Business
Ex-Lawmaker Tasks Govt On Dev Plans
A former lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Dr Dawari George has urged leaders to refocus their economic plans and channel their attention to areas that have manpower and abundant resources.
He said that economic planners and leaders of the country had not got it right and that the economy was still undeveloped after 57 years of independence because the economy is planned based on only oil and gas resources.
George who disclosed this while speaking to aviation correspondents at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa shortly on his arrival from Abuja, said that oil and gas had tend to becloud leaders from seeking other areas of strength where the country has manpower and abundant resources.
“We are so blessed in Nigeria that we have vast arable land there are other countries that wish that they are like Nigeria, having good and vast arable land, favourable weather.
“Isreal does not have such vast arable land, but they have been able to harness their agriculture and develop it very well, and why can’t Nigeria with all of these resources develop our agriculture”.
“Since independence till now, there is no sector in Nigeria’s economy that you can say is developed. It is good to develop every sector of the economy, but it is wise to look at the area you have comparative advantage, where you have abundant resources and manpower like the agricultural sector”, Dawari posited.
The former lawmaker however, expressed hope that Nigeria would be good and be developed where everybody will enjoy, and stated that security issues was key to development, and urged government at all level to make deliberate policies and execute them to develop the agricultural sector.
Corlins Walter
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.
