries a formal rating.
HubPharm Africa, a Nigerian healthcare startup led by Tope Kareem, won the US$30,000 grand prize at the second ECOWAS Startup Awards in Abuja on 30 September 2026. Gaynako of Senegal and My Opinion of Côte d'Ivoire took the runner-up prizes, while the Commission launched the ECOWAS Private Sector Development Academy and ECOWAS Startup Networks.
ECOWAS, the European Union and GIZ opened a two-day workshop in Abuja on September 29, 2026, to launch the Regional Energy Governance and Information System in West Africa. The project, funded by the EU with a budget of 3,000,000 million Euros and implemented by GIZ, aims to harmonise regional energy governance and strengthen the ECOWAS Energy Information System.
A security researcher says the May 2026 abduction of more than 40 pupils and teachers in Oyo State was the first mass school kidnapping in southern Nigeria, attributed to the Ansaru group. Saheed Babajide Owonikoko links the attack to the arrests of two Ansaru leaders and argues Nigeria's security response remains reactive.
The ECOWAS Commission opened the second edition of its Startup Awards in Abuja on September 28, 2026, with 60 finalists selected from 1,499 qualified applications across 12 member states. The top three startups will receive US$30,000, US$20,000 and US$15,000 at a ceremony on September 30, which also features investor deal rooms and a ministerial dialogue on MSMEs and trade.
Six years after the October 2020 #EndSARS protests, the movement's legacy is splitting the generation that built it. Research links participation to increased political engagement, but also to trust deficits, psychological distress and, for some, the decision to leave Nigeria. Studies of the "Japa" phenomenon suggest migration is often framed as escape rather than economic calculation.
Research from the University of Chicago's Climate Impact Lab projects 451,000 additional heat deaths worldwide from this year's strong El Niño, with Nigeria expected to record the highest national toll at 31,400. Sudan, Niger and Chad are also among the worst-affected countries, as limited electricity access and poverty leave millions unable to protect themselves from extreme heat.
ECOWAS conducted a five-day training on physical security and stockpile management for Nigerian security personnel in Port Harcourt from 7 to 11 September 2026. The programme, held with the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies and Nigeria's national small arms centre, drew participants from twelve agencies and included a visit to the Nigerian Army's 29 Battalion armoury.
Nigerian rapper eLDee the Don has released I Wish You Well, a comic track about a woman who asks a near-stranger for a loan and then for travel and designer goods. The song arrives as billing, the expectation that a suitor should fund a woman's lifestyle, remains central to Nigerian debates about dating, money and gender.
King Sunny Adé turns 80 this year, closing in on six decades of shaping Nigerian jùjú music and carrying it to international audiences. Born in Òṣogbo in 1946, he built his own bands, label and a Grammy-nominated run with Island Records, while keeping Yoruba rhythms, talking drums and oral traditions at the centre of his sound.
