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How FCWAMCO is Revolutionalising the Dairy Sector – Langat

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Known in multinational circles as a turnaround business strategist, the Managing Director of FrieslandCampina WAMCO and Sub-Saharan Africa Cluster, Ben Langat, has maintained steam in the sustainable dairy breakthroughs that the firm has championed in more than a decade.

Since 2010 and still counting, FrieslandCampina WAMCO has invested over N21 billion in the Nigerian dairy sector even as the dairy giant continues to lead the transformation of the sector. Media visits to the dairy development sites of the firm across several states in the country show how the lives, living and livelihoods of thousands of farmers, their wives and children have gradually upscaled; improving their nutrition, health, earnings and access to child education, among other benefits that had eluded them for decades.

Thriving on its corporate commitment of nourishing Nigerians with quality dairy products, FrieslandCampina WAMCO continues to help solve issues of malnutrition, poverty, herders and farmers’ incessant clashes, as well as promote sustainable dairy practices through intense and creative backward integration.

The company has created over 100,000 employment opportunities, directly and indirectly through on-farm and off-farm activities; improved the livelihood of over 12,000 smallholder dairy farmers and pastoralists, which they have organized into cooperatives and integrated them into FrieslandCampina WAMCO’s fresh milk supply chain, which provides for the local dairy farmers guaranteed incomes and market access all-year round.

FrieslandCampina WAMCO provided access to potable water for communities and livestock with the construction of 109 solar-powered boreholes and proficient extension services for value chain actors; extensive farmer2farmer training where Dutch farmers visit Nigeria to train local farmers on animal health, hygienic milking, and best global dairy practices.

Besides developing productivity and efficiency in farm management, FrieslandCampina WAMCO is the highest off-taker of fresh milk produced locally for manufacturing in Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Kwara and Ondo and have spread their footprints into northern Nigeria as champions of the nation’s march towards a prosperous and self-sufficient dairy industry.

Speaking to the media recently, the eminent dairy management maestro, Langat fielded these questions among others, thus lending credence to the impact his company has made in the dairy sector…

How do you sustain local content for your products?

To grow high milk-yielding cows, you have to put in extra effort like we have been doing for over 12 years. FrieslandCampina WAMCO is the highest off-taker of fresh milk produced locally from five states in Nigeria. Our Yoghurt factories are running on local milk, so we can say we have brands that are 100% Nigerian in our portfolio. However, to be able to meet the total dairy nutrition demands in a country as large as Nigeria, the local milk currently available is still very much inadequate. In my opinion, the model that the country will run will still have a reasonable mix of importation of some of the raw materials, while local content is developed over a period of time.

What impact do your dairy activities have in your host communities?

We are doing all the right things if you look at it from the employment perspective. Among the 12,000 farmers we work with, there are about 1500 Fulani women who had been at home but today, they are productive and are being paid regularly for raw milk and their families are much more prosperous than before – the farmers, their wives and children. In some cases, their mud huts have been rebuilt to brick houses and their children now go to school, which they could not afford before.

How have you dealt with the paucity of Forex and threats of insecurity?

We have had to restrict our Forex needs as much as we can and also source it by any means legal. We sometimes source from commercial banks in addition to whatever the Central Bank is able to make available. Also, some of our service providers are able to source Forex and supply us products in Naira. This invariably means that the cost of raw materials will go up and ultimately affect the retail prices of our products. On insecurity, we have regular conversations with relevant government security agencies. We will never risk the lives of our people. Where we have security challenges around areas where we operate, we pull out for the time being like the case of the Bobi Reserve in Niger State. We had to withdraw from the location due to banditry in order not to risk the lives of our people. We are now in eight states in Nigeria; we work with 23 dairy cooperatives; we collect more than 40,000 litres of milk daily at peak periods and we have best-in-class raw milk quality, one of the best in Africa.

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Personality in Focus

Veteran Actor Olu Jacobs Dies at 84

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Veteran Nigerian actor and elder statesman, Oludotun Baiyewu Jacobs, popularly known as Olu Jacobs, has died at the age of 84.

The actor’s death was announced by his son, Olusoji Jacobs, on Instagram on Wednesday.

Olu Jacobs was one of Nigeria’s most respected actors and a towering figure in the country’s theatre, television and film industries.

For more than five decades, Jacobs built a career that took him from the stage in Britain to international films and, ultimately, to becoming one of the most recognisable faces of Nollywood.

Born on July 11, 1942, in Kano, Jacobs had his roots in the Egba Alake community of Abeokuta, Ogun State. He grew up in Kano, where he developed an early interest in acting through school drama, debating activities, and church programmes.

His passion for the performing arts was strengthened after he watched a performance by legendary Nigerian theatre practitioner Hubert Ogunde. The experience inspired him to pursue acting professionally.

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Michael Dell Overtakes Jeff Bezos As World’s Third Wealthiest Billionaire

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Michael Dell, on Tuesday, overtook Jeff Bezos in Forbes’ billionaire rankings, edging past the Amazon co-founder as shares of Dell Technologies reached an all-time high, extending a six-month rally.Dell’s estimated net worth rose $4.6 billion to reach $267.7 billion at market close Tuesday afternoon, making him the third-wealthiest person in the world for the first time ever.

Dell trails Alphabet co-founder Larry Page ($277.9 billion) and Tesla chief Elon Musk ($942 billion).

Shares of Dell Technologies rose 1.9% to close at an all-time high of $533.88 on Tuesday, and traded as high as $538.47 earlier in the day.

Bezos’ estimated net worth dropped $1.4 billion to $265.2 billion as Amazon shares fell 0.6%.

Dell’s net worth has more than doubled since last year as his company has benefited from booming demand for artificial intelligence hardware.

