Nigerian banks and fintech companies have been quietly mandated to automatically generate and update tax IDs for their customers, a move that will affect millions of account holders across the country without requiring any action on their part.

An insider with direct knowledge of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) integration revealed that the tax authority has created API services specifically for financial institutions, enabling them to retrieve tax IDs in bulk using the National Identification Numbers (NIN) already stored in customer databases.

“A bank has 20 million people. They cannot be waiting for all 20 million to go and get their tax IDs. It’s better you just do it as a bulk service,” the source explained. “So the banks, as long as they have NIN, they don’t need to be telling customers to go get it, because they will just use it to retrieve it.”

While this development is separate from the earlier clarification that NINs are not tax IDs but rather tools to generate them, it represents the practical implementation of how Nigeria’s new unified tax system will roll out at scale.

How the automatic generation works

Here’s a practical demonstration of what this means for the average Nigerian. Imagine you opened your bank account years ago and provided your NIN as part of the Know Your Customer requirements. That same NIN is now sitting in your bank’s database.

Under the new FIRS mandate, your bank will access the tax authority’s API, send your NIN along with basic verification details, and receive your unique tax ID in return. This tax ID will then be automatically added to your account profile without you visiting a branch, filling forms, or making any requests.

“FIRS has made provisions for the banks to update tax IDs and tender account numbers at the back end, making it stress free for people, businesses, and individuals,” the insider confirmed.

For fintech companies like Opay, Palmpay, Kuda, and others with millions of users, the same process applies. If they have your NIN on file, they can retrieve and store your tax ID automatically.

Why banks/fintechs are asking for tax information

This explains the recent wave of notifications from Nigerian banks requesting customers to update their tax information. Banks like Fidelity have sent official statements asking customers to add their tax IDs to their profiles.

What many customers did not realise is that banks already have the capability to do this themselves. The notifications may simply be banks ensuring compliance and giving customers the option to verify the information before it is automatically populated.

“It’s not like the bank needs customers to do anything. FIRS has created that capability. It’s not left for the bank to utilise it,” the source noted.

What this means for everyday Nigerians

For the typical bank customer, this development means you will soon see a tax ID field populated in your banking app or profile, even if you never personally retrieved one from the FIRS website. This is not a new registration or an additional burden. It is simply your bank fulfilling its obligation to update records with the tax ID that was automatically created for you when you got your NIN.

The service is completely free. According to the insider, customers will not be charged for this update. “It’s free, so automatically, once you have a bank account, your bank can utilise the capability FIRS has created.”

For those worried about privacy or data security, the system only works with information already held by financial institutions. Banks are not accessing new data but rather using existing NIN records to retrieve corresponding tax IDs through an official government API.

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For Maga politicians, European tech regulation hits hard in two areas: at the economic interests of Silicon Valley and at their view of free speech.

The action against five Europeans who are taking on harmful content and the platforms that host it has had an inevitable feel to it, given the increasingly vociferous reactions to the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA). Both pieces of legislation require social media firms to protect users or face the threat of sizeable fines. Indeed, Elon Musk’s X has been fined €120m (£105m) this month for breaching the DSA.

These acts are key examples of what US Republicans see as an anti-free speech culture on the other side of the Atlantic.

Thierry Breton is thought to have been a key figure in bringing through the EU’s Digital Services Act. Photograph: NurPhoto/Getty Images

Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator charged with overseeing the OSA, has not been affected by the visa bans announced on Christmas Eve, but there is an implicit threat in the air. One of those targeted by the move is the former European industry commissioner Thierry Breton, an architect of the DSA. The message is clear: watch out regulators.

Trump allies have also targeted Imran Ahmed’s Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a US-UK organisation which campaigns against online hate speech. CCDH was the target of an Elon Musk lawsuit in 2023 but the claim was thrown out by a judge last year who said the legal challenge, which focused on allegations that CCDH accessed data on X illegally, was in fact “about punishing the defendants for their speech”. In a post on X, Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, described CCDH as a “truly evil organization that just wants to destroy the first amendment under the guise of doing good!”

The UK’s OSA remains a subject of White House ire. JD Vance, the US vice-president, has said free speech in the UK is “in retreat”. In July, Jim Jordan, a Republican congressman who has criticised the act, led a delegation of US politicians to discuss the legislation with the Labour government and Ofcom.

Ofcom is aware it could be in the crosshairs. In May, the state department announced it will block entry to the US to “foreign nationals who censor Americans”. The watchdog has said it is seeking “clarity” on the planned visa restrictions.

The EU and UK have only just got going on implementing their acts and, as the visa ban for Breton shows, opposition is building. In October, Ofcom fined the online forum 4chan £20,000 for breaching the act by failing to respond to a request for a risk assessment. Emboldened by domestic opposition to the OSA, 4Chan is suing Ofcom in the US, claiming its enforcement of the OSA violates Americans’ right to freedom of speech.

The UK government has said it won’t back down on the OSA, while the X fine signals the EU is determined to enforce its own legislation. There is also an effective non-profit ecosystem – in Europe and the US – campaigning for online safety. These visa bans are just the latest shot in what will be a long-running battle under the Trump administration.

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2025 is ending much as it began: with President Donald Trump talking about annexing Greenland.

On Sunday, Trump appointed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as a special envoy to Greenland with the goal, as Landry put it, “to make Greenland a part of the US.” Though the territory has been moving gradually toward greater independence, Greenland has been under Danish rule since the 18th century. “We need Greenland for national protection,” Trump told reporters on Monday.

The move provoked a sharp response from the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland, who said in a joint statement: “National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law. … You cannot annex other countries.” Other European leaders have weighed in, as well, with French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirming that “France’s unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and Greenland.”

Trump has been talking about either buying or annexing the world’s largest island since 2019, during his first term. He brought up the issue again last January, when he raised alarm in European capitals by refusing to rule out using military force to take the territory if necessary. But, while he once described control of Greenland as an “absolute necessity” for US national security, the issue had been on the back burner for most of this year until Landry’s appointment, with the exception of occasional flare-ups over alleged US influence operations targeting the island.

Trump’s Greenland fixation had once seemed somewhat random. Danish leaders initially hoped it was a joke. But after a year of seeing Trump’s second term foreign policy in action — particularly the recent release of his administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) — the Greenland gambit now seems to actually serve his broader goals. It makes a lot more sense in the context of the president’s surprisingly activist vision of America’s role in the world.

Greenland fits into the administration’s heavy focus on the Western Hemisphere and what the NSS calls the “Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine” to “deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere.”

Explaining Greenland’s security importance on Monday, Trump said, “If you look up and down the coast of Greenland, you can see Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.” It’s true that the Arctic is increasingly becoming an area of strategic competition, as melting ice makes it more accessible, and that China and Russia have been building up military and commercial assets in the region, though neither has done so particularly close to Greenland.

