Nigeria recorded total capital inflows of $5.64 billion in the first quarter of 2025, marking a sharp 67% increase from the $3.38 billion posted in the previous quarter.

However, behind the impressive headline figure lies a deeper issue—more than 90% of the inflows were short-term speculative funds, also known as “hot money”, drawn by Nigeria’s elevated interest rate environment rather than long-term investment interest.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), $4.21 billion—representing 74.6% of the total—was channeled into money market instruments, especially Open Market Operation (OMO) bills and Treasury Bills. These short-term debt instruments, issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to manage liquidity and attract foreign exchange, have become the mainstay of foreign capital inflows due to their high yields, which range between 18% and 25%.

CBN’s Hawkish Stance Pays Off—Temporarily

The spike in foreign inflows is largely tied to the CBN’s aggressive interest rate hikes aimed at attracting foreign portfolio investors and bolstering dollar liquidity. Since the start of the year, the CBN has deployed a hawkish monetary stance to curb inflation, which stood at 31.7% in June 2025, and to steady the naira after months of volatility that saw it plunge to near N1,900/$ earlier this year.

To regain investor confidence and halt the naira’s freefall, the apex bank intensified the use of OMO instruments as a tactical shield, rather than directly piling on public debt. These instruments have not only attracted capital but also helped narrow the spread between the official and parallel market exchange rates. The naira has since appreciated to below N1,550/$ in the parallel market, a substantial recovery.

Portfolio Investment Dominates as FDI Remains Weak

While the influx of foreign capital may appear encouraging on the surface, a closer look reveals a troubling pattern. Portfolio investments accounted for $5.2 billion—or 92.2%—of the Q1 inflows, while Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) remained disappointingly weak at just $126.29 million, making up only 2.2% of the total.

Breakdown of the portfolio inflows includes:

• $4.21 billion in money market instruments (OMO, T-Bills)
• $877.41 million in government bonds
• $117.33 million in equities

The heavy concentration in OMO and Treasury Bills reflects foreign investors’ preference for quick returns with minimal exposure, rather than commitment to productive ventures that generate employment and technology transfer. The bulk of FDI, according to the NBS, came via equity investments in a handful of Nigerian firms—further evidence of limited appetite for long-term engagement with Nigeria’s real economy.

Additionally, $311.17 million came in as foreign loans under the “Other Investments” category, a relatively minor portion compared to portfolio flows.

Hot Money: A Fragile Support System

Experts warn that while hot money has helped steady the naira and calm investor nerves, its volatility presents significant risks. These funds can leave just as quickly as they arrive, especially if global interest rates rise or if the CBN falters in maintaining policy credibility.

Nigeria’s reliance on hot money has been a recurring pattern since the mid-2000s when the CBN began liberalizing the financial markets. During periods of high interest rates or oil-driven investor confidence, portfolio inflows surged—only to evaporate during global shocks like the 2008 financial crisis, the 2014 oil crash, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The current influx may prove similarly fickle if reforms are not deepened.

Policy Reforms Still a Work in Progress

The CBN’s tactical use of high yields to stabilize the naira reflects a short-term fix to deeper structural issues: weak infrastructure, inconsistent regulations, and insecurity that discourage real sector investment. Despite pledges by the Bola Tinubu administration to rebuild investor confidence and tackle corruption, ease-of-doing-business reforms have yet to yield substantial FDI.

Furthermore, analysts caution that the current strategy could become a burden if rising domestic borrowing costs begin to crowd out the private sector or if Nigeria is forced to sustain high interest rates longer than expected.

For lasting stability, analysts say that Nigeria must deepen structural reforms, attract genuine investors, and create an environment conducive to productive enterprise, not just high-yield speculation.

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Meta is ramping up its efforts to poach top-tier artificial intelligence talent, offering compensation packages reportedly stretching into the nine-figure range, as the battle for AI dominance intensifies among Big Tech giants.

