Business
Experts Task FG On Debt Profile
Some financial experts in Lagos have advised the Federal Government to take aggressive steps to curb persistent increase in the domestic debt profile.
They gave the advise in an interview with our correspondent last Friday in Lagos.
Our correspondent recalls that the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Monday in Abuja that the nation’s domestic debt profile had increased to N5.9 trillion.
Okonjo-Iweala, the Coordinating Minister of the nation’s economy spoke at a consultative meeting with the organised private sector and civil society organisations.
She said that with the debt profile, it had become expedient for Nigeria to slow down its domestic borrowing and diversify its earning as the current interest rate continued to widen the debt net.
Dr Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics, University of Lagos, said that the rising internal debt profile was due to misplacement of priorities.
Nwaogwugwu said that most funds borrowed were diverted to other unproductive areas of the nation’s economy.
He said that persistent increase of the debt profile would put pressure on the economy and retard its growth.
“The ability of government to effectively use funds borrowed on specific projects would forestall further increase in domestic debt profile.
Nwaogwugwu, however, advised the government to diversify into other areas of untapped resources which would add value to the Gross Domestic Products (GDP).
He said that this would make government to have more revenues to spend on capital projects and reduce the debt profile.
Mr Eddie Osarenkhoe, the immediate past President, Finance Houses Association of Nigeria (FHAN), said that the expansionary increase in the government spending had contributed to rise in the internal debt level.
Osarenkhoe said that there were no effective monetary measures that could absorb the effect of the increasing government spending.
“If government can apply some discipline in its spending by placing its priorities right and tighten up its monetary policy, this will reduce the internal debt,’’ he said.
Osarenkhoe, however, urged both the State and Federal Governments to encourage indirect labour in projects execution to discourage over invoicing of contract sum.
Dr Kazeem Bello, Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics, University of Ibadan told NAN in a telephone interview that inability of government to implement efficient fiscal policy had affected the debt profile.
Bello said that the fiscal policy could either be used to tighten losses in the economy, depending on what government intended to achieve.
He said that strict fiscal policy was needed to control the continuous rising of debt by reducing its expenditures.
Bello also advised government to prevent diversion of public funds meant to be pay for domestic debt and ensure proper supervision of contracts to avoid over estimation of project sum.
“The ability of government to tackle diversion of funds and over estimation of project sum would reduce the nation’s debt profile,’’ he said.
Mr Olumide Adegoke, the General Manager, Standard Alliance Insurance Ltd., urged government to block all the leakages to check the internal debt.
Adegoke said that high level of corruption in various system of the economy was the major leakage that had adversely affected the debt profile.
He said that corruption was an impediment to the national development and urged government to reduce it to the barest minimum.
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.