But having Greenland under the control of a friendly European government is no comfort to this White House.

Critics routinely point out that Greenland’s strategic importance is not an argument for actually controlling it. The US already has a military base in Greenland, and the Danes have made clear they’re not opposed to an expanded US military presence. The Danish government has, in the past, blocked Chinese commercial interests in Greenland, in part out of a desire to maintain good relations with Washington.

But having Greenland under the control of a friendly European government is no comfort to this White House. In the worldview laid out in the NSS, liberal European governments are viewed as a threat to American interests on par with if not greater than China and Russia. In a recent interview, Vice President JD Vance even questioned whether European governments with “destructive moral ideas” could be trusted with nuclear weapons.

The NSS calls for promoting “patriotic” (i.e., right-wing) parties in Europe, and an earlier draft reportedly called for urging countries to pull away from the European Union. An effort to peel away strategically important territory close to North America from European control is very much in keeping with this effort.

As political scientist Abraham Newman recently told Vox, Trump’s territorial threats against Greenland and other US neighbors like Canada are very much in keeping with a “neo-royalist” worldview, which rejects the notion that all countries have equal sovereignty. “It’s about dominance, about saying [to Canada and Denmark], ‘You are not equal to us,’” Newman said.

The seemingly unusual appointment of Landry — who has little foreign policy experience and is staying in office as governor of Louisiana as he takes on this new role — is also in keeping with a Trump diplomatic approach that is more often conducted through a semi-formal network of allies and loyalists, rather than through the traditional US foreign policy bureaucracy. An old friend of Trump’s, the cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, may have been the one who initially planted the idea of controlling Greenland in his head.

Finally, Trump may have said this week that US interest in Greenland is “not for its minerals,” but it’s been widely reported that Lauder and other Trump associates have been working to sell him on the potential riches beneath Greenland’s soil. Greenland is believed to have large deposits of oil, as well as a variety of minerals, including the rare earth elements that China currently has a near monopoly over. If nothing else, the events of this year have driven home the fact that US options on China policy are limited as long as that monopoly continues.

Again, US companies can exploit these resources (and to some extent, they already are) without Greenland actually being part of the US. But under Trump, the US has taken a stake in foreign chip sales, tied diplomacy in Ukraine to minerals concessions, and made retaking Venezuelan oil fields an explicit aim of the US military build-up targeting that country. The line between commercial interests and security goals is far more porous under this administration than it has been in the past.

The US actually taking control of Greenland still seems like an extreme long shot. There’s little indication that Greenlanders want to join this US or will be swayed by Landry’s charm offensive.

But, as a campaign to take control of a mineral rich region pushed by his business partners and carried out by his ideological allies while cementing American dominance in the Western Hemisphere and undermining European sovereignty in the process, it feels today less like an eccentric deviation for Trump’s foreign policy than a neat distillation of it.

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If there is one undeniable truth about journalism, it’s that no publication does it all. We pride ourselves on covering Africa’s technology ecosystem with unmatched rigour. Still, every so often, we come across incredible work that leaves us with only one thought: “Damn, I wish we had made that.”

Instead of letting that envy stew in our Slack channel, we’re borrowing a leaf from the originators of what to do with such envy. Welcome to the inaugural TechCabal Jealousy List. This is a curated confession of the work we didn’t produce this year but wish we did: A collection of the articles, visual investigations, and documentaries from across the global media landscape that stopped us in our tracks.

We asked our reporters, writers, and editors to share one story they read/watched/listened to this year that they wish they’d written/produced/been a part of making.

Here’s what they said:

This article is on my jealousy list because it could have easily been a high-impact story for Digital Nomads, the weekend column I write for TechCabal. I’ve been looking to explore how diaspora folks live in the Asian parts of the world; I’m curious about North Korea in particular—its well-earned reputation for isolationism, and how foreigners adjust there.

It would have been useful if the story touched a bit on what life for Monica—beyond growing up—was like there, at least to the extent it could. But I like the pacing, the narrative setting, and the overall elegance. I’ve borrowed the journalist, Sheriff Bojang Jr’s style in some of my work since then. Yet, more could have been done with such an interesting, unique subject.

Emmanuel Nwosu

Junior Reporter

This article tells the story of a supposed AI startup that sold the dream of AI-assembled apps when it was mostly just run on human labour and outsourcers despite raising $445m from Microsoft and other investors. I wish I had written it because the article is well-detailed and tells the full story of the company’s collapse. Even though it’s not breaking news, it does a good job of tying old and new information together in an engaging way because it is well-sourced.

Muktar Oladunmade

Associate Reporter

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the aspect ratio. They went with something close to 2.39:1 instead of the usual 16:9 you’d expect on YouTube. And honestly, that alone said a lot about how intentional the production was.

The video introduces the concept of tipping points in technological evolution, major shifts that tend to appear in 80-year intervals and go on to shape the world for about 25 years. But what’s wild is that 2025 doesn’t have one tipping point, but three. All happening at once.

Now, here’s where the aspect ratio becomes genius. It can be cleanly divided into three equal squares. Visually, it’s freakishly satisfying, but more importantly, it lets them show the three tipping points side-by-side and carry that theme all through the story. It’s such a subtle but powerful creative choice. The storyteller and creative director in me had a great time watching this. And honestly? I’d love to tell stories with this level of intentionality and creativity, too.

Ayodeji Aboderin

Video Content Creator

Say what you will about people who take horoscopes and zodiac signs seriously (a sentiment rightly captured in the first paragraph of the article), I found it interesting that this article takes what is an inexact science and tries to make it less so. But that’s not why it’s on my jealousy list. It is on my list because of its format. What a time it’d be when and if we’re able to unlock this kind of design thinking and execution in our reporting here at TechCabal!

My writing career often extends into the literary world, and there, we talk sometimes about form mirroring content; how the way an essay or story or poem is presented can communicate as much or more than its words, and I appreciate it deeply when newsrooms employ this kind of thinking. It takes news and journalism from something stuffy and straitjacketed to something interactive, deeply engaging, and memorable.

Kosisochukwu Ugwuede

Standards & Features Editor

There is a running joke in the newsroom that I am obsessed with Bloomberg, so it’s no surprise that a Bloomberg article was my favourite this year. This piece on Luke Farritor, a 24-year-old coder who worked for the now-troubled, Elon Musk-controlled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), was a riveting profile of how a wunderkind with no government experience suddenly found himself wielding enormous influence over which agencies were gutted and which survived. It was a reminder that power—who holds it and how it’s used—is just as important to follow as technology itself.

Ganiu Oloruntade

Senior Editor

This is the story of a man who everyone thought committed a crime, only for the actual criminal to call and say the accused man stole his name. It’s a wild story, but if you are like me, who loves wild, long, meandering, and complicated storytelling, this will make your day.

