Business
Firm Pledges Support For Nigeria’s ICT Industry
In order to boost development in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry in Nigeria, Aviat Networks, one of the leading solution providers has concluded plans to show more commitment in the area of managed professional services to telecom companies as a way of reducing operational cost for effective telecom service delivery.
The Vice President, Aviat Networks, Africa region, Mr. Yrevor Burchell disclosed this to newsmen last week in Lagos during his visit to Nigeria.
Burchell said Aviat Networks had a lot to offer to the country in terms of the company’s ability to provide cost saving solutions in the area of managed servies to telecom operators to enable them optimise their current assets or existing infrastructure.
According to him “Nigeria is a very strategic market for Aviat Networks and the company believes that it will still remain its number one market in the African region. Our message to you is that the Aviat brand is still the number one and we intend to remain same as we have the people that are passionate about the business especially here in Nigeria”.
While expressing confidence in the Nigerian ICT market and partnership, Burchell explained that with Aviat’s new identity, the company had introduced new solutions and products which include site controller solution that would help to control power and energy management for telecom sites as well as its current efforts in the Wimax space by the acquisition of Telsima.
“We have overcome our past identity problem by not only being known as a transmission service provider only. The new brand gives us an opportunity to reposition the company for people to see us in a number of competencies that we were not previously know for. So, in the areas like management services and Wimax, Aviat hopes to capitalise on its new identity to explore and take control of such areas as we have done in other places”, he said.
Burchell revealed that Aviat Networks had been offering solutions to the existing CDMA operators in the country before the advent of the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) adding that with the two existing brands that merged (Horris Corporation MCD and Stratex Networks), the ICT sector would soon see what the company truly was.
He also stated that his visit to the country had enabled him to meet with some of the company’s customers like Bharti, MTN, Airtel among others in order to understand their directions and current market dynamics.
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.