But not everyone is rushing to join the frenzy.

Yangshun Tay, a 35-year-old software engineer based in Singapore, shared that Meta reached out just 12 hours after he posted on LinkedIn about receiving an offer from OpenAI. According to an interview published by BI, what caught him off guard wasn’t just the timing, but the fact that Meta knew exactly who he was, despite his having left the company more than two years ago.

“I thought they didn’t realize I’d already worked there,” Tay said. “But they knew. They even referenced my past role.”

Tay, who spent over five years at Meta before founding GreatFrontEnd, a startup that helps software engineers build their skills, revealed that Meta’s outreach wasn’t a direct offer. He’d have to re-interview if he were to rejoin, given how long he’s been away. Still, the prompt interest underscores just how aggressively Meta is scouting for AI-aligned engineers, even those without a research background.

“I’m not an AI researcher. My work has mostly been in applied engineering,” Tay noted. “Even the OpenAI role I considered was about building tools like ChatGPT, not training models from scratch.”

Despite Meta’s recent push to hire high-profile AI experts and build credibility in the space, Tay isn’t sold on the company’s current trajectory in AI.

“I don’t think they’re leading the AI race right now,” he said. “They’ve hired a lot of big names, but I’m not bullish on Meta’s direction.”

Nine-Figure Compensation and a Talent War

Tay’s story reflects a broader shift in how Big Tech is approaching AI hiring. With rapid model development, constant benchmark races, and consumer tools like ChatGPT pushing the frontier, companies like Meta, OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Anthropic, and others are in a race to recruit elite developers, often with staggeringly high compensation packages.

“Top AI engineers today are being treated like startup founders. The opportunity cost of being a regular employee is really high,” Tay said. “AI is moving so fast that building your own thing might be the better bet.”

He’s chosen to stay on the founder path, continuing to run GreatFrontEnd while keeping an eye out for new product ideas in the AI space. For Tay, the ability to experiment and ship independently outweighs the security of a salaried position, especially in such a fast-moving field.

Meta’s Hiring Push Amid Uneven Market

While competition for elite AI minds is red-hot, Tay acknowledged that not every engineer is benefiting.

“A lot of software engineers are still struggling to find jobs,” he said. “AI breakthroughs often come from just a handful of people—those at the very top. That’s why companies are willing to pay so much for them.”

This trend is especially true in the Bay Area and other tech hubs, where top talent circulates rapidly between companies.

“Even if Meta gets a breakthrough, that knowledge doesn’t stay locked up for long,” Tay added. “Everyone’s building models now—it’s an arms race.”

Meta has been on a hiring spree, pulling in key researchers and developers from other AI labs. While the company hasn’t confirmed specifics, industry watchers note its recent strategy of open-sourcing foundational models like LLaMA, courting top AI engineers, and investing heavily in compute infrastructure to catch up with rivals like OpenAI and Google.

Against this backdrop, OpenAI is fortifying its defenses—not just around its models, but its people. The company has become increasingly protective of its core talent, particularly engineers involved in debugging its frontier models, amid a growing wave of poaching attempts led by rivals like Meta.

In a revealing episode of the Before AGI podcast, OpenAI technical fellow Szymon Sidor underscored just how valued these engineers have become.

“Some of our most-prized employees,” Sidor began, referring to OpenAI’s model debuggers—only to abruptly pause as another voice quickly jumped in with a stern: “No names.” The exchange sparked laughter, but the deeper message was unmistakable.

From Corporates to Startups

Tay sees this era as uniquely favorable for founders and builders. While he was tempted by OpenAI’s offer, he ultimately declined, preferring to focus on independent ventures during this “once-in-a-generation” moment for AI.

He also acknowledged that his viral post about OpenAI was partly strategic: “It was marketing. I wanted to raise my profile. After that post, I got cold emails from all kinds of companies, not just the big names.”

AI Is Reshaping Work

Tay’s view is that AI is not just a hiring battleground—it’s already changing how teams function.