Frank Eleanya

Senior Reporter

Maybe it’s because I’m fascinated by how AI works and incredibly nosy about how other people use AI (don’t quote me), but this story from Wired really caught my attention in a “Why didn’t I think of conducting this experiment” kind of way. 

It seems whimsical at first, but it is deeply revealing of how our society lives with technological advancements. I’m grateful for the open-mindedness of the participants, and I would give anything to have witnessed it first-hand and written my observation. Give it a whirl; you’ll see why I enjoyed it, and the reason it’s on my jealousy list. 

Opeyemi Kareem

Reporting Fellow

A generally upsetting story, but I like it because it carries a lot of empathy, and it genuinely shows how interactive technology is with our everyday lives. I only use AI for work and arranging my thoughts into a straight line, but I am particularly fascinated by how a tool that came out less than a decade ago has integrated itself into our everyday lives, and how close we are to achieving Neo and Trinity in the next 20 years.

Latifah Yusuf

Junior Audience Editor

This story, a follow-up to an earlier investigation, amazed me because of its in-depth investigative and strong public-interest angle. Imagine how something as ordinary as normal devices and ad data can create a hidden surveillance pipeline capable of tracking soldiers, intelligence personnel, nuclear storage sites, and other sensitive locations. It’s a story I wish I had written, not just for holding power accountable, but for its potential to spark public discourse and drive real public interest impact.

What made me admire the story most was its blend of tech, national security/intelligence, and investigative reporting in a way that feels both revealing and consequential. The reporters followed the data trail across borders and through obscure ad-tech brokers, uncovering how location data from devices and apps ends up in the hands of data companies that may misuse it.

Abubakar Abdulrasheed

Reporting Fellow

A really long feature piece, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story. It was thorough in its exploration of the subject, so much so that if I had not known about MrBeast before reading the article, I would not have done further research after I was done reading. It answered most questions I had as a reader about who the subject was, why and how he did what he did, and why I should even care about him in the first place.

Another thing that stood out to me was how the writer did not assume. MrBeast is already very popular. It’s easy to assume that there are details that did not need to be included, because the average person would be privy to those details. The writer did no such thing. After reading, I was inspired to write better feature stories with more depth. It also inspired me to write this analysis piece.

Fancy Goodman

Content Writer

I have read a lot about AI and electric cars in 2025. The conversations swing between excitement and fear: some people talk about breakthroughs that could change everything, others warn about environmental damage and the pressure on global power systems. But there is another side of the conversation that rarely gets told. It is the story of the communities feeding the world’s tech revolution.

Places like the Democratic Republic of Congo hold the resources that power the chips driving this revolution. And while the tech world celebrates progress, the communities supplying these minerals are living through crises that grow deeper each year. That is why this Reuters investigation caught my attention. It shows how minerals from one mine in eastern Congo feed the global tech supply chain while also sustaining rebel groups and fuelling long-running conflict.

This is the story I wish I had worked on. I would have wanted to meet the miners, both small-scale workers and those in larger operations. I would have wanted to hear what they gain, what they lose, and how they feel watching the world benefit from something that costs them so much.

John Adoyi

Reporting Fellow

The article is over five months old, yet I have read it three or four times because it speaks directly to the lived tension we as writers/journalists navigate daily. It moves beyond the simplistic “AI is good/bad” debate to document the personal calculus of professionals who must engage with these tools at work, yet deliberately reject them in their creative and intellectual sanctuaries. That distinction between the commodified output and the sacred process of thinking, writing, and creating is one I feel profoundly/personally. Saner (the author) validates a silent resistance many of us practice, protecting the human core of our craft even as we operate within a transforming industry.

Kenn Abuya

Senior Reporter, East Africa

At its heart, technology is meant to make life easier; however, when it turns on us, the result is a chilling, cruel twist of fate. Adam Raine was a 16-year-old navigating the struggles of adolescence. He turned to ChatGPT for support; instead, he found a suicide companion.

His mother found his body.

This piece stood out to me as it honours Adam—a son, brother, and friend—while exposing the devastating cost of technological advancement without regulation. Additionally, the way the article was crafted stood out to me. For example, the closing paragraphs were written in a partly chilling format.

The goal of the piece is simple but vital: to ensure there are no more tragedies like Adam’s, and that is an honourable task.

Ifeduyi Oyesanmi

Managing Editor

I enjoyed its systematic and data storytelling, which was done really well without the numbers being boring. I might also be biased by the fact that it explored our shifts in human behaviour over time, which is a concept I am drawn to. This piece illustrates how technology has revolutionised food delivery and our engagement with it over the last few years. It’s also on my jealousy list because of Osarumen, the author’s thoroughness, which involved nine months of research and over 100 interviews.

Eme Agbor

Junior Content Writer

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If you’re paying $200 a month for ChatGPT Pro or Claude, it’s becoming harder to ignore the alternatives.

China’s Zhipu AI released GLM-4.7 on December 22 — an open-source AI coding model that is matching several premium competitors on key benchmarks while costing $3 per month, or free if you run it locally.

The claim sounds bold, but the numbers back it up. On LiveCodeBench, which tests real-world coding ability, GLM-4.7 scored 84.9%, ahead of Claude Sonnet 4.5. On SWE-bench Verified, which measures how well models fix real GitHub issues, it reached 73.8%, the highest among open-source models. On the AIME 2025 mathematics benchmark, it hit 95.7%.

These are not marginal gains. They are performance gaps that raise serious questions about the value of $200-a-month subscriptions for developers who mainly need help with coding.

Yahoo Japan is embracing AI company-wide for enhanced efficiency

It is definitely a first from a mainstream company.

Memory That Actually Works

Here’s where things get interesting. Most AI coding assistants lose context mid-conversation. You’re deep into debugging and suddenly the model asks you to re-explain your project.

GLM-4.7 introduces what Zhipu calls “Preserved Thinking” — the ability to maintain reasoning chains across multiple turns instead of resetting. For developers using agentic tools like Claude Code or Cline, this targets one of the biggest frustrations in AI-assisted coding: constant repetition.

On Humanity’s Last Exam, which measures complex reasoning with tool use, GLM-4.7 scored 42.8%, a 41% improvement over its predecessor and ahead of GPT-5.1 on that specific test. On τ²-Bench, which focuses on multi-step tool usage, it reached 87.4%.

Benchmarks don’t tell the whole story, but they suggest something practical is happening here — not just marketing.

Hardware Requirements and Trust Questions

There’s no free lunch.

Running GLM-4.7 locally requires serious hardware: datacenter GPUs or multi-GPU consumer setups. For most developers, the realistic option is the $3-a-month cloud access at chat.z.ai or API usage.

Then there is the trust issue. Chinese AI labs have been aggressive about benchmarks in the past. DeepSeek’s January breakthrough and Baidu’s ERNIE models both promised disruption. Some delivered. Others didn’t hold up under real-world use.

