Business
Monarch Alleges Sabotage On PABOD Breweries
Worried by the spate of unrests and agitations among youth that is linked with operations of Pabod Breweries Ltd, Eze Geshorm Bekwele Odum, the traditional ruler of Oginigba Community in Obio/Akpor local government area of Rivers State has alleged that the disturbances were a plot by some brewery companies in Nigeria to sabotage the only Rivers Sate-owned breweries.
Making this known to newsmen in his palace in Port Harcourt, Eze Odum explained that it has become very annoying to observe that some breweries in Nigeria are working against the reactivation of the Pabod Breweries, which now produces the Grand Beer and the Grand Malt as well.
According to the Monarch, whose community, Oginigba, plays host to Pabod breweries in Trans Amadi Industrial layout, he and his community are not happy over what the company is passing through at the moment in terms of youths restiveness, adding that they are trying to calm the youths, even though it was alleged that the actions of the company are provocative.
The royal father also pointed out that such sabotage and marginalisation are the reasons for the unrest and agitation in the Niger Delta region which amnesty deal was the fall out.
Eze Odum expressed unhappiness over the many breweries in Nigeria which are not facing the kind of problem that the Pabod breweries are facing, pointing out that the beer market in Rivers State is not only for drinking, but is also for employment creation for the youths, as well as create other vacancies for vendors and other distributors of the products.
The traditional ruler alleged that one of the breweries antagonising Pabod breweries has no distributors in the entire Trans Amadi where he resides, and can not even boast of about 20 distributors in Rivers State, and recalled how he wanted to be a distributor to the said company, but that all efforts failed.
He, however, urged the breweries to emulate and borrow a leaf from the old generation banks that are not sabotaging the new banks, if their industry must operate successfully in peace.
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.