Business
PHCBS Petitions RSG, Alleges Drivers’ Harassment
The operators of the Port Harcourt City Bus Service (PHCBS) popularly call Skye Bank buses have decried the incessant harassment of their buses by security agents, local government operatives and others and appealed to relevant government officials, to assist the scheme to succeed.
Speaking to reporters in his office, the operations manager of the PHCBS, Mr Olubakinde Foluso said the bus service is providing affordable service to the public at highly subsidised fares.
According to him,” We are running a highly subsidised transport system in partnership with the Rivers State Government, we also run a cashless operations so the drivers and marshals on the buses do not have any cash to give to them and based on that they want to device a means to dealing with the drivers unnecessary.
It would be recalled some members of the public allegedly beat up a driver of the bus last Tuesday for refusing to pay money to them at the Mile One flyover axis of Port Harcourt. Some of the men allegedly identified as the fire service men were said to have jumped into the bus and started beating the driver. The driver had to lock the bus and drove them to PHCBS office where police was called in to arrest them.
“What led to this is that the security agents and other persons do collect money from other transporters and taxis before allowing them to load passengers from the area and because our workers refused to pay them, that is why they decided to assault them”, the operations manager said.
“This scheme is created by the state government in partnership with Skye Bank Plc to alleviate sufferings of commuters in the capital city and a way of poverty alleviation as we reduce the fares to affordable level and employment.
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.