The senate committee on finance says it will begin a two-day public hearing on the tax reform bills on February 24.

Sani Musa, the committee’s chairman, spoke about the scheduled hearing on Wednesday.

“We intend to take on two of the bills on each day of the session for the press to be fully abreast with what we intend to do,” the senator said.

“It is our duty as legislators to do the needful for the good of this country. We are all representatives of different tribes, religions, geography and we are Nigerians.

“What we will work towards giving Nigerians are laws that will put us on track economically. And by the grace of God, we will succeed.”

Musa said sufficient funding would propel Nigeria’s economy, including infrastructure, education, and agriculture, to what obtains in developed nations.

He also expressed optimism about the public hearing, citing President Bola Tinubu’s assurances of non-interference in the tax bills processes.

The lawmaker added that the committee has invited Wale Edun, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy; Jumoke Oduwole, the minister of industry, trade and investment; and Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister for justice, to the hearings.

“We have also invited the minister of petroleum resources, the chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service and the statistician-general of the federation so that he will be able to come and give us his own submission,” he said.

Last week, the four bills — the Nigeria Tax Bill, the Tax Administration Bill, the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill, and the Nigeria Revenue Service Bill — scaled second reading at the house of representatives after an extensive debate by lawmakers.

On October 3, Tinubu asked the national assembly to pass the bills, which the senate approved for a second reading in November.

The bills initially faced opposition from the national economic council (NEC) and northern governors, who argued that the proposed laws could harm the region’s interests.

They urged the national assembly to reject the bills, demanding fair and equitable implementation across all regions.

However, in January, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) endorsed the bills after agreeing on an “equitable” VAT-sharing formula.

[TheCable]

Today in Abuja, ‘A Journey of Service: An Autobiography’, by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, will be publicly presented. With the book coming 32 years after Babangida ‘stepped aside’ in August 1993, it means that more than 70 percent of Nigerians were not witnesses to the events in the narratives, given our young demographics. Like everything Babangida, as I wrote last August, after the publishers sent me a digital copy (planned pages) of the book while requesting for a blurb, “opinions are bound to be divided about his (Babangida’s) interpretations of some epochal events which discerning readers could argue leave more questions than answers.”

Divided into five parts and 13 chapters, the foreword by General Yakubu Gowon highlights why Babangida’s book is important. “Given the monumental and historical changes that General Babangida presided over, it is only natural that many Nigerians of different generations would be eager to learn first-hand the motivations…and the reasons behind these far-reaching decisions, and events, some of which shook the nation to its very foundation,” Gowon wrote. But the question remains: Will readers be satisfied with the explanations provided by Babangida for some of these ‘far-reaching decisions’? Perhaps the more pertinent question is: Why is Babangida publishing his memoirs now after admittedly rebuffing earlier entreaties from friends, associates and family members to ‘tell his story’? He provides an answer in the prologue. “We live in a country where primarily uninformed commentators are often the final judges of events (that) they know nothing about,” Babangida wrote. “But because I had the honour to lead a chapter in our national journey, my brief encounter with authority and responsibility may interest those with fair minds.”  

The account of Babangida’s early years is quite fascinating as he weaves post-colonial political developments with historical and cultural events that shaped his growing up in what is now Niger State. He also explained why he had to change his surname from Badamosi to Babangida in January 1964 because almost everyone he encountered assumed him to be a Yoruba man! But none more revealing is the account of his life at Bida Provincial Secondary School where his classmates included Abdulsalami Abubakar, Sani Bello, Mohammed Mamman Magoro, Garba Duba, Sani Sami, Mohammed Gado Nasko and Mamman Jiya Vatsa—men who, like him, later joined the military and, at different times, held critical positions in Nigeria.

Interestingly, last Tuesday marked the 49th anniversary of the assassination of General Murtala Muhammed in the coup led by Lt Colonel Sukar Bukar Dimka. Drafted by General T.Y. Danjuma to foil Dimka’s coup, Babangida provides revealing insights on the conversation with Dimka, a friend and one of the groomsmen at his wedding (to the late Maryam) in 1969. Not only was Babangida listed among those to be killed that day but was in fact one of the reasons for the coup. Dimka reportedly told Babangida that he was a most hated military officer for being too favoured by their superiors, especially Danjuma. “How could you be a member of the Supreme Military Council?”, Babangida recounted Dimka asking him in those tense moments inside Radio Nigeria premises in Ikoyi, Lagos. But beyond the narrative of the coup, how it was foiled and the subsequent trial of culprits, Babangida also shared insights on how Danjuma (whom most officers preferred) insisted that Obasanjo, rather than him (Danjuma), should be Head of State in the meeting held to replace the assassinated Muhammed.

