Business
NAFDAC Explores Strategy To Fight Counterfeiters
As part of its efforts to strengthen its existing strategy to fight drugs coungterfeiters in the country, the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has said that it will explore new areas.
For some years now, the agency has been able to reduce the influx of fake food and drugs to less than 10 percent, as against the Drug previous 2001 41 percent recorded.
According to the Director General of NAFDAC, Paul Orhii “our plan is to consistently work harder to strengthen our strategy and explore new areas because the drug counterfeitors are not sleeping, and so we will not also sleep, even if the level of counterfeit drugs in the system is less than 10 percent.”
Also, the Director General posited, “At a single digit level, we are not going to rest because in America and Europe, they have it at less than one percent, and we want to get to that point, and with the support of Nigerians, we are working towards that.”
Orhii has however called on the government to enact a law of death penalty for drug and food counterfeiters saying “a drug counterfeiter is not different from a murderer as many people have died of such counterfeit drugs.”
The director general recently told newsmen in Lagos that the issue of counterfeit may persist if law was not passed to punish perpetrators, as it was done in some Asian countries.
According to him, the current 15 years jail term or a fine of N500,000 was not enough to punish offenders, pointing out that counterfeiting should not even be a bailable offence.
Also, he stated that the Indian government has put in place a reward system domiciled with the Indian High Commission in Nigeria for information leading to the highest seizure of fake counterfeit, substandard or spurious medicines manufactured in India and the informant will be awarded up to N200,000 each month.
The NAFDAC boss also announced the arrival of a state – of –the –art anti-drug counterfeiting testing equipment capable of detecting various expired brands and substandard drugs.
He pointed out that NAFDAC is also at the fore front of building an international coalition against counterfeit drugs through its activities at West Africa Drug Regulatory Authority Network, which is an International anti-counterfeit taskforce on International Medicine Products.
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.