Business
Tenders Board Enforces Projects Implementation
The Lagos State Tenders Board (STB) says it has begun the monitoring of ongoing projects in the state to ensure they are implemented in line with contractual agreements.
Chairman of the board, Mrs Florence Oguntuase, said while inspecting some of the projects in Iju and Ijaiye areas of Lagos yesterday that the step was at the instance of Gov. Babatunde Fashola .
She said that the inspection was also to enable the board identify the challenges contractors were facing in executing the projects, with a view to providing quick interventions.
The Tide source reports that some of the projects include ongoing work at the 318, 000 m3 capacity Adiyan Water Treatment Phase 2 and rehabilitation work at the Ijaiye mini water-works.
“Our inspecting some of the projects, especially those for which contracts were recently awarded by the board, was to first of all monitor progress of work and ensure they are being implemented according to plan.
“Secondly, going round the projects one after the other would enable us to interact with the contractors on some of the challenges they might be facing so that we can provide quick interventions,” she said.
At the Adiyan Water Works in Iju, Oguntuase expressed satisfaction with the level of work done so far but urged Salini Nigeria Ltd., the contractors, to speed up activities on some aspects of the work.
She said that the government would do everything possible to deliver the 70million gallons per day facility.
Mr Bernardo Raffaeli, Salini’s project manager, thanked the state government for supporting them on the project, noting that it had helped to accelerate the pace of work.
He, however, sought government’s intervention on the problem of encroachment on the project site by residents of neighbouring communities.
“Though this place is fenced, neighbouring residents often break into this site and cause delay in our work. We will appreciate it if the government could help on this.
“We will particularly require that security personnel are deployed here to protect our equipment. We are committed to prompt delivery of the project; we also require more support to achieve that,” he said.
Oguntuase urged the management of Ijaiye Water Works to do all they could to boost water supply to residents of Ijaiye and its environs.
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.
