Business
NNPC Restates Commitment To End Petrol Scarcity
L-R: Speaker, Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Chief Ogbonna Nwifuru, President, Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA), Rev. Ugochukwu Chime and Ebonyi State Commissioner for Commerce, Mrs Elizabeth Ogbaga, during Ebonyi State Day at the on-going 27th Enugu International Trade Fair in Enugu on Monday.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has reassured Nigerians of its commitment to end the persistent fuel scarcity in the country.
This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Garba Deen Muhammed , Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, on Monday in Abuja.
“We wish to re-assure Nigerians that we are on top of the petroleum products supply and distribution situation and we remain committed to eliminating this endemic issue once and for all within the next few days.
“We genuinely empathize with the attendant sufferings and wish to reassure that we are focused and committed to bring an end to this situation within the next few days.
“We kindly call on all Nigerians to partner with us on this journey to allowing the whole process of change come into fruition,” it said.
It said the current administration inherited a huge catalog of issues and problems in the downstream sector not limited to arrears of subsidy payments to oil marketers.
Other issues, it said, included corruption and inefficiencies in the supply and distribution chain, incessant vandalism of pipelines and poor performance of refineries, among others.
It noted that a combination of these issues resulted in most oil majors completely pulling out from the importation business .
This, it said, led to NNPC assuming a near 100 per cent importation obligation without the necessary logistics put in place.
It said the NNPC management had initiated and made progress on various key solutions to providing a lasting end to these issues.
It added that with the firm support of President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly, the debt burden had been reduced since January 1.
“We have been able to eliminate subsidy payments by managing prices at current levels through price modulation.
This has resulted to savings of over N100 billion monthly for the nation.
“Nationwide petroleum supply and distribution have been ramped up to all states to ensure product availability in the country,” it said.
According to the statement, the current supply to states is in excess of the normal consumption especially in the five major consuming cities.
It added that monitoring had been intensified to ensure full compliance with approved prices adding that violations of approved prices and hoarding of petroleum products attracted penalties.
The penalties include giving out of petroleum products free to the public and sealing off fuel stations found to be hoarding petroleum products and payment of a fine.
Others were withdrawal of Marketer’s Licence and penalising any NNPC, DPR, PPPRA or government agent found conniving and wanting in line with public-service guidelines and procedures.
It encouraged the general public to report product hoarders and saboteurs of the change efforts .
“We encourage everyone to shun panic buying and undue return trips as this attitude emboldens marketers to hoard products.
“Supply constraints due to foreign exchange challenges are being resolved through collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria on innovative ways of closing the gaps in accessing foreign exchange,” it said.
The statement noted that the major international upstream oil companies had indicated their willingness to support major oil marketing companies with some of the required foreign exchange.
It added that corporation was pursuing an improved model for ‘crude oil for refined product’ exchange (the Direct Sale – Direct Purchase arrangement).
Chris Oluoh
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.
