Business
FG Sacks Workers Over Employment Racketeering
Vice Chairman, House of Representatives Adhoc Committee on Crude oil SWap, Rep. Toby Okechukwu, Chairman, Rep. Zakari Mohammed and a member of the committee, Rep. Gebriel Onyenwife, at a news conference on activities of the commttee in Abuja, recetnly
Some top officials of the Civil Service have been dismissed by the Federal Government for extorting money from 400 applicants and offering them employment illegally. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, made the disclosure on Saturday in Lagos during a meeting with some selected On-Air-Personalities.
The Tide source reports that the meeting was part of the minister‘s five-day consultations with critical stakeholders in the media industry.
Mohammed said that the affected officers were on Grade Level 17 in one of the parastatals in the ministry.
He said that the officers had included the names of the applicants in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel System (IPPIS) before the fraud was discovered.
“The first scandal I met in one of the parastatals when I assumed office was the illegal employment of 400 people.
“This scandal started with very senior officers up to level 17 in that department.
“They sent out letters and text messages asking people to apply for jobs for a fee of N400, 000 and they were given letters of employment.
“They did not stop there. They invited these people to go and be captured on the IPPIS and they even took cameras to hotels to get them captured. At the end of the day the bubble burst.
“One of the victims told these officials, you cannot take my money and still disengage me. I have a valid letter.’’
“That is how we got to know that there is a dedicated account these people pay to. “Of course, we dismissed these officials and we even handed them over to the Police“ the minster said.
Mohammed said that the incident showed how faulty the IPPIS was and how it had been compromised by unscrupulous elements.
He said that the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was doing all it could to make the IPPIS tamper-proof and guide it from people who might want to load ghost workers on it.
He described On-Air Personalities as “very important’’ in the media industry and urged them to leverage on their platforms to educate the people on government‘s policies.
The minister said the current war against corruption was a war of survival for the nation and urged all Nigerians to give it the necessary support.
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.