“AI is great at repetitive engineering tasks—implementing solutions that already exist. That shifts the value to creativity and innovation,” he said.

And that shift is accelerating as CEOs across industries are signaling workforce reductions due to AI adoption. Engineers without niche skills are increasingly at risk of displacement, while the few who drive breakthroughs are commanding outsize influence—and rewards.

For Tay, that’s exactly why he’s staying independent. He indicated that being part of someone else’s roadmap isn’t appealing to him right now. I’d rather be building things myself. The timing is too good to pass up.

The US government has taken a significant step toward mainstreaming artificial intelligence in federal operations by adding OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic to its approved list of AI vendors.

The move, announced by the General Services Administration (GSA), opens the gates for widespread adoption of advanced AI technologies like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude across civilian agencies, marking a major shift in Washington’s approach to automation and digital governance.

By onboarding the three companies into its Multiple Award Schedule — a procurement platform that offers pre-negotiated contracts — the GSA is fast-tracking federal access to commercial AI tools. The agency said the models were vetted for both performance and security, though contract terms remain undisclosed. In similar past deals, the GSA has secured deep discounts from software giants like Adobe, Salesforce, and Google.

GSA Deputy Administrator Stephen Ehikian emphasized the agency’s broader objective: equipping all federal employees with powerful digital tools.

“We’re not in the position of picking winners or losers here,” he said. “There’s going to be different tools for different use cases.”

Still, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic’s early inclusion highlights how far they’ve advanced in regulatory compliance compared to other firms still navigating federal procurement hurdles. GSA officials confirmed other AI vendors would be considered in due course.

A Presidential Mandate: No “Woke AI”

The rollout comes just days after President Donald Trump signed three executive orders reshaping the government’s relationship with AI. Central to the directives is a mandate that all federal agencies procure language models “free from ideological bias,” an apparent rebuke of what Trump has repeatedly dubbed “woke AI.”

Implementation of this ideological filter will vary agency by agency, GSA officials noted, but the policy is already inflecting federal discourse around algorithmic fairness and model transparency.

“This is a race, right?” said Josh Gruenbaum, commissioner of the GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service. “And as the president said, we’re going to win this race.”

The urgency reflects growing geopolitical stakes in AI supremacy. The administration hopes to reduce the gap between federal capabilities and the private sector, or even rival nations like China, by accelerating adoption across civilian government.

Beyond Defense: Civilian Agencies Now in Focus

While national security agencies such as the Pentagon have already awarded AI contracts to OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI, Tuesday’s announcement significantly broadens AI’s civilian footprint. Agencies such as the Treasury Department and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have expressed interest in deploying these tools for practical, high-volume tasks.

Potential use cases include fraud detection at the IRS, automation of patent review at the US Patent and Trademark Office, grant application screening at the Department of Education, and even editing press releases.

Scott Kupor, Director of the OPM, said he envisions AI being used to build customer service bots and to digest thousands of public comments on federal rulemaking — a task that has long slowed regulatory processes. But he also acknowledged a talent gap inside government.

“We’re probably missing people who are super conversant with very modern, AI-related stuff,” Kupor admitted. “Clearly, we can’t just throw things against the wall and see what sticks.”

A Broader Commercial Shift

This federal embrace comes at a pivotal moment for AI vendors. Many of these companies — including OpenAI and Anthropic — are navigating fierce competition not only for enterprise clients but also for top engineering talent. As revealed in recent interviews, OpenAI has even become protective of its most prized debuggers, concealing their identities out of concern over poaching, particularly by Meta and other Silicon Valley rivals.

In that sense, GSA’s announcement is more than just a bureaucratic update. It signals Washington’s deeper engagement in the AI arms race — one where the players are not just governments but tech titans with global reach and ideological agendas. And with Trump’s executive orders now setting the tone, the federal marketplace for AI isn’t just growing — it’s being reshaped.