Early feedback on GLM-4.7 is cautiously positive. Developers report:

• Cleaner HTML output
• Better UI proportions
• Fewer context-loss errors compared to GLM-4.6

But it has been live for less than 48 hours. The real test is not leaderboard performance — it is how it behaves inside real production workflows over time.

GLM-4.7 Evaluation (Image Credit: Zai)

Why This Launch Matters Beyond the Model

The competitive dynamic is shifting.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google spent 2025 normalising $200-a-month subscriptions, framing premium AI as the cost of doing serious work. GLM-4.7 challenges that assumption by closing the gap on core coding tasks without the subscription wall.

For startups watching burn rates and solo developers priced out of top tiers, that is a meaningful change.

Zhipu’s timing is deliberate. It launched GLM-4.7 alongside its Open Platform, offering global API access with Python and Java support just as companies plan tooling budgets for 2026. If reliability holds, this could force a repricing across the industry.

Is Premium AI Still Worth It?

This is what it really comes down to.

If your team needs enterprise-grade uptime, legal guarantees, and full support contracts, premium subscriptions still make sense. But if you are a solo developer or a small team willing to trade some convenience for cost control, GLM-4.7 has become a real alternative.

The weights are already available on Hugging Face and ModelScope. Access via chat.z.ai starts at $3 a month.

The next three months will decide everything. If GLM-4.7 survives real developer use without major issues, the AI coding market is about to get far more competitive — and far cheaper.

Tencent unveils T1 AI model escalating China’s AI Race

The future of artificial intelligence gets a powerful new player from Tencent.

Updated

December 24, 2025

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There is a viral video that tends to get passed around at this time of year. It’s an old home movie showing a boy and a girl on Christmas morning eagerly unwrapping a present that turns out to be an N64 console – the boy is, to put it mildly, extremely pleased. It’s a scene a lot of us who play games will recognise: the excitement and anticipation provided by that big console-sized parcel, or the little DVD-shaped package that could be the latest Super Mario adventure. Although I never got a games machine at Christmas, I remember one year being given Trivial Pursuit on the Commodore 64 and the whole family gathered around the TV to play. It was one of the few times my mum and my sisters showed any interest in the computer, and I loved getting them involved.

Veteran designer Rhod Broadbent of Dakko Dakko recalls the Christmas of 1992, when his father, a programmer who had previously looked down on games consoles, bought him Mario Kart and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. “Zelda was completely unknown to me at the time,” he recalls. “I think Dad was probably expecting me to be more excited. But after I had spent the morning in Mario Kart, I plugged in Zelda and everything changed. From the title music, through the intro and into that beautiful initial thunderstorm, everything was so polished and smooth and unlike the video games I’d played before. It didn’t leave the cartridge slot for weeks. I remember that Christmas morning like it was yesterday …”

For Anna Hollinrake, founder of Electric Saint, Christmas gaming was an opportunity for sweet revenge. “As a competitive child with a guitarist father, I chose to learn the violin aged six so I could be better than him at something. However, he picked up my violin and immediately smashed out a few pieces way above my level. Years later, Christmas morning 2007, I unwrapped Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Imagine my delight as I watched my dad catastrophically miss every note on the plastic guitar controller. Oh, how the tables turned, father. Who’s the musician now?!”

Rockers’ revenge … Guitar Hero III. Photograph: RedOctane

The memories don’t always end so happily. Sam Barlow, creator of Her Story and Immortality, recalls when he and his brother used to wait until everyone was in bed on Christmas Eve before sneakily squeezing and shaking all their presents. “One year my brother fishes out a thick rectangular present – exactly the shape of a Super Nintendo game box. We were so excited, we got very little sleep thinking about what game it could be. Skip to the morning, he carefully peels open the wrapping, teasing out the reveal … only to discover a Ghostbusters card game. His utter disappointment was the funniest thing I’ve seen. To this day in our family, ‘Ghostbusters card game’ is used as shorthand for those occasions when life fails to meet our expectations.”

But there were also times when disappointment turned to delight. Video game writer Alex Donaldson at Eurogamer recalls being desperate for a PC, but his parents couldn’t afford it so got him a Sega Mega Drive instead. “I quickly set it up and loaded the Mega Games compilation cart,” he says. “Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Revenge of Shinobi … Everything was so immediate, so visceral. This wasn’t a PC, it was better. I always remember that feeling – there is a beautiful simplicity to the console.”

‘So immediate, so visceral’ … Streets of Rage on the Sega Genesis Mega Drive. Photograph: ArcadeImages/Alamy

Some of us have found ways to keep treasured Christmas gaming experiences alive. I can dig out Singstar and relive festive karaoke sessions of old, while Lucy Blundell of Kinmoku Games (One Night Stand, Videoverse) has a collection of vintage consoles to call upon. “Last Christmas morning, my husband and I snuggled on the beanbags with our dog, plugged in our Japanese Sega Saturn and played Christmas NiGHTS,” she says. “Afterwards, we booted up the Nintendo 64 – the very same console I received for Christmas back in 1999 – and played my favourite Christmas games: Diddy Kong Racing’s winter levels and Super Mario 64, which I bought on Boxing Day in 1999. Spending a quiet Christmas together and sharing our favourite childhood games was a real festive treat!”

Last week, I asked on BlueSky for people’s Christmas gaming memories, and what really touched me was how many recalled being given secondhand machines, with bundles of games – and being delighted. A Commodore 128, a Nintendo Wii … the thrill was in having so many new experiences to try, not just the one game that comes with a new console. Christmas for a gamer isn’t always about the flashiest, newest, most expensive things. It can be a few hours of shared fun with whatever machine you have to hand.

Please do share your own memories of Christmas gaming in the comments section!

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Christmas dinner is one of the best parts of the holidays – but experts have warned that getting rid of leftovers might be ruining your plumbing. 

Many rich, festive foods are classified as ‘Fat, Oils, and Greases’ (FOGs), which are one of the biggest culprits for blockages in drainage pipes.

Now, plumbing experts have revealed the waste foods you should never pour down the sink.

And they say that you should absolutely avoid washing any leftover gravy down the drain.

The richness of a good gravy comes from the fact that it contains both fats and flour, which makes it a ‘double threat’ for drain blockages.

While it might seem easy to wash away, gravy can solidify as it cools, causing serious problems that could leave you paying for expensive emergency repairs.

Mike Flook, a plumber from MyBuilder.com, says: ‘Disposing of FOGs down the sink in the run up to Christmas could lead to a disaster over the holidays.

‘Should you have any emergency issues over the festive period, you might find it harder to find a tradesperson that’s available, and so may have less options when it comes to pricing.’

Experts warn that washing leftover gravy down the sink this Christmas could ruin your plumbing and cause an expensive blockage (stock image)

However, it isn’t just gravy that could leave you with plumbing problems this Christmas.