As an officer during the coup that toppled the First Republic, the countercoup that brought in General Gowon, the civil war that followed and the subsequent coups in which he was a direct participant, Babangida’s accounts of that era are quite profound. For instance, it was Danjuma who proposed the elevation of the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua from the rank of Lt Colonel to Brigadier General (later, Major General) to become the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, apparently for ethno-religious balancing in the country. This speaks to the character of Danjuma who chose to be the number three man in Nigeria when he could easily have been number one. Meanwhile, six months earlier, following the overthrow of Gowon, when senior officers canvassed that Muhammed should head a collegiate leadership of himself, Obasanjo and Danjuma, he (Muhammed) rejected the idea at a meeting Babangida said lasted several hours, insisting that as Head of State, he (Muhammed) would not share power with anyone.

Expectedly, Babangida’s book details his rise to power in 1985 as a military president and the reform programmes initiated while in office. But the most consequential chapters are ‘The Challenges of Leadership’ and ‘Transition to Civil Rule and the June 12 Saga’. The issues addressed in the first (chapter ten) include the death of Dele Giwa, a personal friend with whom he spoke often on phone and met a few times; the Gideon Orkar coup that tried to divide the country; the OIC Palaver; the 1989 SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) riots, the Nigeria Airforce C-130 plane crash involving 151 mid-career military officers and what he described as “a deep personal sense of betrayal”—the coup involving his friend, Mamman Vatsa whose execution he sanctioned.

Readers should find out his take on Dele Giwa’s assassination and other issues but on Vatsa, Babangida painted a picture of close friendship that started from childhood and how at some point in their lives they both shared a room. “We would reach out for whatever shirt was available, irrespective of whose it was, and just wear it and head out! We were that close,” Babangida wrote while explaining how he found out later that Vatsa was always jealous of his achievements. He also explained the encounters he had with Vatsa when there were rumours about the plot and the mediatory roles played by others before the coup unravelled. “Being intermediate and senior officers, they were fully aware of the consequences of planning a coup and failing,” Babangida wrote to explain why Vatsa had to die by firing squad. “That is one of the most elementary lessons every military officer knows by heart.”

Perhaps the account most Nigerians have been waiting for is that on June 12 and Babangida renders it in chapter 12. The central character in the narrative is General Sani Abacha. In fact, according to Babangida, Abacha annulled the June 12 (1993) presidential election! I leave readers to find out the details and reach their own conclusions.

From cover to cover, each page of Babangida’s memoir promised more and more insight into the military and the Nigerian state. He also highlights some of his foreign interventions, including initiating ECOMOG which helped to end the war in Liberia and Sierra Leone. And he sheds light on several domestic issues regarding his administration—convincingly in some, not so in others. He also lays the boot into a number of key players of that era, in a few cases, with innuendoes. But in a way, Babangida also knows that in the eyes of most Nigerians of a certain generation, his stewardship will forever be defined by ‘June 12’ on which he expressed regrets. “If I have to do it all over again,” he wrote, “I’d do it differently.” Sadly, in statecraft, rarely do leaders get a second chance to make a first impression.

Meanwhile, I wrote four books on that elastic transition to civil rule programme which ended with the death of Abacha. The first, ‘Fortress on Quicksand’ was on the futile efforts by 23 presidential aspirants in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC) before they were all disqualified and banned from contesting elections. The second, ‘POLITRICKS: National Assembly under Military Dictatorship’, detailed the intrigues of having a civilian legislature with Babangida as a military president. The third, ‘Abiola’s Travails’ was published to mark his (Abiola’s) 60th birthday at a period he was in detention. ‘The Last 100 Days of Abacha’ completed the series. I have combined (and edited) them into one book that will be released in June this year.  

Writing a memoir—especially by those who have held leadership positions at the highest political levels—involves walking back through countless challenges and tough decisions. With his memoir, Babangida has shown proof of a retirement spent reflecting on a nation that gave him everything; and to which he gave his best, notwithstanding the ironies of history. Regardless of how some readers may perceive Babangida, his ‘Journey of Service’ provides historical context to some of the issues that dogged the administration he led. His recollections may not provide all the answers, and there are aspects many will dispute, but at least he has reopened the conversation about a troubled and troublesome era in Nigerian history.

