Nigeria makes progress in recovering looted Benin artefacts

Nigeria has recorded a breakthrough in the effort to recover artefacts looted during the 1897 Benin Expedition. A joint announcement by Cambridge University and Nigeria’s Commission for Museums and Monuments confirms the transfer of legal ownership, while physical returns are planned for the coming months. The move forms part of a wider push across Europe to address colonial-era collections.

CGTN Africa

Related story: Video - UK returns stolen Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

Ex-Nigeria Airways staff demand $26mn severance payout

Former employees of defunct Nigeria Airways (Lagos) are urging the federal government to release NGN36 billion (USD26 million) in severance benefits approved by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last year, reports Nigeria's Daily Trust newspaper.

The payments, approved in June 2025, were meant to resolve a decades-long struggle for compensation following the airline's liquidation in 2004. However, nine months after the presidential directive, the funds have yet to be disbursed, according to workers’ representatives.

In a March 29 statement, spokesperson Sheri Kyari, also a former assistant manager at Nigerian Airways, said the finance ministry had not yet authorised the release of the money. The group appealed to the current finance minister, Wale Edun, and other officials to act immediately.

"Across Nigeria, elderly former workers are dying in penury, unable to afford food, shelter, medication, and other basic necessities of life," Kyari said, adding that some retirees had died without receiving their entitlements.

The former employees' struggle for severance pay has spanned multiple administrations. Former president Muhammadu Buhari approved partial payments after years of protests, but a balance remained outstanding until Tinubu’s approval last year.

Nigeria Airways ceased operations in 2003 and was formally liquidated in 2004 by the federal government.

By Hilka Birns, ch-aviation

World Bank approves $500m to boost Nigeria’s agriculture, target one million farmers

The funding, provided through the International Development Association (IDA), will support the Nigeria Sustainable Agricultural Value-Chains for Growth (AGROW) project over a six-year period from 2026 to 2032.

The project is designed to improve farm productivity, strengthen value chains, and create jobs, while helping to stabilise food supply in Africa’s most populous nation.

Agriculture remains central to Nigeria’s economy, contributing about a quarter of gross domestic product and employing roughly half of the workforce.

Yet the sector has struggled for years with low yields, weak infrastructure, climate shocks, and limited access to finance, leaving many smallholder farmers stuck in subsistence production.

The AGROW programme aims to shift that model by linking farmers more directly to markets and private sector buyers.

It will provide matching grants to agribusinesses that source produce from smallholder farmers, with a focus on processing, storage, and market access.

Key crops targeted under the initiative include rice, maize, cassava and soybeans, staples that are critical to both food security and industrial use.

Beyond financing, the programme will invest in research and extension services, expand access to climate-resilient seeds, and introduce a national digital registry for farms and farmers.

Authorities say the digital system will help improve planning, input distribution, and access to advisory services, including weather information.

The project will also seek to improve regulation of seeds and fertilisers, while encouraging private sector participation in input supply and land-based investments.

“AGROW is a transformative step for Nigeria’s agriculture, empowering smallholder farmers, unlocking private sector–led growth, and strengthening food security in a sustainable way,” said Mathew Verghis, the World Bank’s country director for Nigeria.

He added that the initiative is expected to benefit up to one million farmers and attract significant private capital into the sector.

The World Bank estimates the programme could mobilise an additional $220 million in private investment over its lifetime.

The new funding comes amid broader efforts by the Nigerian government to revive agriculture as a driver of growth and reduce reliance on food imports.

In recent months, authorities have launched complementary initiatives, including irrigation expansion projects aimed at improving year-round farming.

However, investment in the sector remains relatively low. Nigeria allocated less than 2% of its 2025 budget to agriculture, far below the 10% target agreed by African countries under the Maputo Declaration.

Past interventions such as the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme and the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme have sought to improve access to finance and boost domestic production, but structural challenges persist.

With rising food prices and pressure on household incomes, the success of AGROW will be closely watched as a test of whether Nigeria can translate policy support and external funding into tangible gains for farmers and consumers.

By Ayodeji Adegboyega, Business Insider Africa

Nigeria’s Masai Ujiri Joins Serena Williams as Co-Owners of Toronto Tempo

 

Masai Ujiri, one of the most respected executives and visionaries in global basketball, has joined the Toronto Tempo as a Principal Owner.

Ujiri joins in a Principal ownership role alongside Serena Williams.

As the architect of the Toronto Raptors’ 2019 NBA Championship and founder of Giants of Africa, Ujiri has dedicated his career to empowering global communities through sport while championing women’s empowerment, equity, and opportunity at every level of leadership and development.

Now, as an owner of the Toronto Tempo, he brings that same vision to developing the next generation of leaders in women’s basketball in Canada and around the world.

