Business
Expert Tasks CBN On Micro-Finance Banks’ Capital Requirements
The Chairman of Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA), Miss Modupe Ladipo, has advised Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to raise capital requirements for microfinance banks to drive financial inclusion.
Ladipo gave the advice at the Accion Micro-finance Bank Financial Inclusion Conference held in Lagos, recently
The Tide source reports that the conference had the theme: “Making Financial Inclusion a Certainty in Nigeria by 2020”.
The year 2020 Financial Inclusion targets to provide universal financial access to all working age adults by 2020.
According to the EFInA boss, although more than 50 micro-finance policies have been formulated to drive financial inclusion, a research conducted in 2016 shows that 41.6 per cent of Nigerians are financially excluded.
“In 2008, research conducted by EFInA revealed that about 53.5 per cent were financially excluded but CBN monetary policies such as mobile money transactions, agency banking system and micro-insurance reduced it to 29.1 in 2014.
” But as at 2016, the percentage of the financially excluded shot up to 41.6 per cent,” she said.
She claimed that the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM)’s micro insurance policy had not impacted much on financial inclusion.
The micro-finance expert said that there was an urgent need for CBN to increase capital requirements for micro-finance banks so that more Nigerians could be brought into the financial net through micro-finance.
“How many Nigerians will benefit from N20 million capital requirement for unit micro-finance banks?” she asked.
The Managing Director of ACCION Micro-finance Bank, Mrs Olubunmi Lawson, said that the bank would continually drive financial inclusion using digital process.
She said that the bank had granted N6 billion loans to 169,000 customers since it was established in 2006.
“The bank also has 60 branches including in seven states.”
The Tide source reports that Accion Micro-finance Bank was established to economically empower micro-entrepreneurs and low income earners by providing financial services in a sustainable, ethical and profitable manner.
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.
