Business
Greater PH: FG Builds PTDF Training Centre
As part of infrastructural development in the Greater Port Harcourt City projects of the Governor Amaechi-led administration in Rivers State, the Federal Government has commenced work on the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF) Skills Acquisition Centre at Omagwa in Ikwerre Local Government Area.
Also, construction of roads and building of the new Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt have begun, while contract for the electrification of the Phase I of the Greater Port Harcourt City has been awarded.
Administrator of the Greater Port Harcourt City Project, Dame Aleruchi Cookey-Gam, who disclosed this, said other infrastructural work would soon begin.
Speaking in an interview with The Tide at Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, Dame Cookey-Gam said the project is a continuous development process as long as Port Harcourt exists as a city and people continue to live in the city .
“We want to see development take place in a structural manner, Aleruchi stated, explaining that the Phase I of the project covers part of Igwuruta, Aluu and part of Omagwa land, while the Port Harcourt International market is situated in Elelenwo area.
According to her, the last batch of payment to owners of lands acquired for the project was N600 million, which is currently being paid. “ We have open door policy for the communities and we don’t see their request for engagement as unnecessary. It’s something we expect and we try to discuss with them to know their problems and we try to do our best for them,” she said.
Advising land developers within the areas designated for the Greater Port Harcourt City to seek approval from the government before embarking on any project, the administrator said, “anything you want to do, you meet us with the plan and we determine before you start”.
She insisted that everything done within the area must give value to the land, saying, “ if you have the land, we will tell you what to do there”.
Dame Aleruchi used the opportunity to commend President Goodluck Jonathan for his magnanimity in accepting two ministers of Rivers State extraction into his new cabinet, saying “ we have confidence that our people appointed as ministers will utilise the opportunity well”.
Shedie Okpara
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.