Adebanjo’s Glorious Exit

  I have had the privilege of close interactions with Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo for more than three decades and as I wrote in my tribute to him when he marked his 90th birthday in April 2018, he is a man of unbending conviction who neither sits on the fence nor tiptoes around issues. On Nigeria, he is a passionate advocate for restructuring the country along the federal arrangement we had in the First Republic before the military interruption. Last Saturday, we had our usual conversation in which I argued, as I always did, that as defective as the current structure may be, with good governance and a leadership that appreciates and properly manages our diversity, we can still attain peace and prosperity. But for the first time, and Adebanjo must have noticed, my argument lacked conviction so when he sounded off with his usual refrain, “Ọwọ́ yín ló dẹ̀ kù sí. Àwa ti se ti wá” (It’s now in the hands of your generation. Mine has done its best.) I had a troubling time processing our conversation thereafter…

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The foregoing is excerpted from my presentation at the annual conference of the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) Lagos Chapter where I was guest speaker on 20th October 2021. But in the weeks following that presentation, the late Adebanjo kept calling that he needed to see me. So, on 8th March 2022, I heeded that invitation by going to Lagos and returning to Abuja immediately after our session that lasted about three hours. Quite naturally, our discussion centred on the past, present and future of Nigeria. Although we kept exchanging calls until a few months ago, that happened to be the last time I saw the old man until I heard about his death last Friday. Adebanjo deserves a proper tribute from me and I will do that at the appropriate time. But for now, I join in extending my commiseration to his family. As I told his son, Segun Adebanjo, (a friend from our campus days at Ife in the late eighties) last Friday on phone, “Ẹ̀yìn bàbá ti dára.” May God comfort the family he left behind.

Between ARCON and Business Owners

Following my recent column, ‘Creating a Ganu-Si Economy’, which dwelt on how most government agencies serve as impediments to entrepreneurship, some supporters of the Advertising Regulatory Commission of Nigeria (ARCON) have written several articles in ‘response’. Although none has been sent to me, perhaps because ARCON is relying on third parties, I read them. And they all miss the point. By arguing that my friend who owns a restaurant attracted the hefty fine of N1 milion on two occasions because she circumvented the law that required payment of N15,000 fee and submission of the ‘promo’ for ARCON vetting, they make their case even worse.

In the ‘2024 Budget of Professional Bodies/Councils of Agencies Removed from the FGN Funding’, released by the Budget Office of the Federation, ARCON is number one on the list. While it projected a gross revenue of N1,096,166,050, the agency proposed a total expenditure of N3,716,582,290. With that humongous deficit of N2,620,416,240 between revenue and expenditure, one can only sympathise with ARCON for its increasing desperation. The agency has the second highest expenditure and the highest deficit of the 26 professional bodies on the list. While other professional bodies generate their revenues mainly through membership dues and align expenditure with their revenues, ARCON has had to resort to levying a tax, which it calls vetting fees, on whatever it defines as advertisement or exposure on any platform, including on the social media pages of individuals and small businesses, just to rake in money. 

The fact that each message/post deemed as an advert by ARCON will attract a vetting fee says it all:  this is more about revenue than about vetting. It is equally insightful that the punishment for not submitting even social media posts for clearance is 50 times the vetting fee. Equally interesting is that ARCON can threaten to arraign ‘defaulters’ before its own tribunal, which can impose fines and even jail terms.  ARCON and its defenders are clearly not perturbed by the implication of such threats and taxes for big and small businesses operating in our tough environment. 

The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, summed up my position last Thursday at the inaugural Economic Roundtable/2025 macroeconomic outlook event of rating firm Agusto & Co., held in Lagos. For the benefit of ARCON and its defenders, here is what Oyedele said: “Nigeria’s tax system is unconducive for growth. We are trying to grow, but we’re struggling, and the tax system is holding us down. It has plenty of taxes and taxing agencies everywhere you turn. It doesn’t matter whether you’re small or big, whether you are formal or informal; we tax anything and everything that moves. If it keeps moving, we tax it even again. We tax it even more. We’re speaking to small business owners, and one woman said something to me that I will not forget. She said that it feels like the Nigerian system and the government are feasting on businesses. And I challenge anyone who wants to do a social experiment. Just do a banner; anything that comes to mind will be tailoring. Just write it and place it by the road. Find a plastic chair, sit back about two meters away, and watch what will happen within two days. I promise you, at least five agencies will show up, from business premises to advert levy to permit. You have not even found one customer. One of my hopes and dreams for this country is that in my lifetime, you put up that banner and you receive calls from different government agencies, one asking you whether you know about credit facilities for your sector. ‘We have this capacity development for people doing your business. Would you be interested? Do you need any access to this and that?’ Let’s support ourselves to prosper…”

Those are not my words; they are the words of Oyedele who is one of the leading authorities on such matters today. And it could not have been an accident that he cited ‘advert levy’ as one of the examples of the ways government agencies make life difficult for owners of small businesses in Nigeria.

