Author: Olu Anisere

Olu Anisere is a financial and economic journalist at MarketForces Africa, specialising in African macroeconomic policy, international finance, energy markets, and continental development.He covers major multilateral institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), providing readers with frontline reporting on policies shaping Africa's economic trajectory.Olu has reported extensively on Nigeria's fiscal and monetary policy landscape, including CBN interest rate decisions, Nigeria's bond market, FX inflows, and the country's engagement with global financial institutions.His coverage spans IMF and World Bank Spring and Annual Meetings, African Ministers of Finance conferences, and high-level economic forums where Africa's development agenda is set.His reporting captures perspectives from Africa's most influential economic voices, including Tony Elumelu, senior IMF officials, and CBN leadership, bringing institutional insight and policy depth to MarketForces Africa's readers.Olu also covers Inside Africa — tracking economic, investment, and development stories from across the continent. Olu Anisere is based in Lagos, Nigeria.

ChatGPT, Claude, Grok Others Down as AI Bots Malfunction A major global outage has hit ChatGPT, xAI’s Grok and Anthropic’s Claude, leaving users worldwide facing blank screens and error messages, with tens of thousands logging disruptions Several major AI chat services have been hit by disruption, with users reporting they can’t access features or are seeing errors. Claude, Grok, and ChatGPT have consecutively experienced malfunctions and have not yet recovered. Several mainstream overseas AI services encountered issues tonight. Claude has already experienced two rounds of failures this evening. Sonnet 5 started showing errors on Thursday noon and announced recovery half…

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BTC, ETH, XRP Rally Boost Global Crypto Market Cap to $2.7trn Price appreciation of Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Ripple XRP, and other top crypto names bolstered the global crypto market cap by about 5% in 24 hours to $2.71 trillion on Thursday. The crypto market is up 4.54% to $2.7 trillion in Bitcoinurs, primarily driven by a macro-driven rally in Bitcoin. It shows a strong correlation (91%) with Gold, indicating inflation-hedge positioning. The market’s rise is led by Bitcoin, whose 59.85% dominance underscores its role as the primary driver. The 24h correlation with Gold reached 91%, while…

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NAICOM Unveils ISSP to Advance Insurance Penetration The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has unveiled the Insurance Sector Strengthening Programme (ISSP), to advance insurance penetration, financial inclusion and innovation within Nigeria’s insurance ecosystem. The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Olusegun Omosehin, during the unveiling on Thursday in Abuja, said the programme offered a framework for advancing the growth and stability of the Nigerian insurance sector. Omosehin said the programme also focused on capacity building, gender inclusion, youth engagement, and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and value-chain development. He said the ISSP placed significant emphasis on awareness and education, adding that the…

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Bank of Industry Signs N274.18bn Development Bond The Bank of Industry has formally signed the transaction documents for its ₦274.1868 billion Series 1 Development Bond, a 17.60% five-year fixed-rate bond due 2031. The signing marks the completion of a landmark domestic capital market transaction that was initially launched as a ₦250 billion offer and closed oversubscribed within five working days. Issued via BOI Financing SPV Plc under the Bank’s $1 billion Multi-Currency Instruments Programme, the bond attracted strong institutional demand from Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs), banks, Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), corporates and other institutional investors. The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority…

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Nvidia to Acquire Hugging Face for $12.9 Billion in Biggest Open AI Bet Nvidia has agreed to acquire artificial intelligence developer platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, extending its AI spending spree and marking one of its largest acquisitions to date. The deal was confirmed by Nvidia on Thursday after weeks of rumors first reported by The Information. The chipmaker will pay about $11.9 billion to Hugging Face investors and offer an equity-based retention program of up to $1 billion for employees who join Nvidia. For Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the acquisition is a strategic bet that open models will…

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