Business
Easter Holidays Stall NSE Transactions
Transactions at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) have been suspended for two days due to Easter holidays that affected Friday and Monday trading.
The market was closed after Thursday trading. The transactions are expected to resume on Tuesday after the public holiday on Monday.
Meanwhile, investors on Thursday traded a total of 456.7 million shares valued at N3.6 billion, in 7,340 deals.
The volume of traded equities increased by 49.6 per cent, as the volume and value contrasted with 305.3 million shares, traded at N3.4 billion, which exchanged hands in 54,473 deals on Wednesday.
Also, All-Share Index (ASI) went up by 57.35 points or 0.2 per cent to close positively at 33,536.24 points compared to 33,468.89 points, posted at the exchange on Wednesday.
Market capitalisation gained N24 billion, to close positively at N10.73 trillion, as against N10.71 trillion traded by investors on Wednesday.
The market improvement was due to the price gain by blue chip companies.
New Gold led the gainers chart after making N11 gains per share to close at N2.466 per share.
Nestle and Total followed with N10 and N8.05 gains per share, respectively, closing at N950 and N169.05 per share, respectively.
Dangote cement and International Breweries on the other hand took the 1st and 2nd position on the losers table, losing 71k and 25k, respectively to close at N148.50 and N21.20 per share respectively.
However, the apex market regulator, the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and NSE are optimistic that with the gradual return of investors’ confidence, there are signs that IPOs and new listings are expected to become major aspects of the Exchange in the current financial year 2013.
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.