To demonstrate that ARCON has mutated into a revenue-generating agency, below are the vetting rates advertised by the agency effective 1 January 2024. It was segmented into seven categories. Under ‘Career Matters’, Exam Registration Fee will attract N10,000; Examination Late Registration Fee, N20,000; Examination Subject Fee, N15,000; Exemption Fee, N15,000; EMR, N350,000; EMR (Non-Nigerian), N1,000,000; Accreditation Fee (Higher Institution), N1,000,000. For ‘Annual Practice Fee’, Associate Member will pay, N20,000; Full Member, N30,000; Fellowship Member, N50,000 and Membership Certificate Re-Issuance, N50,000. For ‘Corporate License’, Application will attract N100,000; Fee for three years, N450,000; Consultancy, N225,000; Inspection Fee (Lagos), N200,000; Accelerated Inspection Fee (Lagos), N300,000; Inspection Fee (Outside Lagos), N300,000; Accelerated Inspection Fee (Outside Lagos), N500,000; Corporate License Re-Issuance, N100,000.

But it is clear that ARCON targets businesses to fund the bulk of its hefty budget, since advertising professionals are not that many and since it secured legislative backing to vet and tax anything featured anywhere that it describes as advertisement. For ‘Advertisement Vetting (Traditional Media)’, Regular—Brands, Political, Cause, Ideation will attract payment of N35,000. Meanwhile for Accelerated, 4 Hours, N600,000; 8 hours, N400,000 and 16 hours, N250,000. For ‘Advertisement Vetting (Online Platform)’, Regular—Brands, Political, Cause, Ideation goes for N20,000 while for Accelerated, 4 hours attracts N250,000, 8 hours, N150,000 and 16 hours, N100,000. For the ‘Vetting (SME Category)’, Regular (Brands, Political, Cause, Ideation) goes for N20,000; 8  Working Hours, N150,000; and 16 Working Hours Acceleration, N100,000. Membership of NASME certification by SMEDAN is also required. For ‘Special Category’, the rate is N1,000,000 each for Lottery, Lotto, Game; Betting, Gambling, Wager and Promotion, Raffles, Draws, with the last two subject to a 16 hours vetting window. Meanwhile, Variation (Foreign Talent) will attract N2,500,000 while Variation (Foreign Production) goes for N3,000,000.

With these steep rates, which are per advert, it is very clear that revenue generation has now become the main objective of ARCON. Regulation is just a convenient cover. By the way, I have no problem with the need for regulation in certain critical and sensitive areas of national life. But I have problems with the sweeping powers granted to an organisation like ARCON, and the danger their operations pose to entrepreneurship, economic growth and even constitutionally-guaranteed free speech in Nigeria.

After completing my Senior Academic Fellowship at the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford in 2023, I decided to pursue a one-year postgraduate program in Artificial Intelligence for Business at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford. This decision has significantly intensified my interest in AI, prompting me to author several articles on the subject.

In my piece titled "The Race for AI Supremacy," published in Thisday newspapers on May 2, 2024, I noted, “AI has emerged as a transformative force in the modern world, revolutionizing industries and reshaping economies. In the rapidly evolving AI landscape, leading nations such as the USA, China, the UK, India, the EU, and Israel have made substantial advancements in AI development. Consequently, the regulation of AI has become essential to ensure its responsible and ethical application...”.

The launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022 positioned the USA as a clear frontrunner in the AI arena, especially alongside the major chip manufacturer, Nvidia. The foremost AI companies are primarily based in the USA. However, this status quo seems poised for a shift beginning in January 2025, when the AI community was taken by surprise with the introduction of DeepSeek, an obscure and hitherto unknown Chinese firm, and its R1 model, an Open Source platform. On the debut of DeepSeek R1 model, Nvidia lost about $500billion of its stock valuation, while the NYSE lost over 17% of its share value, ever one-day loss in the history of the Stock Market.

