Business
SMEDAN Harps On Human Capital Dev
The Director-General, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Mr?Bature?Masari, said that?human capital development was a pre-condition for the success of enterprises.
This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Levi Anyikwa, Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs, SMEDAN, in Abuja.
Masari was speaking at the opening of a two-week certification training programme for operators of Micro-Finance Banks (MFBs).
He?said that, “training of MFB operators was imperative to ensure effective handling of issues pertaining to access to finance by micro and small entrepreneurs.”
According to the statement, the training was facilitated by SMEDAN on behalf of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).
It also quoted Masari? as saying: “I want to charge you to be prepared because in the course of 2014, SMEDAN will be actively collaborating with Micro-finance banks.
“Between now till the end of the year, some banks are going to be selected for implementation of some of SMEDAN programmes.
“It will be geared towards providing employment opportunities to ordinary Nigerians and by 2014, they are going to be playing key roles.
“However, only Micro-finance institutions that offer the highest incentive by way of lower lending rates will be involved in the implementation of these programmes.’’
Masari also assured the trainees of the agency’s readiness to lead the way in providing training and retraining of the staff.
The D-G noted that despite the existing collaboration between SMEDAN, BOI and BOA, more windows must be opened ‘’for easy access to finance by MSME operators.’’
The statement said, according to a 2-year (2011-2013) statistics published by Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department (OFISD) of CBN, SMEDAN??had been ranked third?out of? 24 Micro-finance Training Service Providers (MTSPs) certified by CBN, NDIC and CIBN.
It also quoted the Leader of the SMEDAN Faculty Team, Mr Babatunde Osho, as saying that “we, as one of the Certified Training Institutions, have continued to perform excellently since inception, out of 24 MTSPs, we were ranked third.’’
Osho said the beneficiaries of the training were drawn from three states in the North Central Zone; namely Niger, Benue and Plateau while few other participants were drawn from Kogi and Abuja.
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.
