Business
NCC Prepares To Test Safety Of 5G
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says it is working in partnership with stakeholders to ensure the safety of 5G networks in Nigeria in preparation for the launch of the technology.
The Executive Vice President of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the government had started working on a policy that would drive the deployment of 5G.
The NCC boss spoke at a tech forum themed ‘Multi-stakeholder approach to National Recovery Post-Pandemic’ on Wednesday.
Danbatta who was represented by the Director, Technical Standards and Network Integrity at NCC, Bako Wakil, said the commission would carry out an environmental impact analysis on the use of 5G and the electromagnetic fields impact on humans in Nigeria.
“Once this is done, Nigerians can safely utilise 5G and reap all the economic, human and material benefits of 5G,” he assured.
The Global System for Mobile Communications Association had predicted that seven African countries, including Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, would have commercial 5G services by 2025.
Danbatta said that the economic benefits to 5G to Nigeria, post-coronavirus pandemic, would be huge as almost all businesses and activities of government were migrating and offering their services online.
According to him, 5G will enable a new kind of network for Nigerians designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices.
The EVC noted the technology would accelerate the adoption of Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence applications.
“Nigeria’s vibrant youth population stands to benefit immensely from the deployment of 5G as it will offer technopreneurs, technology enthusiasts, SMEs and tech start-ups the platform to expand and network with other global players on a scale that has never been witnessed before,” he added.
Danbatta said the technology would have a massive impact than previous network generations.
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.