In the February 1st-7th 2025 edition of The Economist, it was reported that: “….DeepSeek’s origins lie in an effort to improve High-Flyer’s algorithms. In 2019 the firm invested 200million Yuan to set up a separate unit to develop its own deep-learning platform, called “High-Flyer 1”. The fund poured 1billion Yuan into the effort in 2021 in order to launch a second iteration armed with 10,000 of Nvidia’s A100 graphics- processing units. This made High-Flyer an outlier: at the time just four other firms in China held such large arsenals of powerful chips, all of which were tech giants such as Alibaba. DeepSeek was made a standalone company in 2023.
It delivered its first jolt to the market in May last year, when it released an ultra cheap chatbot based on its V2 model”.
“…DeepSeek’s new R1 model, which has shocked the West, suggests it is making progress. The company says it cost less than $6 million to train a tiny fraction of comparable models from firms such as OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s boss, has called R1 “impressive”. There is also speculation that DeepSeek has trained its models by studying the results of American ones, a process known as “distillation”. OpenAI has said it has evidence that point to DeepSeek distilling its models, in violation of its terms of service”.
Such claims have been dismissed by some AI analysts, as a case of sour grapes.
I will not join that school of thoughts of those who quickly dismiss the accusations of OpenAI, neither would I lend credence to the accusations, I will rather opine that if OpenAI has any substantial evidence or proof to that effect, it should seek redress in a court of competent jurisdiction.

Now a number of non-AI people may be wondering what distillation is all about.
Let me try to explain what it is in as simplest of terms that one could.

Distillation is a powerful technique in AI design and development that allows practitioners to leverage the strengths of large models while creating more efficient alternatives. By understanding and effectively implementing the distillation process, developers can build models that maintain high accuracy while being suitable for real-world applications where computational and financial resources are a concern.

Distillation in AI design and development can be likened to a process where a smaller, more efficient model (often called a "student" model) is trained to replicate the performance of a larger, more complex model (known as the "teacher" model). This technique is especially useful in scenarios where deploying large models is impractical due to resource constraints, such as memory, computation power, or latency requirements.
Below is a detailed description of the distillation process and its various aspects:

• Understanding the Models

- Teacher Model: This is typically a large, high-capacity model (like a deep neural network) that has been trained on a specific task and achieves high performance metrics. It captures complex patterns and relationships in the data.

- Student Model: This is a smaller, more efficient model that aims to approximate the performance of the teacher model while being less resource-intensive. The student model can be a smaller neural network or a different architecture altogether.

• Data Preparation

- Dataset Selection: The dataset used for distillation should ideally be the same or similar to the one used to train the teacher model. This ensures that the student model learns from the same data distribution.

- Input Processing: Data preprocessing steps (normalization, augmentation, etc.) are applied to the input data to maintain consistency between the teacher and student models.

• Output Generation from the Teacher Model

- Soft Targets: Instead of using the hard labels (e.g., class labels) from the original dataset for training the student, the outputs (predictions) of the teacher model are used. These outputs often include probabilities for each class, which provide more nuanced information about the data distribution.

- Logits Extraction: The logits (raw output scores before applying softmax) from the teacher model can be used to generate soft targets, which provide richer information about class relationships and can help the student model generalize better.

• Training the Student Model

- Loss Function: The training process typically involves a modified loss function. A common approach is to use a combination of two losses:
- Distillation Loss: This measures how closely the student model's output matches the teacher model's soft targets. It often uses Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence or cross-entropy loss.
- Hard Target Loss: This measures how well the student model predicts the true labels from the dataset. This is typically a standard cross-entropy loss.

- Temperature Scaling: A temperature parameter is used during the softmax computation of the teacher model's outputs. Higher temperatures soften the probability distribution, allowing the student model to learn from the relative differences between classes rather than absolute probabilities.

- Training Procedure: The student model is trained using the combined loss function, iteratively updating its weights to minimize this loss. The training process may involve techniques such as backpropagation and gradient descent.

• Evaluation and Fine-tuning

- Performance Evaluation: After training, the student model is evaluated on a validation dataset to assess its performance. Key metrics might include accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score.

- Hyperparameter Tuning: Based on evaluation results, hyperparameters (like learning rate, batch size, etc.) can be adjusted to improve the student's performance.

- Fine-Tuning: In some cases, additional fine-tuning of the student model may be performed to further enhance its performance on specific tasks or datasets.

• Deployment

- Model Compression: The trained student model is often more compact and faster to execute than the teacher model, making it suitable for deployment in environments with limited resources, such as mobile devices or edge computing.

- Inference Optimization: Techniques like quantization and pruning can be applied to further optimize the student model for inference, reducing memory footprint and increasing speed.

• Monitoring and Iteration

- Real-World Performance Monitoring: Once deployed, the performance of the student model should be monitored in real-world applications. Any drift in data distribution or performance can necessitate re-training or further distillation.

- Iterative Improvement: The distillation process can be iteratively refined by using feedback from real-world performance, adjusting the architecture of the student model, or retraining with updated datasets.

Having briefly highlighted the AI supremacy race between the USA and China, it will be interesting to focus attention on AI development in Africa by looking the state of the subject matter in the context of Africa.

