Business
Jonathan Orders Compulsory Entrepreneurship Course For Undergraduates
President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday directed that all Nigerian university undergraduates would now be required to offer a compulsory course in entrepreneurship in their degree programmes.
Jonathan gave the directive on the second day of the 2010/2011 convocation ceremony of the University of Lagos.
The two-day ceremony is for the award of first and higher degrees, diplomas, certificates and prizes.
The president, who was represented by the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruquayyatu Rufai, said the move was to ensure that Nigerian graduates were adequately empowered and self-reliant.
He said that the course would also open them to other viable employment opportunities.
“We will not stop at giving our youth quality education. The reforms which are ongoing in other sectors of the economy will also help to create a conducive environment for entrepreneurship to thrive.
“The transformation agenda of this government is to provide access to quality education to the majority of our youth who desired such,” Jonathan said.
He said that Nigeria could only progress as a nation if its youth were gainfully employed or otherwise engaged in other useful purposes.
The president said that already the new job creation scheme “the Youth Enterprise with Innovation (YOUWIN)” was set to create at least 100,000 jobs for youths between the ages of 18 years and 35 years in the next four years.
He said that his administration would continue to enhance the education sector, stressing that it was strategic to the overall transformation of the national economy.
The president commended the students and management of the university for sustaining peace in the community.
Jonathan urged the graduands to rise above the limitations of the job market by using the knowledge they had acquired to build their careers and make themselves great citizens.
Earlier, the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Adetokunbo Sofoluwe, said that of the 8,585 graduands, 118 distinguished bagged First Class honours.
Giving a breakdown, Sofoluwe said that the First Class graduands spread across all the faculties, with the Faculty of Engineering coming tops with 37, including the overall best.
He said that the School of Postgraduate Studies awarded 73 doctorates in the Faculties of Medicine, Engineering, Law and Pharmacy.
Sofoluwe said that the university had established a structure that would boost postgraduate education, while still running its undergraduate programmes.
He said the development was to enable the School of Postgraduate Studies to train the huge number of academic staff needed in the new universities, as well as other tertiary institutions in the country.
The don said efforts were on to commence a degree programme in Terrorism Studies, saying that the new programme was in tune with emerging global challenges.
Sofoluwe said that instructors for the programme would consist of members of the academia, professionals and specialists, adding that they would combine theory and practice needed for counter-terrorism challenges in the country.
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.
