Business
Recession: CMD Advises MDAs On Prudent Spending
Director-General of Centre for Management Development (CMD), Dr Kabir Usman, has advised Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to apply prudent spending, especially in this period of economic recession. Usman gave the advice at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
”Typical example is the attitudinal change, the change of attitudes, business is no longer as usual, what we used to get we’ll never get the same, so we really have to manage what we have with prudence.
”Then the other aspect is the concept of savings, the cost cutting, because you used to get this money and spend, doesn’t mean that life will go on as usual.
”We give them ideas on public private partnership, issues about joint ventures and issues in terms of loan, borrowing to make sure there is value for money, not all the MDAs, relevant MDAs.
”If you look at it, there are about 10 key areas that Nigeria can do to get out of recession.
”Certainly, this 2017 budget gives us a leeway to try to do training assessment and impact assessment so that we can see the value for money and value addition for the training.’’
He said that the Federal Government had a responsibility to make sure that policy makers, implementers, analysts and reviewers were much apt in terms of key element that would bring Nigeria out of recession.
The director-general said that the centre had trained some officers of Planning, Research and Statistics from selected MDAs on how to manage their resources.
He said that the training was very clear about the concept of how Nigeria could come out of recession soon or rather than later.
Commenting on the 2017 budget, Usman said there were a lot of discussion going on about what the benchmarks should be, saying that it was about middle ground, between the executive and the legislature.
He said that looking at the projections in terms of executive function, based on projection, the price of oil was not going to reduce but it would not be a radical change but a gradual.
The director-general said the benchmarks in the budget would be realistic since the revenue was not going to be on oil. ”So, it may not necessary matter much because the emphasis is not going to be on oil but the emphasis is on taxes.
”And that is where we can generate revenue and focus on the area of agriculture and focus on the area of manufacturing and so on and so forth. ”We listen to government policy every now and then and that is why we have to tailor this year our training programme to focus on areas of government needs, monitoring and evaluation.
” Areas in term of agriculture, all the supply and value chain of agriculture and focus in terms of the manufacturing sector.
”If you look at the economy, you can see that usually you start from agriculture and then you go into manufacturing, then you go into services, but Nigeria got it wrong.
”From agriculture, we went into service and now we are struggling because we don’t have jobs while we became consumer country rather than producer.
” We don’t consume what we produce, that is why it is very difficult to look at the benchmark price.
”I am sure that is not what is important. What is important is the peace in the Niger-Delta to make sure that at least two million barrels is achieved in a very sustainable way.
”That will keep the economy going and the priority of government is to not fund the 2017 budget through the oil sector but taxation and I think, it is a right direction for all of us and it is responsibility of all of us not to depend on oil.’’
The Tide gathered that the 2017 Budget proposal of N7.30 trillion is before the National Assembly for consideration.
The Federal Government set a benchmark of 42.5 dollars per barrel and a production estimate of 2.2 million barrels per day for the 2017 fiscal year.
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.