Mr Flook says that many holiday staples, including coffee grounds, leftover meat fat, and even the dregs of your Baileys, could lead to blockages.

Since Baileys has a short shelf life, it is fairly common to end up with a half-finished bottle lingering in the fridge.

Although it might seem sensible to tip away the excess before recycling the bottle, Mr Flook warns that Baileys is still classified as an FOG.

That means you should avoid pouring any cream liqueurs down the sink, since they could damage the pipes.

Likewise, you should definitely make sure to avoid draining any extra meat fat into the sink.

Additionally, while coffee grounds themselves are not an FOG, they are a prime candidate for causing clogging.

Coffee grounds can soak up excess fat and clump together in U-bends, causing a blockage that is especially hard to remove.

Gravy, meat fat, and even cream liqueurs like Bailey’s are classed as ‘Fat, Oils, and Greases’ (FOGs), which are one of the biggest culprits for blockages in drainage pipes

If you do end up pouring fats down the sink this Christmas, it could be an extremely expensive mistake, with emergency plumber callouts costing four times the usual rate during the holidays (stock image)

The Christmas leftovers you should never pour down the sink

• Gravy 
• Excess meat fat
• Cream liqueurs such as Baileys
• Coffee grounds  

Instead, experts suggest that you can use your coffee grounds to mix with soil in your garden as an effective fertiliser.

Mr Flook says: ‘It’s always best to err on the side of caution – if you think a product might be a FOG, do your best to avoid wastage – and if that’s not possible, wrap up the excess product and pop it in the bin.’

If you do end up pouring some fatty liquids down the sink, you should run the hot tap as soon as possible.

The hot water will help to dissolve the grease and fats, keeping them in a liquid form until they reach the sewers.

Mr Flook suggests leaving the hot tap running for several minutes to be on the safe side.

You can also add soap to the hot water as a gentle way of breaking down blockages, but you should not use any harsh chemicals.

‘Drain unblockers are often ineffective against FOGs, and can cause damage to your pipes in the process,’ says Mr Flook.

‘A simple plunger can actually be more effective than chemicals.’

As well as ruining your own drains, these fats can contribute to the formation of the enormous fatbergs which collect in the sewers. Pictured: Technicians remove a fatberg beneath Regent Street, London 

Making these mistakes could leave you with an expensive issue, with emergency plumber callouts costing four times the normal rate – and even more at Christmas.

Mr Flook says: ‘FOGs are really problematic for our drains. And it’s not a problem that’s easy to solve without a professional.

‘Some sink waste kits can be a bit like a jigsaw, and I’ve come across many situations where customers have attempted to unblock a sink themselves and then ended up putting the washers back in different places, which then causes a leak.’

But if you dump gravy and Baileys down the sink, you could be causing problems for more than your own pipes.

As FOGs wash out through the sewers, they can leave behind a greasy film that coats the inside of pipes, especially when combined with other waste materials.

Over time, this can contribute to the formation of blockages or even the dreaded ‘fatbergs’ that cause so many issues for sewers in big cities.

These collections of oils, fats, plastics, and other waste can grow to weigh hundreds of tonnes.

The largest ever found in London stretched for 250 metres and weighed 130 tonnes – as much as two Airbus A318 aircraft.

What are fatbergs?

Fatbergs are blockages made up of flushed fat, oil, grease and other flushed waste such as wet wipes and illegal drugs.

They form into huge concrete-like slabs and can be found beneath almost every UK city, growing larger with every flush.

They also include food wrappers and human waste, blocking tunnels – and raising the risk of sewage flooding into homes.

Fatbergs are blockages made up of flushed fat, oil, grease and other flushed waste such as wet wipes and illegal drugs. Pictured: Technicians clear a fatberg beneath Regent Street, London 

They can grow metres tall and hundreds of metres long, with water providers last year declaring an epidemic of fatberg emergencies in 23 UK cities, costing tens of millions of pounds to remove.

The biggest ever discovered in London was a 250-metre (820 feet), 110-tonne monster found under Whitechapel, east London, in 2017. 

Fatbergs take weeks to remove and form when people put things they shouldn’t down sinks and toilets.

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Nigeria’s internet penetration crossed the 50% mark in November 2025, reaching 50.58%, according to the latest industry data from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), signifying steady progress but well short of the 70% broadband penetration target set under the National Broadband Plan (NBP) 2020–2025, which expires in December.

The increase was up from 45.61% in January, representing a gain of nearly five percentage points over the year.

The NBP established ambitious benchmarks to drive digital inclusion, includingextending effective broadband coverage to at least 90% of the population, achieving minimum download speeds of 25 Mbps in urban areas and 10 Mbps in rural regions, and ensuring data affordability at no more than ₦390 per 1GB, equivalent to 2% of median income or 1% of the minimum wage. Despite entering the plan’s final weeks, Nigeria’s current broadband landscape falls short.

By November 2025, broadband subscriptions in the country stood at around 109 million. The growth trajectory has been uneven: the nation missed its interim 2023 target of 50% penetration and ended 2024 at 44.43%, highlighting persistent structural and regulatory challenges. Among these, fibre optic vandalism, which accounts for 30 to 43 cuts daily, high Right-of-Way (RoW) fees, and declining subscription numbers, losing over a million users in early 2025, have hampered expansion and reliability.

Nevertheless, several factors have driven broadband growth in recent years. Mobile network expansion, particularly 3G and 4G deployments, has underpinned most of the increase, with limited 5G rollouts supplementing capacity in urban areas. Falling smartphone prices and competitive data bundles have enabled more Nigerians to access mobile internet, while policy frameworks like the NBP and investments in the National Communications Backbone have incentivised private sector participation, especially in underserved and rural areas.

The shortfall against targets largely reflects a mix of high deployment costs, infrastructure gaps, and coverage limitations. Operators face expensive RoW charges, multiple levies, and high energy costs to maintain base stations, particularly in rural regions. Fibre and last-mile networks have not expanded quickly enough beyond major cities, leaving significant populations unconnected and some network infrastructure underutilised.

Despite these obstacles, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) maintains that the 70% penetration target remains the primary objective. With sustained investment in mobile broadband, growing smartphone adoption, and ongoing expansion of 4G/LTE infrastructure, the sector is poised to continue incremental growth, even if the original 2025 benchmark remains elusive.

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Photo by Centre for Ageing Better / Unsplash

The concept of over-the-air firmware updates quietly changing the way a connected device gets better after purchase and mobility scooters are an evident instance of the change. Modern models can now acquire new functionality, better performance, and safety with software provided remotely instead of hardware improvements, which now means that users can enjoy the results of constant innovation without having to upgrade their equipment.

Technology Foundations

The over the air updates is based on inbuilt connectivity that enables a device to communicate safely with the manufacturer servers. Cellular or Wi Fi connections can be used to download and install firmware packages with little user intervention so that critical software in the system remains up-to-date without having to replace physical equipment.

