Business
Airline Operator Urges Employment Of Indigenous Pilots
L-R: Communications and Engagement Manager, GSK Consumer Nigeria Plc, Ms. Bolaji Sanyaolu, Brand Manager, Ribena, Mr. Essien Ekemini, winners of N1million cash prize, Mr Tomide Fasade, Mr James Elukpo, Mr Jude Nwosu and Head of Sales, GSK Consumer Nigeria Plc, Mr Joseph Agwa, during the cheque presentation of the Lucozade Ribena Big Cash Giveaway Promo.
The Chairman of Air
Peace, Mr Allen Onyema has called for the engagement of indigenous pilots and engineers on domestic carriers in order to grow local manpower in the industry.
Onyema stated this recently when the new airline made history by decorating one of its young First Officers-Ademulegun Adebayo Jonathan as captain in command of Boeing 737 aircraft.
The decoration of the new captain was carried out by Onyema and the Chief operating officer of the airline, Mr Toyin Olajide and the pilot was decorated with four bars epaulets.
Speaking at the event, the Chairman said the decoration is demonstration by Air Peace that it is ready to create room for the growth of young pilots to explore opportunities where competence and excellence are guiding criteria.
He said captain Jonathan in few months, he has flow for Air Peace, has demonstrated capacity as a young professional the airline is committed to groom for the development of the aviation sector.
Onyema said soon, other First Officers that qualify would be decorated as captains in command as evidence that Air Peace is committed to the development of Professional Capacity for young professionals.
He urged the young captain to continue to exhibit those attributes that set him apart even as he urged other pilots to consider Air Peace as an airline that is committed to the development of its personnel.
The Chairman said he would create opportunity for professionals to grow and contribute their best to the airline irrespective of their ethnic extraction, which is not a factor in recruitment into Air Peace.
According to him, the airline has recorded many achievements in the few months it started flight operations in the changing aviation landscape.
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.
