Business
Energy Theft: PHED Establishes 315 Cases In Rivers
The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) says it has established about 315 cases of energy theft cutting across 15 Business Units of its area of coverage in Rivers State.
The Manager, Corporate Communication, Mr. Jonah Iboma, who stated this last Friday while in aggressive chase of defaulters, appealed to its customers to avoid any act capable of impacting negatively on the growth of the company.
Iboma said record shows that 61,858 customers in the company’s database have been using energy without visiting any of the outlets for payment of electricity bills.
According to him, “The hard posture from some of the recalcitrant customers had, therefore, necessitated the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company to embark on aggressive chase of its revenue if it must remain in business.
“The war against energy theft started when PHED discovered that many customers have tampered with their meters by diverting some or at times completely load from the meter thereby reducing the revenue such meter(s) could have generated to the company”, he said.
The image maker of the company said, in its determination to eradicate energy theft in the system, the company in conjunction with the Nigeria Police, Rivers State Command, arrested five suspected energy thieves.
The suspects, he explained, were arrested at various places within Port Harcourt metropolis. Two arrests came from School Road extension, Okujuagu, Trans Amadi area while one was from No. 59 and two persons from No. 77 Ikwerre Road, Mile 1, Diobu in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area, (PHALGA), of Rivers State.
Chikwere Uzoigwe
L-R: Partner, Management Consulting, KPMG, Mr Segun Sowande; Partner and Head of Audit Service, Mr Tola Adeyemi and Partner, Tax regulation and People Services, Mr Ajibola Olomola, at a news conference on KPMG Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) Survey report launch in Lagos, recently
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.