This strategy is similar to the one used to develop smartphones and other smart devices over time, yet it has an exceptionally high influence on mobility equipment. With the ability to update embedded in the control systems of a mobility scooter, the manufacturers can refine the way in which the motors, sensors, and batteries communicate with each other to provide a platform that will make constant progress instead of becoming obsolete.

Performance Improvements

Among the most evident positive outcomes of firmware update, one can identify gradual optimization of its performance. The acceleration curves, steering response and energy consumption can also be made more finely tuned with updates based on real world usage data, resulting in less bumpy rides and longer battery life without any mechanical adjustments.

These are frequently the enhancement of collective data, in considerable quantities of devices. The action of engineers tracking the performance of the scooters in various settings allows them to modify the software parameters and spread them to the rest of the product ecosystem, so that users can reap the benefits of shared learning.

Safety Enhancements

Remote updates are also very beneficial to safety systems. A firmware can make obstacle detection more sensitive, or a better braking reaction, or change the speed limits under specific circumstances, all of which can make the users with different mobility needs have a safer daily operation.

Notably, this will enable manufacturers to respond to safety issues as soon as they arise. In the case of a potential risk, discovered once deployed, corrective updates may be provided in a timely manner and minimize the use of recalls or manual maintenance, which will help to build trust in associated mobility solutions.

User Experience Changes

In the long run, the firmware redefinitions can transform the general experience of users through the improvement of control interfaces and feedback systems. Gradual innovations like better display data, easier controls, or intelligent driving can be installed, which will help to make the scooter simpler and more comfortable to operate.

Such changes usually react to the user feedback. With the interaction of the riders with their devices every day, the manufacturers can understand what features annoy them and what values they can add to it, and provide them with specific updates that improve usability without disturbing the existing routine.

Maintenance and Longevity

Remote updates are also helpful to proactive maintenance as they facilitate improved system diagnostics. Early warning of when the components are wearing out along with their health can be monitored by firmware which can alert the user or service provider before it becomes too late in the life cycle of the equipment.

This practice is in line with the trends observed in other technologies related to healthcare such as hospital beds which currently have software monitoring to enhance reliability. Moving part of the intelligence of maintenance to software makes the mobility devices reliable and economical throughout its existence.

Greater Integration of healthcare

Mobility devices are becoming smarter, and as a result, they are more likely to integrate into larger digital healthcare environments. Firmware upgrades may enhance the compatibility with companion apps or care platforms, facilitating the data exchange, which can help caregivers and clinicians to comprehend the mobility patterns.

Such integration aids in establishing mobility scooters as not only means of transport but as associated health resources. In the long term, enhancements that are software-driven can assist in achieving improved results because the individual mobility would be synchronized with more broad assistive and care-focused technologies.

Conclusion

Firmware updates via the air are redefining the expectation of mobility equipment since continuous improvement is no longer an exception as it is a standard feature. Connected scooters are dynamic to the needs of the users rather than being stagnant products through performance tuning, safety upgrades and user-focused refinements.

This model is evolutional, indicating the future where mobility solutions will be adaptable, responsive and deeply embedded in the digital care setting. Through software driven evolution, the manufacturers will be making sure that smart mobility is not only relevant but also reliable and supportive as time goes by.

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It is better known for its viral dances and for making hits out of forgotten songs, but the social media site TikTok is becoming a force to be reckoned with as a shopping platform.

Major retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Samsung, QVC, Clarks, and Sainsbury’s are now selling their wares on the site’s e-commerce service, TikTok Shop, alongside more than 200,000 UK small and medium businesses.

Launched in Britain in 2021, TikTok Shop recorded its biggest sales day in the UK on Black Friday, with 27 items sold every second. Across the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period, sales were up by 50% on last year.

The service works by letting brands sell directly inside TikTok through videos and livestreams with embedded links to items for sale, as well as through a separate shop tab on their profiles.

A brand can post its own content and link to products itself, or allow influencers to promote them using affiliate links. Checkout happens without having to leave the app, and money is split after a sale between TikTok, the seller and any creator who helped drive it.

TikTok Shop launched in the UK in 2021. Illustration: TikTok

Sainsbury’s, one of the first major supermarkets to launch on the platform, has found success with its Tu Christmas pyjamas. A sponsored collaboration with the influencer Rachel Spicer generated 6.6m views, with the pyjamas selling out in under a week.

M&S has also enjoyed strong results from TikTok Shop livestreams with links to featured items, with one recent feed attracting 260,000 viewers and generating sales of about one item every 30 seconds.

Small businesses are using it to try to increase their reach, especially now that AI is making it more tricky to show up in search results. The Fat Butcher, an online meat delivery service based in Newcastle, is selling fresh turkeys on the platform for the first time this year.

According to Danielle Dullaghan, the social strategy director at the global marketing agency Iris, “beauty brands in particular are seeing strong commercial returns”.

She says part of TikTok Shop’s success is the fact “it plays directly into impulse buying behaviour”.

The London-based jewellery brand L’ERA, run by Lara Mar and her daughters Talia Mar and Angele Sofia, will generate about £145,000 in revenue through TikTok this year.

“It has almost doubled year on year, and many of our online customers originally discovered us via TikTok,” Mar says.

The brand relies heavily on live shopping, typically running three three-hour live streams a week, increasing to six during the Black Friday and Christmas periods.

TikTok shoppers have shown a willingness to spend, with L’ERA’s largest single order via the platform exceeding £1,400.

The business and social media consultant Jules Brim says: “TikTok Shop has exploded and for some small brands it’s been a gamechanger in terms of reach and sales. But what we don’t talk about enough is the cost. It can create a race to the bottom on pricing, put pressure on small businesses to produce constant content, and shift the focus from brand building to chasing trends.”

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If you’re looking to share a little Christmas magic with the budding astronomers in your life, NASA has just provided the perfect solution.

In the early hours of Christmas morning, ‘Santa’, better known as the International Space Station (ISS), will pass directly over the UK.

Although it isn’t the real Father Christmas, the glittering light of the ISS is guaranteed to enthral any children desperate to see where their presents come from.

And the great news is that you won’t need any special equipment to see Santa’s sleigh.

Although the ISS is relatively small compared to other objects in space, it orbits at an extremely low altitude of just 250 miles (400 km).

That means the orbital lab will be one of the brightest objects in the night sky as it whizzes above our heads.

According to NASA, there will be two excellent chances to spot the ISS this Christmas.

So, here is everything you need to know to catch a glimpse of ‘Santa’.

If you want to spread some Christmas magic this holiday, you can catch a glimpse of Santa and his sleigh, better known as the International Space Station, as it passes over the UK (file image)

The ISS will appear as a solid white light moving in a steady line across the sky. It will not blink or flash like a plane or fade out like a shooting star. Pictured: The ISS seen from Earth 

Since the ISS travels at 17,900 mph (28,800 kmph), it orbits Earth every 90 minutes, meaning there are often multiple chances to spot it.