The State of AI Preparedness and Development in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities

The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform economies and countries is immense, yet many African nations, particularly the leading economies on the continent such as Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, and Rwanda, face significant challenges in their preparedness and adaptation of AI. The extreme lack of resources, infrastructural deficits, unreliable data, and inadequate computational power severely hinder the development and adoption of AI technologies on the continent. Let me delve into some of these challenges, highlights the current state of AI capabilities in these countries, and suggests how African nations can leverage their limited pool of trained professionals to drive an AI revolution. A few of the African countries, Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria may be better equipped than the others for an AI revolution, but their inputs in world AI technologies have been negligible, to say the least.

Theses are some of the Challenges to AI Development in Africa.

First; Lack of Resources:
Many African countries struggle with limited financial resources that can be allocated to AI research and development. This lack of funding affects various levels of AI initiatives, from academic research to the establishment of startups focused on AI solutions. Governments often prioritize immediate socio-economic challenges—such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure—over long-term investments in technology. As a result, AI initiatives often lack the necessary financial backing to thrive.

Secondly, Inadequate Infrastructure:
The infrastructural deficit in many African countries poses a significant barrier to AI development. Reliable electricity, high-speed internet, and modern computing facilities are prerequisites for AI research and deployment. Unfortunately, many regions still experience frequent power outages and have limited access to the internet, which hampers the ability to conduct data-intensive AI research or run complex algorithms effectively. Without a robust infrastructure, the potential for leveraging AI to address local challenges is severely diminished.

Thirdly; Data Reliability and Availability:
High-quality, reliable data is the lifeblood of AI systems. However, many African countries suffer from a lack of comprehensive data collection mechanisms, resulting in poor data quality and availability. Government databases may be underdeveloped, and private sector data collection may not be standardized or systematically managed. This lack of reliable data significantly hampers the training of AI models, which require vast amounts of high-quality data to function effectively.

Fourthly; Limited Compute Power:
AI development relies heavily on advanced computational power, often provided through powerful GPUs and cloud computing resources. Many African countries lack access to these essential technologies, limiting their ability to develop sophisticated AI algorithms and conduct meaningful research. The high costs associated with acquiring cutting-edge computing infrastructure further exacerbate these challenges, making it difficult for local researchers and startups to compete on a global scale.

Fifthly; Insufficient Support for AI Research:
The absence of a supportive ecosystem for AI research—comprising funding, mentorship, and collaboration opportunities—hinders the growth of AI capabilities. Research institutions often lack the necessary frameworks to attract and retain talent, resulting in brain drain as trained professionals migrate to countries with better opportunities. This issue is particularly pronounced in leading economies like Nigeria and South Africa, where despite having a pool of talent, the environment for research and innovation can be stifling.

How can Africa scale its AI involvement?

Leveraging Trained Professionals
Despite these challenges, Africa has a unique opportunity to capitalize on its growing number of citizens who have been trained in reputable AI research institutions and universities worldwide, such as the University of Oxford, MIT, Imperial College, Cambridge, and the University of Toronto, just to name a few. These individuals possess the skills and knowledge necessary to drive the continent's AI initiatives forward. Here are ways to leverage this talent pool:

Encouraging Return Migration:
African governments can create attractive conditions for trained professionals to return and contribute to local AI ecosystems. This could involve offering competitive salaries, research grants, and tax incentives for those who establish AI startups or collaborate with local universities and research institutes.

Building Academic Partnerships:
Collaboration between local universities and top-tier institutions abroad can facilitate knowledge transfer and create research opportunities. Programs that allow for exchange visits, joint research projects, and workshops can enhance the skill sets of local researchers and elevate the quality of AI research conducted in Africa.

Establishing AI Incubators and Hubs:
Creating innovation hubs and incubators that specifically focus on AI can foster collaboration among researchers, startups, and government agencies. These hubs can provide the necessary resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities to accelerate AI development and support the commercialization of innovative solutions.

Government Support and Policy Frameworks:
The governments of leading economies like Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Kenya, and Ivory Coast must develop comprehensive policies that prioritize AI development. This includes investing in research funding, establishing regulatory frameworks that encourage innovation, and creating public-private partnerships to facilitate AI projects.

Focusing on Local Challenges:
By directing AI research towards solving local challenges—such as healthcare delivery, agriculture, security, banking & financial services, and urban planning—African nations can ensure that AI technologies are relevant and beneficial to their populations. This localized approach can also attract funding and support from international organizations and investors interested in impactful projects.

