Business
ITF Amendment Bill Scales Second Reading
A Bill to amend the Industrial Training Fund
( ITF) Act of 1971, last Thursday in Abuja passed the second reading at the House of Representatives.
The bill also seeks to empower the fund to design, set up and operate guidelines for training and certification.
According to the bill, the training and certification will be done at the states, local governments and the ward levels.
It seeks to establish area registries for maintaining up-to-date registration of certified artisans and technicians in all fields and in all parts of the federation.
Leading debate on the general principles of the bill, Rep. Chudi Uwazurike said the proposed legislation was to expand the scope of manpower by paying attention to entrepreneurship.
He said the bill would also set standards for artisans and technicians.
The lawmaker urged members to support the bill to empower artisans and technicians to develop the economy.
Supporting the debate, Rep. Chris Azubogu said that the bill’s importance could not be over emphasised.
He said it was imperative to standardise the way artisans carried out their activities, to help create manpower and reduce unemployment in the country.
Contributing, Rep. Chris Etta said it would assist “in creating calculated economic improvement”.
Also contributing, Rep.Aminu Shagari said the law was a good one, adding that it would give the teeming youths the opportunity to grow and be self reliant.
However, the bill received strong opposition from some members who felt it would be a duplication of the functions of what some government agencies were empowered to do.
Rep. Aisha Ahmed cited the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) as an agency that organised training programmes like carpentry and others for youths.
Also opposing it, Rep. Shehu Garba said the amendment sought should be an intervention and not to set standards for artisans and technicians.
He suggested that the bill should be an intervention “and not to encroach on roles already carried by existing agencies’’.
Notwithstanding the opposition, the bill scaled through to second reading when put to vote by the Deputy Speaker, Rep. Emeka Ihedioha.
Ihedioha, therefore, referred it to the Committee on Industry for more in puts.
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.