However, not all of these are visible throughout the day.

Catherine Muller, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, told the Daily Mail: ‘Just like we’re able to see the Moon because it reflects light from the Sun, we’re able to spot the ISS with the naked eye because its solar panels reflect light from the Sun.

‘Unlike the Moon, it’s not bright enough to be spotted during the day.’

That means the best time to see the ISS is just before dawn or after dusk, when the viewer is in the dark while the ISS is still being illuminated by the sun.

Luckily, there will be two such opportunities to see Santa on his way back to the North Pole on Christmas morning.

For any early risers, the first opportunity will occur at 04:44 GMT on Christmas morning, with the ISS appearing 16° above the horizon in the East.

However, this won’t be your best chance to see Santa as the light of the ISS will only be visible for about a minute and will remain quite low in the sky.

There will be two opportunities to see the ISS on Christmas morning. One at 04:44 GMT and a second, much better chance at 06:17 GMT (pictured)

When to see the ISS this Christmas 

Christmas Day, 04:44 AM

• Visible: 1 minute
• Max height: 16°
• Appears: 16° above East

Christmas Day, 06:17 AM 

• Visible: 5-6 minutes
• Max height: 73°
• Appears: 36° above West

Boxing Day, 05:31 AM

• Visible: 3 minutes
• Max height: 52°
• Appears: 52° above East

Boxing Day, 07:07 AM

• Visible: 6 minutes
• Max height: 33°
• Appears: 11° above West  

The best chance will come a few hours later, shortly after six in the morning, as the ISS rises 36° above the horizon.

Mr Muller says: The ISS will become visible at 06:17 GMT in the west, and will curve higher in the sky towards the south before disappearing in the East.

‘It will only be visible for five minutes, until 06:22 GMT, and will look like a star steadily moving across the sky. It will not flash or blink like a plane.’

Even though the ISS is bright, it can still be a little difficult to spot if you don’t know where to look.

That means the most important thing is making sure you know exactly when and where it is going to be visible.

The best thing to do is download NASA’s ‘Spot the Station’ app on your phone.

This provides real-time information about the station’s location, alerts you to upcoming sightings, and has an augmented reality mode which shows you where the station should be using your phone camera.

Once you are confident that you can find the station, all the normal rules you would use for stargazing still apply.

The ISS doesn’t produce any light of its own, but rather reflects light from the sun as the moon does. This means the best time to see it is before dawn or after dusk, when the viewer is in the dark and the station is in the light 

The Met Office forecasts clear skies over the south of England and Scotland. There will be patchy cloud over the north of England and Wales

‘It’s important to give your eyes enough time to adapt to the dark beforehand to ensure you don’t miss the ISS passing overhead, and try and find a location with minimal light pollution,’ says Ms Muller.

If you can, try to avoid using a bright torch or looking at your phone for at least 15 minutes before the ISS arrives so that your eyes will be fully adjusted.

Luckily, the cloudy weather of the past few days looks to be finally clearing just in time for a clear, cold Christmas day.

According to the Met Office forecast, there will be some patchy cloud over Wales and the North of England, while the rest of the country remains clear.

That should mean many people will have a great chance to catch the ISS passing overhead.

Even if you can’t wake up early enough to see the space station, you may still be able to catch a few shooting stars this evening from the tail end of the Ursid Meteor shower.

The Ursids run until December 26, producing about 10 shooting stars every hour at their peak, and are known for the occasional bright cluster of fireballs.

As long as you have a clear view of the sky to the north and are far from any light sources, you might be able to see a few shooting stars appearing from the constellation Ursa Minor.

Meanwhile, on the ISS, astronauts will be celebrating the holiday with a special meal including ‘clams, oysters, turkey, green beans, and smoked salmon, along with shelf-stable treats such as candies, icing, almond butter, and hummus’

The astronauts aboard the ISS have their own festive traditions, including giving small gifts and hanging spacesuit boots on the airlock rather than stockings above the fireplace

Meanwhile, up on the ISS, the astronauts are also preparing for their Christmas celebrations.

NASA says that astronauts will have the chance to enjoy a Christmas dinner including ‘clams, oysters, turkey, green beans, and smoked salmon, along with shelf-stable treats such as candies, icing, almond butter, and hummus.’

Astronauts will also exchange small gifts and spend the day connecting with their families on Earth through video calls.

In a video message recorded from the station, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke says: ‘During this season, it’s about spending time with family and friends and spending time together and reflecting on the year, and what a great year it has been for us as astronauts.

‘It’s also a little bit sad because we’re not with our families at the time, but actually we are; we’re with our space family. So, we’re okay, and we’re looking forward to spending the holidays together.

EXPLAINED: THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SITS 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH

The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000. 

Crews have come mainly from the US and Russia, but the Japanese space agency JAXA and European space agency ESA have also sent astronauts. 

The International Space Station has been continuously occupied for more than 20 years and has been expended with multiple new modules added and upgrades to systems 

Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.

ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.

The US space agency, NASA, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners, including Europe, Russia and Japan.

So far 244 individuals from 19 countries have visited the station, and among them eight private citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.

There is an ongoing debate about the future of the station beyond 2025, when it is thought some of the original structure will reach ‘end of life’.

Russia, a major partner in the station, plans to launch its own orbital platform around then, with Axiom Space, a private firm, planning to send its own modules for purely commercial use to the station at the same time. 

NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are working together to build a space station in orbit around the moon, and Russia and China are working on a similar project, that would also include a base on the surface. 

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Photo by Carriza Maiquez / Unsplash

An appropriate donor-friendliness web design will facilitate the relationship between mission-driven messages and user-oriented design, which leads visitors to support a nonprofit in significant ways.

The structure, pictures and the content should be used in a way that they would bring trust, minimise friction and simplify the process of giving. Most of the organizations are concerned with adding pages or graphics, yet purposeful layout and clear direction and smooth experience are what matter the most.

The site must be able to assist with the needs of the donors, answer questions fast, and eliminate confusion. A layout that is well developed turns out to be a fundraising tool which is beneficial to both the organization and the audience.

Understanding Donor Intent

Learning visitor intent is the beginning stage in the development of a layout that transforms interest into action. Individuals come to a nonprofit site with questions that are of interest to them: what is the organization doing, why it is important and how their donation is going to make a difference. The site should be arranged in a manner which helps them find these answers in a foreseeable and natural manner. Navigation, page hierarchy and visual emphasis are all significant in making the visitors feel assured, knowledgeable and prepared to do something.