327%. That is how much Dell’s stock has rocketed since the start of the year, when shares were priced around the $128 mark. Michael Dell holds a roughly 40% stake in his company and has much of his fortune wrapped up in his private investment firm DFO Management, which invests in hotels and liquid corporate credit. Dell’s net worth has soared alongside his company’s earnings, allowing him to surpass Meta co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison in recent months.

Dell Technologies is a week removed from its second-quarter earnings report in which it logged $47 billion in revenue, a 58% jump year-over-year, and adjusted earnings per share of $7.04, a threefold increase from the same period last year. The company’s AI server business logged a record $60.9 billion in orders and accounted for $16.4 billion in revenue. The growth, and what chief financial officer David Kennedy called “AI momentum,” resulted in Dell Technologies raising its full-year revenue guidance $25 billion to an anticipated $192 billion.

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NAOSNP President, Oki Samson Bags Police-Youth Advocate Award

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The Lagos State Police Command under the leadership of the Commissioner of Police, CP Fatai Tijani, on Thursday, honoured the President of the National Association of Online Security News Publishers (NAOSNP), Mayor Oki Olatunji Samson, as a Police-Youth Advocate for his contribution to youth engagement and advocacy, responsible security journalism and community safety.

The recognition came during the Command’s commemoration of International Youth Day 2026, themed “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations,” held at the Police Officers’ Wives Association (POWA) Secretariat, Oduduwa Street, Lagos.

The event also featured the launch of the National Campaign Against Political and Digital Thuggery and a Police-Youth Dialogue designed to build stronger partnerships between law enforcement and young Nigerians. The initiative, in line with the vision of Inspector-General of Police, IGP Olatunji Rilwan Disu, placed youth participation, responsible citizenship and peacebuilding at the centre of contemporary security discourse.

In his address at the event, the NAOSNP President, a respected security journalist, stressed that youth advocacy must move beyond rhetoric to deliberate investment in the values, opportunities and relationships that enable young people to become agents of stability. He argued that the youth should not be viewed simply as potential victims or perpetrators of insecurity, but as indispensable stakeholders in preventing it. According to him, the digital space has become an extension of society and therefore requires the same standards of responsibility expected in the physical world.

The NAOSNP President urged young Nigerians to recognise the power of their voices, particularly on social media, and deploy that influence constructively. “Your phone is powerful. Your social media account is powerful. Your voice is powerful. Please use that power to build, not destroy.” He further challenged young people to resist political manipulation, stressing that no temporary political reward could justify sacrificing one’s future.

“Do not allow anyone to use your future to settle their present disagreement.”

He advocated a culture in which political differences could be expressed without becoming personal hostility, urging youths to verify information before sharing it and to understand that digital actions can have real-world consequences.

The intervention resonated strongly with the message of the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, CP Tijani Fatai, who warned young people against allowing politicians to exploit them for electoral violence as the country approaches another election cycle. Fatai said youths must look beyond immediate gratification and recognise the importance of preserving their future.
“Tomorrow is there for us. We should not think of today. We should always think of tomorrow. That tomorrow is more important than what we are today.”

The CP also delivered a particularly strong message against the recruitment of young Nigerians into political thuggery, noting that political actors rarely expose their own children to the dangers of electoral violence. “None of these politicians will use any of their children for electioneering, thuggery, violence or what have you.”

He urged youths to reject attempts to use them for ballot-box snatching, intimidation, destruction of property and other forms of electoral violence, while stressing that political participation remained a legitimate right when exercised responsibly.

The Commissioner equally identified the digital environment as an emerging frontier of security, urging young Nigerians to think carefully before posting, sharing or reacting to provocative content. His message was clear: political participation must never become political violence, whether offline or online.

In his goodwill message, Commander, 9 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Ayokunle Owolabi, described the campaign as timely and commended the Police for strengthening engagement with young Nigerians. Owolabi noted that the energy, creativity and resilience of young people remained indispensable to Nigeria’s peace, security and development. He emphasised that national security could no longer be regarded as the exclusive responsibility of security agencies, but required a whole-of-society approach in which young Nigerians become active partners. He particularly warned against the misuse of digital platforms and physical spaces for violence, intimidation, misinformation and destructive engagement, while calling for stronger trust and communication between young people and security institutions.

Also speaking, the Lagos State Coordinator of the Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV), SP Olivia Amarachi Ugochukwu, urged young people to become the change they desire in their communities.
“Policing is everybody’s business. If you see something, say something.”

She also charged the media to ensure that only verified information was disseminated, noting that responsible information management was essential to preventing fear, confusion and conflict.

The well attended event attracted representatives of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Navy, NDLEA, FRSC and NSCDC, alongside NYSC, POCACOV, PCRC, NYCN, NANS, NURTW, RTEAN, CRAN, NAOSNP, POWA and youths from Police Barracks across Lagos. The programme featured an extensive Police-Youth Dialogue on security, political participation, social media, cultism, thuggery and emerging threats.

The recognition of Mayor Oki Samson as Police-Youth Advocate therefore represented more than an individual honour. It underscored the growing importance of credible voices capable of connecting young people, the media and security institutions around a shared commitment to peace.

In a society where insecurity can be amplified by a rumour, a provocative post or a manipulated young mind, youth advocacy has become a frontline security intervention. The future of Nigeria cannot be secured merely by policing the streets; it must also be secured by winning the minds, trust and participation of its young people.

The challenge before advocates such as Mayor Oki Samson and institutions such as the Police is to ensure that the message does not end with an award or a commemorative event. It must travel into schools, communities, newsrooms, transport parks and digital spaces—until peace becomes not merely a campaign slogan, but a conscious choice made by a generation whose future is ultimately at stake.

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