Business
Shell Challenges Women On Development
The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria has challenged Niger Delta women to rise up and be counted as major instruments for the restoration of peace, community building, stability and sustainable economic development of the region.
The company said the women could do this by deploying their God-given natural material instinct to defend, nurture, and build the young to add impetus to the post-amnesty healing process that would eventually lead to peace and development in the area.
Speaking in Port Harcourt at a Town Hall Session for Women Opinion Leaders in the Niger Delta, Regional Executive Vice President, Shell Exploration and Production, Africa, Mrs. Ann Pickard, said that women in the region were living under extremely difficult conditions in very unsettling times of global economic recession, and militancy in the Niger Delta.
Pickard noted that the twin forces have unleashed underdevelopment, unemployment, militancy, insecurity and fear, saying that since “women have historically carried the burden of the physical and psychological suffering that comes during a society’s hard times,” they should adjust and hold up the family and community to give them the momentum to bounce back to growth and progress again.
The regional executive vice president stated that in all her life, she had always seen many ordinary women doing extraordinary and remarkable things, adding that Niger Delta women have shown themselves as driving agents for national development, and encouraged the women to keep up the spirit of hope and determination in order to turn things around.
She highlighted four key issues of financial independence through micro-credit schemes, education, skills acquisition and healthcare as aspects of SPDC’s community empowerment initiatives aimed at strengthening the economic capacity and capability of host communities, and challenged the women to take active interest and key into the programmes to facilitate the development of their communities.
According to the Shell ‘iron lady’, small scale enterprises play a key role in developing local economies as they provide employment, generate income, produce goods and services for local consumers, and ultimately reduce poverty, adding that Shell recognizes this, and has for 11 years, driven a revolving micro-credit programme in more than 200 rural communities of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo and Rivers States, in an attempt to stimulate and boost economic activities.
Susan Nwikhana
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.