A user respectful layout also reflects a respectful attitude towards the user. It is simple and easy as opposed to bombarding a visitor with the use of a lot of text or competing messages. It is common knowledge that many organizations are successful because they decrease the amount of decisions a donor has to make. Visitors can easily scan and follow pages, which increases their interaction. This style ensures that all focus is on value and impact as opposed to distraction and confusion.

Creating Visual Clarity

Clarity in the visuals creates trust particularly to the returning donors who need to be convinced that their donation will be used effectively. Good layout, layout choices help in readability and flow, white space, balanced components, and focal points help direct visitors through the page. Clean layout prevents the visual overload, and the primary messages are not lost. This practice is connected to the best practices of nonprofit website design, in which simplicity enables the mission and purpose to shine through.

The message should be supported by images and graphics and not be completed by the message. The use of real photography, well-selected color schemes, and the same styling contributes to the creation of credibility. Authenticity will be met with enthusiasm by the donors and a layout that emphasizes real stories or faces will result in a more emotive appeal. Coupled with a simple design, graphics can be very strong instruments that direct the visitor to significant interaction.

Strengthening Calls to Action

The calls to action should be posted at the locations where the users habitually take breaks or make choices. The design must make the buttons and prompts visible in the same places all over the site to avoid a situation where the donors have to seek modalities of providing donations. Bridging emotion and action can be achieved by placing calls to action close to stories, statistics or videos. Direct words are also used to make users aware of the next action and this saves time wastage.

This should be a deliberate type of placement as opposed to congestion. Excessive prompts may lead to decision fatigue whereas having too few prompts may leave the donors unsure how to proceed. Correlation of action points with visual design strengthens trust and direction. It should be flexible, and donors must be given a variety of chances to do it without feeling compelled and stressed.

Supporting Ease of Use

One of the best contributions to donor conversion is ease of use. Menus, links, and buttons should be readily located and pages should have quick loading. It should have a mobile-friendly layout because a large number of donors donate via phones or tablets. It is also important about availability whereby anyone can be able to move through the site with ease and confidence. All this combined helps in justifying web design for nonprofits that embrace inclusiveness and functionality.

By developing the flow of donation, it becomes easier and contributes to increased long-term activity. Trust increases when the user is able to navigate through pages without not knowing where to go. A friendly layout by donors is reassuring by being consistent and logical, in that the visitor can comprehend the purpose and process. This does not only help in supporting the new contributions, but also gives incentives to repeat giving in the long run.

Building Confidence Through Transparency

Having a clear structure will be able to reassure the donors by demonstrating impact directly and clearly. Credibility is supported by layout choices that focus on metrics, outcomes, and stories. By knowing the purpose of their money, the donors will tend to make another contribution and they will spread the mission to others. This openness can be interlaced with the layout by use of short facts, quotations or testimonials.

The trust increases with the users being knowledgeable and not confused. This is backed by a clear organization, which provides information in foreseeable directions. Donors must be in a position to get answers without necessarily tediously searching through thick paragraphs or they must not be confused by complex navigation. The closer this information gets to the consumer, the more ready the visitors are to act.

The clarity, trust, and usability are the basics of a donor-friendly site layout. A nonprofit can steer followers to meaningful action using a nonprofit website that emphasizes intent, visual design, action points, ease of use, and transparency, which directs visitors to their actions. The prudent creation of the layout design can assist in turning the interest to devotion and make the mission be at the heart of all interactions.

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The modern competitive environment of financial advisory business is closely connected to the relationships with clients and business development. Financial advisors deal with various clients, complicated portfolios, and dynamic market environments and it is therefore necessary to have a clear understanding of both the client behavior and business performance.

Frequent analysis of CRM information enables the advisors to recognize the growth patterns, discover new opportunities, and make the right decision that will reinforce the relationship with the clients and enhance the overall performance. Financial advisor CRM will help convert raw data into useful insights to help realize sustainable business development.

Understanding Client Behavior

Regular analysis of CRM data will give an idea about client behavioral patterns that are likely to remain unnoticed. Through interaction review, transaction review, level of engagement; the financial advisor is able to get a better insight into client preferences as well as their future needs. Such knowledge will help the advisors focus their services and communications to suit clients in a manner that creates trust and loyalty to them over time.

Periodic reviews of data also show changes in client engagement including the course of time. As an illustrative case, a decline in the number of responses to emails or the number of scheduled meetings may suggest the necessity to conduct proactive outreach. By recognizing these trends in time, the advisors are able to ensure that the problems are resolved before they become a problem and the client satisfaction and retention rates will be high.

Improving Operational Efficiency

CRM data reviews allow removing repetitive processes within the company and improving its efficiency. The advisors can track the work of the team, the responsiveness rate, and the completion rate of the tasks, and with the help of this analysis, one can determine the points at which the working process should be refined. This does not only save on the administrative pressure but also results in timely, regular service by the clients.

Also, regular data analysis will enable advisors to identify duplication or inefficiency within available processes. From the trends, teams can identify high value activities like client engagement and strategic planning instead of administrative repetitive work by streamlining the working process. CRM for financial advisors enables easier implementation of these improvements since it offers the tools required to automate reporting and bring the focus to the key metrics.

Identifying Revenue Opportunities

CRM data is not only a log of communication with clients but also a valuable source of information regarding the possible income increase. Monitoring trends in customer portfolios and use of services can enable the advisors to identify the opportunities of upselling or cross-selling the services. Advisors will be able to use an insight into the receptiveness of their clients to new offerings to free up a specific approach that helps maximize the revenue but does not flood clients with a lot of information.

Besides this, data analysis can show unexploited markets or gaps in service in an advisory practice. Through such trends, financial advisors are able to formulate new programs, services or packages that are in line with the needs of the clients. Exploiting the wisdom behind the best CRM software means that the opportunities would be captured effectively and responded upon effectively.

Supporting Strategic Decision Making

Periodic review of CRM data provides the financial advisors with the information needed in making informed decisions. Decisions made based on data are more precise and less susceptible to bias and assist advisors in allocating resources in the most effective way and focus on initiatives that lead to growth. Advisors are able to determine the trends in client acquisition, retention, and portfolio performance, which will enable them to optimize marketing efforts and become more satisfying to clients.

Besides, data review facilitates long-term strategic planning. The realization of historical trends will enable advisors to predict the growth in the future more precisely and create possible strategies that can be executed as a response to the market forces and client behavior. The capability to make strategic changes on the basis of sound data will eventually enhance the competitiveness of a firm in the market.

Frequently examining CRM data is vital to the financial advisor who desires to unveil growth patterns and make sound, strategic choices. Through behavioral knowledge of the client, identifying the revenue potential, operational efficiency, and enabling decisions that are factual, advisors can leverage the value of their clients and optimize their business results. Implementing a CRM on financial advisors in day-to-day practice would make sure analysis and utilization of data always take place. With the optimal CRM software, advisory teams could use insights to take action, which created growth and positioned the company to achieve long-term success.

Updated

December 24, 2025

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