Business
BUA Decries Friction Among Ports Agencies
Multiplicity of service
processes by customary government agencies in the ports and friction among them due to overlapping functions, constitute bottleneck to international best practices in seaport terminal operations.
The General Manager of BUA Ports and Terminals Ltd, Port Harcourt, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim Lile, made this assertion during an awareness seminar on the role of the Nigerian Shippers Council as ports economic regulators held in Port Harcourt, Wednesday.
Lile, in his paper, “Enhancing Shipping Services Delivery and Pricing At Nigerian Ports” said there was need for the government to address the post-concession challenges inorder to reduce port costs.
According to him, issues such as host community problems especially in the Eastern, Ports and prevalence of shanty villages within the ports environment, inadequate pilotage, tug boats, pilot cutters, delayed berthing and sailing of vessels should also be looked into.
He further said arrest of vessels at berth by the Nigerian Customs or NIMASA and attendant consequences enchroached on the terminal operators berth space and through put, adding that port access vehicular traffic control is also chaotic.
“It has reduced the turnaround time of trucks resulting in high cost of haulage and congestion of the terminals.
Dependency on only one mode of transport for movement of cargo from port terminal is a big challenge,” he further said.
The General Manager noted that non-release of the entire leased area to Terminal operators was also a challenge, pointing out that 10 per cent of the leased space to BUA Ports has not been released to them by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Lile also listed that governments’ fiscal policies such as ban on the importation of cement, high duty on motor vehicle, rice, wheat and restriction on the importation of fish was also a reason for the very low traffic in all the ports, including the Eastern ports.
He hinted that inadequate public power generating system, lack of public power supply had been additional cost to the Terminal Operators, while still paying NPA electricity bills, and called on them to consider putting independent power plant production in place.
The BUA Ports and Terminals boss also noted that lack of political will to implement port development policies was also a challenge, stressing that Ibaka and Badagry ports have been on the drawing board for a long time now as well as intermittent ASYCMDA Connectivity failure has been another challenge to terminal operators cargo release and high port costs.
He, however, called on all stakeholders to support government to achieve its target of 48-hours cargo clearance and lower cost of operation, adding that, “it is a herculean task but with unity of purpose, there is no limit to what we can achieve.”
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.
