Business
FG To Tackle Issues Of e-Payment System
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Dankwambo, said in Abuja on Monday that government would tackle issues that affected effective and efficient implementation of e-payment system.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Government introduced the e-payment system in January 1, 2009.
Dankwambo gave the assurance at a two-day training workshop on e-payment with the theme “e-Payment System and Public Financing Management Reporting System as Tool for Achieving Transparency in Government’’.
“Generally some of the problems which include delay in payment and customers getting value for services rendered are mainly human challenges.
“We are still battling with the human aspect of e-payment; there are still people who are not yet at home with the e-payment system.
“We will continue to dialogue with this people, we will continue to perfect the e-payment system to make it acceptable.
“We will also continue to train and retrain people and personnel who are working in the cause of implementing e-payment system so that the implementation will be smooth, challenges and the human factor minimised,” he said.
He added that issues of national network where everybody would hook up for the purpose of clearing and processing transaction was still on the platform.
This, he said, when finished by the end of 2010 would help eliminate some of the major challenges and enhance the e-payment system.
He said the main objective of organising the Forum was to broaden knowledge on the tools that could effectively be deployed to achieve transparency in government.
According to him, implementation of e-payment brought elimination of use of cash to facilitate speedy payments for all transaction, fast tracking the implementation of government policies through the elimination of delays in government payment system.
“Enhance transparency and accountability in payment system, achievement of economy and efficiency in government financial transactions among others,’’ he said.
Dankwambo noted that all Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the Federal Government had fully adopted the e-payment system.
In his keynote address, Mr Achi Achinuvu, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, said that considerable progress had been made over one year in realising the objectives that formed the basis for adopting e-payment.
“Such objectives include the elimination of unacceptable delays in the payment of contractors, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and staff claims, interaction between contractors and government officials thus eliminating corrupt tendencies.
“It has fast tracked the process of implementation of government activities and removal of unnecessary bottleneck and ensured that audit trails of all payment can easily be traced to relevant accounts of individuals or companies that operate them,’’ he said.
He noted that there was need for accounting personnel in the public sector to brace to the international standard of financial reporting as it would enhance transparency in government.
He added that the Federal Government had planned Integrated Financial management Information System (GIFMIS) as steps to ensure accountability in government
“GIFMIS planned to take off in 2011, involves the computerisation of public financial management process, from budget preparation and execution to accounting and reporting with the help of an integrated system for financial management of line ministries, spending agencies and other public sector operation,’’ he said.
He tasked stakeholders to make meaningful contribution to enable the forum come out with issues that would help government achieve its goal of transparency, probity and accountability.
The Forum was organised Accountant –Generals of Nigeria in collaboration with the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the World Bank.
Participant were Accounting Officers drawn from federal, state and local government areas across the country.
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.
