Business
Commission Trains 1,000 Students On Agric Techniques
The Justice, Peace and Development Commission (JPDC), Ijebu-Ode Catholic Diocese, on Monday said it had trained more than 1,000 secondary school students on agricultural techniques in the last one year.
Mrs Cordelia Obi, Assistant Coordinator of the Diocesan Agricultural Development of the commission, revealed this in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun, in an interview with newsmen.
Obi said the students were trained in 10 secondary schools in Ogun East Senatorial District under the commission‘s Catch Them Young Programme.
According to her, the students are trained on fish farming, crop production and other farming techniques.
She added that the commission was about to start another training in some other selected schools.
She said the training took place at the AUD Secondary School, Ijebu-Ode, Isanyin Grammar School, Isanyi and Sacred Heart Catholic College, Ijebu-Ode among others.
Obi said the aim of the programme was to encourage the students to embrace agriculture without necessarily relying on white collar jobs after graduation.
“We all know that the labour market is saturated, which means, it is not everybody that can get white collar job.
“That was why the training was organised to let the students know that there is prospect in agriculture.”
Obi said the students were also trained and prepared for the future so that they could take over from the present farmers in the society.
She further explained that the training was also aimed at reducing criminal activities among the youths.
“ There is no doubt that there are so many criminal activities in the society and most times, the youths are at the centre of the crime because they are idle.
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.