The state of AI preparedness in many African countries, particularly among the leading economies in the region is characterized by significant challenges stemming from inadequate resources, infrastructure deficits, unreliable data, and limited computational power. However, by leveraging the skills of trained professionals and fostering an environment conducive to AI research and development, these nations can position themselves at the forefront of the AI revolution. With strategic investments, supportive policies, and a focus on local challenges, Africa can harness AI to drive economic growth, enhance public services, and improve the quality of life for millions. The potential is vast, but realizing it will require concerted efforts and collaboration between governments, academia, and the private sector.

Sonny Iroche is a Senior Academic Fellow, African Studies Centre 2022-2023 and Post Graduate AI for Business Saïd Business School. University of Oxford. UK

There are so many AI chatbot extensions for Google Chrome that finding a good one in the stack of poorly designed tools is an overwhelming task. So, I've tested four of the most popular AI chatbot extensions to find the best one.

The Google Chrome AI Chatbot Extensions I Tested

I tested the Monica, Merlin, and ChatGPT Sidebar extensions for Chrome. These AI chatbot extensions have millions of users with ratings of 4.8 and 4.9 stars out of 5. I also added Perplexity AI into the mix as I liked using its AI chatbot and am curious whether its extension is as good. I also checked the safety and legitimacy of these Chrome extensions before installing them, and all of them should be safe to install. So, all in all, we have four extensions to try and compare.

AI Chatbot Extensions Head-to-Head Comparison

I compared features, ease of use, and performance to determine the best AI chatbot extension. Note that these tools each have a full-featured web app separate from the extensions. I only compared them based on the extensions' features. So, features that require you to visit the AI chatbot website are not included.

Also, output quality and speed performance depend heavily on the specific AI model. This does not directly reflect the extension itself. So, we will base performance on factors such as the models they support and the number of queries you can do for both basic and advanced models.

Perplexity AI Extension

Perplexity was the simplest and easiest to use out of the four. You can only do two things—ask a question and ask for a summary. I like its focus feature, which allows you to choose where Perplexity sources its answers, whether it be the web page you're currently on, the entire website, or the internet.

Monica

Taking an entirely opposite approach, Monica feels more like a full-featured app rather than a Chrome extension. It stands out as the most versatile extension, offering a wide range of AI capabilities, including writing, search, translations, and even image/video generation. These AI features are further improved with context memory, file uploads, live voice, real-time search, and the ability to choose between popular AI models. My favorite feature is the free and unlimited use of basic models like GPT-4o mini, Claude Haiku, and DeepSeek R1 (small).

Due to its massive amount of features, Monica does feel very cluttered and can be confusing for new users. However, I do like that it provides options for keyboard shortcuts and toolbar preferences, which makes it much easier to use in the long run.

Merlin

Merlin provides a good middle ground between Perplexity's simplicity and Monica's assortment of features. I enjoyed using it as its UI feels simple and intuitive while still packing enough features for me to do a good deal of productivity with just my browser. What I find limiting with Merlin is that it only gives you 102 credits to use per day. Although quite substantial when using small models like GPT-4o, which uses one credit per query, the daily free credit does feel very limiting when you start using advanced models like GPT-4o, which uses 15 credits per query.

ChatGPT Sidebar

ChatGPT Sidebar provides roughly the same features as Monica while being much less cluttered. However, my biggest problem with ChatGPT Sidebar is that it only offers 30 credits per day, even with smaller AI models like GPT-4o mini, DeepSeek R1 70B (small), and Claude 3.5 Haiku, taking one credit per query. It doesn't offer any free credits for advanced models like GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet like Merlin does. However, it does allow you to try "super advanced" models like GPT-o1 at 15 credits, GPT-o3 at three credits, and DeepSeek R1 (big) at two credits per query.

This Is the Best Chrome AI Chatbot Extension

There are many AI-powered Chrome extensions for productivity, but after testing some of the most popular AI ones, Monica stands out as the best Chrome AI chatbot extension.

Monica provides the most features and best performance without paying for any subscription or worrying about credits. Although I dislike its cluttered UI, I find that its sheer amount of features and the versatility of its free AI models allows me to do a lot more than any of the AI extensions I've tried. With real-time web research available in Monica, having access to small AI models like GPT-4o mini is enough to provide accurate answers, making it a great free AI tool that saves me money on premium AI subscriptions.

ChatGPT Sidebar seems to provide the best set of features with a very clean and intuitive UI, but its low daily credit makes it very limited. I recommend Merlin over ChatGPT if you're a free user. At least Merlin provides a good amount of credit for using basic AI models while still having all the useful features you'd want in an AI extension.

