Business
CBN Approves Rivers Micro-Finance Bank
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved an application by the Rivers State Microfinance Agency (RIMA) to float a microfinance bank for the state.
This was revealed by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer RIMA, Mr. Innocent Iyalla Harry, in an interview with The Tide in his office in Port Harcourt on Friday.
The RIMA boss said that with the CBN’s approval, the State Microfinance bank would become operational in three months’ time, adding that since the fall of Pan African Bank, the state has no bank it can call her own.
He also noted that the bank would be sited in all the 23 Local Government Areas of the state, which makes the cashless policy and financial inclusion in the state more effective as it would be 100 per cent owned by the State.
The State has also accessed the N2 billion Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) fund given by the federal government to all the states for the growth of the SMEs.
The RIMA MD said the approval has made possible the transition of RIMA from a micro credit lender to SME fund sources which entitles beneficiaries to get up to N500,000 compared to the N50,000 – N100,000 given under the micro credit scheme.
RIMA under the present state has four different loans for Rivers business men and women; RIMA loan, microfinance bank loan, SMEs fund of N2 billion and the N4 billion agricultural loan from the federal government.
“Rivers State is the only state that has set up an agency dedicated to microfinance, the other states are just copying from us. We are trying to make the state a reference point in Nigeria and sub-Sahara African region”.
L-R: Director, Nigeria Sustainable Development Solutions Network (NSDSN), Prof. Ikenna Onyido, Director, Centre for Sustainable Development (CESDEV), Prof. Labode Popoola; President African Sustainable Development Network (ASUDNET), Prof. Ndowa Lale and guest speaker, Prof. Sola Olopade, at the annual Ibadan sustainable summit in Ibadan recently. Photo: NAN
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.
