Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has taken Dr. Olumide “D.O” Olusanya, the founder of Kloud Commerce, into custody, according to sources.

The EFCC officers reportedly detained Olusanya on Monday while he was in the middle of a meeting at the Lekki offices of Gloopro, one of the business ventures he led. Olusanya’s previous startup, Gloo.ng, was also shut down.

Investors have alleged malfeasance and deceptive practices by Olusanya, who they claim provided false updates on the growth of Kloud Commerce. At least 18 institutional and individual investors had provided capital to the now-shuttered startup.

Former executives and employees who worked with Olusanya at Kloud Commerce had described him as an abrasive founder who presented a positive picture to investors despite scarce progress while continuously demotivating the team he had assembled.

Kloud Commerce had raised USD 765 K in pre-seed funding in 2021 to develop a multi-channel commerce solution for African businesses, starting in Nigeria. However, the startup closed its doors a year later after a prolonged period of questionable management and disputes that left the company crippled for several months.

At the time of publishing this report, Olusanya remains detained, and further clarification on the matter is still pending.

The situation serves as a reminder of the importance of transparency and accountability in the startup ecosystem, where trust and credibility are vital factors for attracting investors and customers.

The federal government of Nigeria on Wednesday approved two memos presented by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) seeking to provide free broadband internet connection in 20 selected airports, 43 tertiary institutions, and markets across the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s minister of Communications and Digital economy Prof. Isa Pantami disclosed that the broadband infrastructure would ensure connectivity in airports for passengers, ease of e-learning in tertiary institutions, and ease of mobile transactions in markets as the economy is drifting towards a cashless one.

In his words,

“The Federal Executive Council has approved two memos for the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) a parastatal under the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. In these memos, certain intervention projects are going to be implemented by the NCC. Internet will be provided in 20 selected airports in Nigeria and higher institutions of learning as well as some markets to support micro, small, and medium enterprises.

“In each geopolitical zone, you have around three airports. In the southwest, we have Lagos and Ondo. For the South-East we have Anambra and Enugu. For the South-South, we have Port Harcourt and Akwa Ibom. For the North-Central we have Abuja and Ilorin. In the North-West, we have Kano, Sokoto, and Kebbi. For the North-East, we have Yola, Maiduguri, and Gombe. The broadband project also extends to 43 higher institutions of learning at federal and state levels, including federal and state universities as well as polytechnics. So, this is one is the second phase of the project. And in the first memo approved today, we have 20 airports, both domestic and international.”

The contract which is worth N24.20 billion for the provision of free broadband internet is going to be implemented by the NCC, and the duration for the project execution would be four months minimum and a maximum of five months.

Investors King understands that the recent provision of free broadband internet connection to airports, tertiary institutions, and markets across the country, is in line with Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan 2020-2025. The Federal Government had through the National Broadband Plan set a target of 70 percent internet penetration and 90 percent population reach.

A World Bank study revealed that a ten percentage point increase in broadband penetration would increase GDP growth by 1.21 percent in developed economies and 1.38 percent in developing ones. Hence, once this project is executed in Nigeria, there is no disputing the fact that there will be a significant impact on the country’s GDP growth.

Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk and dozen of tech leaders have called for the pause of giant Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems with human competitive intelligence, which they say can pose profound risks to society and humanity.

With the rapid rate at which AI technology is advancing, these tech leaders suggest that the technology should be regulated and delivered only once there is confidence that its effects will be positive and their risks will be manageable.

In an open letter from the future of life institute signed by Musk and a few tech leaders, they have called on AI labs to pause the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 for at least six (6) months.

The letter reads in part,

“Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks, and we must ask ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones?

“Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete, and replace us? Should we risk the loss of control of our civilization? Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech leaders. Therefore, we call on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. This pause should be public and verifiable and include all key actors. If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments should step in and institute a moratorium.

“AI labs and independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts. These protocols should ensure that systems adhering to them are safe beyond a reasonable doubt”

These tech leaders, however, disclosed that the call for a pause on AI experiments is not in any way to hinder the development of the technology, rather it is a step taken backward from the dangerous race to AI tools with human competitive intelligence.

Also, AI ethicists are worried about biases and misinformation in the data that train AI models. Fears have also been raised about the possibility of jobs being lost to automation. On Tuesday, investment banking company Goldman Sachs warned that as many as 300 million jobs could be at risk of being wiped out by generative AI products.

It is interesting to know that with the hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI) which has seen so many companies integrate AI-powered chatbots into their products, the U.K. government has urged regulators to come up with rules for AI.

Investors King understands that on Wednesday, the U.K. government published recommendations for the artificial intelligence industry, outlining an all-encompassing approach for regulating the technology at a time when it has reached frenzied levels of hype.

AI has no doubt been helpful to users and has also transformed a lot of industries, however, owing to the fact that AI technology is advancing so rapidly, it is vital to regulate its use and creation which would minimize its destructive potential.