“As an honourary Canadian, I’m excited to be part of the Tempo team as I believe they are building something truly historic — a franchise that represents not only Canada, but the future of basketball,” said Ujiri. “I believe deeply in the vision behind the Tempo: creating female leaders, elevating women not just on the court, but across the organization, and building a championship culture from day one. This is more than just a new team — it’s a defining moment in women’s basketball globally.”

Ujiri’s commitment to advancing women in sport comes to life through Tempo Rising, an innovative global coaching mentorship program launching today in collaboration with the Tempo. A first-of-its-kind initiative, Tempo Rising supports emerging women-identifying and non-binary coaches at the introduction-to-competition level who are shaping the future of the game in their communities.

The programme offers exclusive access to mentorship, professional development, and hands-on coaching experiences, guided by Masai Ujiri alongside General Manager Monica Wright Rogers and Head Coach Sandy Brondello, with a focus on value-driven coaching, community impact, and long-term growth. Interested candidates can apply here.

“Masai’s leadership, his vision, and his deep belief in the power of sport make him an extraordinary addition to our ownership group,” said Larry Tanenbaum, Chairman of Kilmer Sports Ventures. “In his role as a Principal Owner, his influence and values align perfectly with what Tempo stands for — equity, excellence, and purpose. Together, we will continue to build a franchise that reflects the best of what sport can do for communities here in Canada and around the world.”

This Day

Why Nigeria's Kunle Afolayan believes YouTube is key to the future of African filmmaking

Nigerian producer and director Kunle Afolayan is optimistic. He believes new technologies and platforms can open a wealth of opportunities for filmmakers across Africa.

“I don’t think that building more multiplexes is the solution to distribution,” he says. “It’s more looking at new innovations. An average teen would hardly go to the cinema. They sleep on their phone. How do you take film to them?

“I believe in cinema, I love cinema, I grew up with cinema. But I don’t think it should be rigid. We should allow some sort of flexibility that gives room for different platforms to get the film to the people. The ticket prices in cinemas are exorbitant, even in Africa. People will always find cheaper ways to watch the film. They’ll pirate it. A lot of Nigerians are now opening channels on YouTube. They make films, and they take them straight to YouTube.”

Afolayan is one of Nollywood’s most renowned filmmakers, credited as a leading proponent of the New Nigerian Cinema movement, thanks to titles including 2006 supernatural thriller Irapada and 2010’s The Figurine, which won best film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards. His pictures began to find an international audience when Netflix licensed his 2014 thriller October 1. In 2021, he landed a three-year deal to produce three films in Nigeria as Netflix Originals: Swallow, Aníkúlápó and Ijogbon.

The filmmaker is grateful for the global platform the streamers have given to African filmmaking, even if they have recently pulled back on commissioning in the region.

“It was a struggle for African films to get selected in major festivals, except if it’s a co-production project,” he says. “Then Netflix came, and that changed things. Films were taken to the global scene.”

Afolayan also recognises the streamers’ investment in local talent: “We have a school [Kunle Afolayan Productions Film and Television Academy, or KAP] on which Netflix partnered and brought the University of Southern California on board to equip training rooms.”

The relationship Afolayan has forged with Netflix is continuing. The second season of an Aníkúlápó spin‑off series premiered on the platform in English-speaking territories at the end of January.

Attracting partners

The filmmaker is keen to encourage more international productions to look to Nigeria and Africa for filming opportunities. He points to the production and accommodation facilities he funded and founded, KAP Hub in Lagos and KAP Film Village in Igbojaye, Oyo state, as examples of Nigeria’s film infrastructure. He is also keen to express that Western media reports of violent kidnappings are not representative of the whole of Nigeria.

“Most of the places the attacks are happening are in the north,” he clarifies.

Two UK-Nigeria co-productions, both shot in Nigeria, have recently played major film festivals Cannes 2025 Un Certain Regard selection and Bafta winner My Father’s Shadow, from British Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr, and Olive Nwosu’s Sundance 2026 selection Lady. It is a point of frustration for Afolayan that African producers have to co-produce with their Western counterparts to generate interest from festivals, and that ideas originated in Nigeria from Nigeria-based producers are not breaking through.

“The whole country was celebrating, it’s a Nigerian film,” says Afolayan, when word broke that My Father’s Shadow had landed in Cannes last year, billed at the time as the first Nigerian film to do so. “Then, the shocker came [that the film is largely funded and produced out of the UK, with Davies a UK-based filmmaker].”

Afolayan is now in pre-production on a self-funded 10-part series about the Yoruba tribe and its deities, with plans to shoot in Benin and Nigeria. He is also working on a docudrama about his late father, filmmaker and actor Adeyemi Afolayan, and is talking to the Royal African Society in the UK, organiser of London’s Film Africa festival at which Afolayan delivered a masterclass last year, about supporting the project.

Afolayan has been developing the project for around seven years and was struggling to work out how to recreate his father’s likeness, until he experimented using the Meta app. “With AI, the problem is solved.”

By Mona Tabbara, Screen Daily