If you're willing to pay a premium for a monthly subscription, the ChatGPT Sidebar extension is the best-paid option out of the four. Remember that these extensions do not allow you to use your existing premium subscriptions to any AI chatbot you may have. This means that your already existing subscription to premium AI services like ChatGPT Plus cannot be used within these extensions.

So, if you're already subscribed to any premium AI chatbot service like ChatGPT, it might just be better for you to directly visit the web app and supplement it with the Perplexity AI extension for quick Q&A and summaries.

As for me, I'll continue to use Monica as my all-in-one AI extension for Chrome.

[makeuseof]

Bitcoin's price is showing signs of volatility, with recent fluctuations sparking comparisons to its movements in August 2023. On Feb. 17, research from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant pointed out that Bitcoin's price action has become increasingly rangebound, signaling a potential shift in market behavior. The Choppiness Index, a measure of market volatility, has reached high levels, indicating that a significant price movement could be imminent.

The current range for Bitcoin has been hovering around 16% over the last 90 days, with a noticeable lack of trend in its price action. The Choppiness Index, which stands at 62 on the daily chart and 72 on the weekly chart, shows instability and an urgent need for Bitcoin to break out of its stagnant price range. According to CryptoQuant contributor Percival, such conditions often precede a larger market move. He notes that similar behavior was observed in August 2023 when Bitcoin experienced a sharp drop before beginning a sustained uptrend.

In 2023, before Bitcoin's price surged, the market had seen relatively low volatility, which caused many traders to abandon their positions. Percival suggests that the current situation could lead to a liquidity grab, where market participants holding positions on the wrong side of the trade are cleared out before a potential price rise. His analysis highlights that Bitcoin's price movements are currently erratic, with alternating periods of rapid gains and consolidations.

While Bitcoin is facing short-term uncertainty, long-term prospects remain positive. The increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies and institutional interest in digital assets like Bitcoin has led to an overall bullish sentiment. However, Bitcoin's price action is still subject to significant volatility, and investors are advised to remain cautious and well-informed about market developments.

Regarding potential price levels, the short-term holder (STH) cost basis of $92,000 is being closely monitored as a key level of support. If Bitcoin fails to hold this level, attention will shift to the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA), which is currently at $85,000. This could serve as a critical support zone if the market continues to experience downward pressure.

Bitcoin’s price action is in a highly volatile phase, with significant potential for movement in either direction. While market sentiment is mixed, some analysts believe a major price move is on the horizon. Investors are advised to watch key levels like the $92,000 cost basis and the $85,000 EMA as critical indicators of Bitcoin’s next move. As the situation develops, staying updated on market trends and adjusting strategies accordingly will be essential for navigating the unpredictable nature of Bitcoin's price.

[Yahoo finance]

If you hold cryptocurrencies like XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) or Bitcoin, (CRYPTO: BTC) you're probably not sure how they'd hold up in the event of an economic recession. Whether it would make sense to buy more of either asset in such a scenario is an even bigger question, as a timely purchase during hard times might pay off significantly when conditions improve down the line.

Are either of these assets worth buying if the economy starts to recede? Or would it make more sense to dump both? Let's unpack this issue and make a game plan so that you'll be prepared if something happens in the coming years.

Here's how a tough economy could impact these coins

In the U.S., an economic recession is generally defined as a period of at least two consecutive quarters in which the gross domestic product (GDP) decreases rather than increases as normal. Usually recessions are accompanied by higher unemployment, reduced consumption of goods and services, reduced international trade volume, and falling asset prices, particularly in more liquid assets like stocks and cryptocurrencies, but often in harder assets like real estate as well.

It's unpleasant to think about but consider the mechanism for why asset prices decline when the economy is having trouble. People believe that they'll be better off having cash in hand than seeing their capital eroded as assets become harder to offload and priced lower than before. In many cases, people need to liquidate their investments to pay their bills, as their sources of income dry up while the economic tide withdraws.

In such a scenario, the easiest assets to liquidate are the most likely to get sold first. That means stocks and cryptocurrencies would be on the chopping block before safer and harder-to-transfer assets like real estate. And typically, it's the riskiest assets that start taking the deepest hits the soonest in a recession, as risky plays tend to assume that the economy will continue expanding, as it's an expansionary phase that supports the drive to explore new horizons of business and industry in the first place.

So what does that mean for holders of less-risky cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and XRP?

While it depends on the length and depth of the recession, they're very likely to get hosed. Declines of 80% or more wouldn't be surprising during a longer recession. But for those who could retain some capital and load up on one of these two coins, there could be a big opportunity in store.

There's a correct choice here if you can make it when it counts

XRP is not the coin to buy if there's a recession. Here's why.