Business
Ouattara Tasks ECOWAS On Developmenta
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should focus on its development objectives instead of managing political crises, its chairman, Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, has said.
Speaking after Thursday’s extraordinary summit of the 15-member bloc in Dakar, he called to discuss the situation in Guinea-Bissau and Mali, Ouattara said “political crisis management must be replaced by the achievement of objectives
assigned to ECOWAS’’.
He said the regional grouping should be engaged in building roads and schools, and improving the living conditions of the people in the region.
“We want an ECOWAS of peoples. There can be no development without peace and stability. If the political situation in Mali is not resolved, it will threaten the whole Sahel-Saharan Africa,” he warned.
Garba made the call in Faskari while disbursing the interest-free credit to 300 women from Faskari, Sabuwa and Dandume Local Government Areas of the state.
She said the scheme was aimed at improving the social and economic wellbeing of women in rural areas and called on organisations and wealthy individuals to support the initiative.
Lubabatu said that the administration of Gov. Ibrahim Shema had invested much on youth and women empowerment in its effort to reduce poverty.
The deputy governor’s wife said the scheme had facilitated the growth of small scale businesses and called on the beneficiaries to sustain the trend through wise investments.
Speaking at the occasion, Alhaji Isiyaku Ahmad, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of Faskari Local Government, expressed appreciation for the scheme, saying it would impact positively on the lives of rural women.
Ahmed urged the beneficiaries to ensure proper use of the loan so as to repay on time for others to benefit.
He advised the women to form cooperative societies to further boost their businesses.
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.
