Business
Commandant Hails Amaechi For Rivers Dev
Rivers State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, has been commended for addressing sectoral challenges that would have resulted in disasters of unimaginable proportion in the future.
The Deputy Commandant of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Rear Admiral Dele Ezeoba gave the commendation during a dinner hosted for members of the Senior Course 33 of the Command and Staff College in Port Harcourt.
The Deputy Commandant, who eulogised the state government for making sustainable investment in the education and health sectors, described the governor as a visionary leader who had proffered solution to human capital development and provided free healthcare for all Rivers people.
“Government policies should impact on the majority of the people and from what I have seen since we arrived here, we are confident that you have delivered quality dividends of democracy for your people”, he said.
The leader of the delegation also said “with the education policy, the Governor has addressed very serious national disaster that was waiting to happen”.
Responding, the State Governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi noted that there was a deliberate effort by politicians to effect positive changes in the country, explaining that the present crop of state governors were making frantic efforts to bring democratic dividends to their people.
“If you watch your state governors, you will see that there appears to be competition among the governors now, to try to improve the lot of their people,” the governor stressed, saying that what was needed was for experts in various fields to reason with government with a view to restructuring the needed development.
The State Chief Executive, who acknowledged the role of the Military in achieving societal harmony, remarked that it was with the cooperation of the Military that relative peace was achieved in Rivers State.
He explained that his administration had given priority attention to primary and post primary education as well as primary health so as to lay a better foundation for the development of the state, adding that Rivers State was about the only state in the country that could generate 380 mega watts of electricity.
Cornerstone of Financial Services
A survey of more than 1 000 global finance leaders undertaken by digital payment network Ripple shows that 72% of respondents believe they need to offer a digital asset solution to remain competitive.
According to Ripple, leaders from the banking, fintech, corporate and asset management sector have made it clear that the “digital asset revolution is happening now”.
“Digital assets are quickly becoming a cornerstone of financial services, underpinned by progressive regulation, growing interest from Tier-1 banks, a steady consumer shift from banks to fintech providers, and booming stablecoin adoption,” Ripple says.
The survey was conducted in early 2026 and the findings released in March.
Stablecoin Boon or Bane?
Ripple has experienced significant success in the stablecoin sector since launching its Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin in 2024.
With a market cap of $1.56 billion, it is considered a major regulated player in the market.
No doubt the platform was pleased to learn through its own survey that financial leaders were most bullish about stablecoins.
Roughly three-quarters of respondents believed they could boost cash-flow efficiency and unlock trapped working capital.
Ripple noted that finance leaders were thinking about stablecoins as more than “just a new way to execute payments”; instead, they viewed them as effective tools for treasury management.
In March 2026, Ripple began testing a new trade finance model built around RLUSD in a bid to increase the speed of cross-border payments.
The pilot initiative, developed alongside supply chain finance company Unloq [https://unloq.com], is running on the XRP Ledger inside a testing framework developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The Asian city-state is one of the platform’s biggest growth markets.
The idea behind the project is to see whether stablecoin-based settlement can streamline trade finance, too often hampered by reliance on intermediaries and slow reconciliation.
The only potential drawback is that if the initiative takes off, the Ripple to USD price could be negatively affected.
Ripple has always championed its native XRP token as a bridge asset, the “middleman” in the process of a financial institution turning dollars in the US into pounds in the UK, for example.
Ripple converts dollars into XRP and then back into pounds.
If RLUSD can do exactly the same thing, questions will be asked about XRP’s relevance.
That is a bridge Ripple will have to cross if it gets to that point.
Tokenisation Partners
Another interesting finding from Ripple’s survey is that most banks and asset managers are seeking tokenisation partners to help execute their strategies.
Some 89% of respondents said digital asset storage and custody were top priority. “Token servicing/lifecycle management also ranks highly for banks at 82%, while asset managers place greater emphasis on primary distribution at 80%,” Ripple found.
The survey also revealed that just more than half of fintechs and financial institutions want an infrastructure provider that can offer a “one-stop-shop solution”. This rose to 71% among corporate financial leaders.
Ripple attributes this to institutions and firms wanting uncomplicated, cohesive systems.
Infrastructure Rules
In its final analysis, Ripple says companies across the board are looking for partners and solutions that are “secure, compliant, battle-tested and that enable growth and execution”.
“The message is clear: infrastructure decisions made today will shape competitive positioning tomorrow.”
No surprise that this is precisely where Ripple is placing much of its focus.
