Business
Union Advises Politicians To Respect Civil Service Recruitment Procedures
The Secretary of Benue
Chapter of the Civil Service Union, Mr Joseph Shimaor, has appealed to politicians to refrain from bastardising civil service recruitment procedures.
Shimaor told newsmen yesterday in Makurdi that most of the problems in the civil service were created by politicians through recruitment of workers without recourse to due process.
He said such recruitments were made without any treasury provisions and these were partly responsible for the over bloated workforce in many of the state’s civil service.
The union scribe said that “for any recruitment or replacement in the service, the states must make adequate treasury provisions to accommodate the new intake”.
He expressed regret that the detailed procedure on recruitment of workers into the service had been jettisoned by politicians.
“Overtime, some powerful political office holders jettisoned the process by bringing into the service people without regards to the due process.
“Once that started, it became difficult to regulate the process of recruitment and people were coming in even through the exit channels.”
According to him, it is only a government with a strong political will that can tackle this menace.
He, therefore, appealed to political office holders in the country to refrain from interfering with the duties of the civil service commission and stop ordering recruitments outside the approved channels.
He blamed the over bloated civil service in the country on uncoordinated recruitment processes through unauthorised channels.
Shimaor commended the introduction of biometric verification of workers by most state governments to check the incidence of ghost workers.
He, however, cautioned against hasty implementing of the exercise.
“The biometrics as a means of verifying the authentic workforce of the government which leads to the payment of salaries using workers’ biometrics is encouraged.
“This should, however, be done with caution, the state governments desiring to implement it should take it step by step to avoid crashing the system.”
He commended Gov. Samuel Ortom of Benue for halting the e-payment and resorting to the manual payment when he discovered the process was leading to workers’ hardship.
He blamed those implementing the scheme in the state for “being too hasty”, thereby making series of errors in the payment.
Commenting on the planned salary cut by some governors in the country, the Civil Service Union scribe said the union was ready for them.
“As they are planning to carry out their salary cut, we are also mobilising for a showdown with them; we shall see the outcome of the encounter.”
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.
