Business
Jamodu, Others Warn FG On Cement Importation
Chief Kola Jamodu, President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has urged the Federal Government to resist the attempt by some importers to continually flood the market with imported cement.
Jamodu told newsmen on Wednesday in Lagos that the government must resist pressures to truncate the set target of exceeding local demand by 2011.
According to him, government should not agree to the ruse that the price of cement is on the rise.
He said the country would soon get to a level where it should not allow all manners of imports.
“It is on record that the country will achieve 28 million tonnes of cement production by 2011 as against local demand of about 18 million tonnes.
“All things being equal, supply will be more than demand and that will force down the price of cement,’’ he said.
According to him, the local industry needs protection to achieve the desired target instead of allowing imports to saturate the market.
Jamodu urged the government to have the political will to vigorously implement the policy which was designed to phase out imports.
Mr Jagat Rathee, the Managing Director of Obajana Cement Plc, agreed with Jamodu, adding that the country had abundant resources to be self-sufficient in cement production.
According to Rathee, the Dangote group has the capacity to produce 60 per cent of the country’s requirement, but the poor condition of roads and power had posed serious challenges.
Mr Sola Adeyemi, Plant Manager, Larfage Nigeria Plc, noted that the price of cement would have dropped drastically in 2010 but the deplorable roads, among others, had hindered the effort.
Dr Emmanuel Ukpabi, Group Managing Director of Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, said that the company spent huge sums on haulage annually to get goods to consumers.
“A trailer can only make a trip to up north once a week instead of three trips per week. The trucks incur wear and tear because of bad roads,’’ he said.
According to him, the initial agreement with the Nigeria Railway Corporation to buy five locomotives to aid the movement of cement had not worked due to government bureaucracy.
NAN reports that a bag of cement sells for between N1,600 and N1,620 in Lagos and Ogun states.
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.
