Business
Afam To Inject 138MW To National Grid
The management of Afam Power Plc in Rivers State, has announced plans to inject additional 138 megawatts to the national grid.
The Chief Executive Officer of the company, Engineer Adebusola Awaiye disclosed this in Port Harcourt when the House of Representatives Committee on Power visited the Afam Power Station.
Engineer Awaiye appealed to the committee to help in facilitating an increase in the power station’s 2011 budget allocation to enable it achieve the feat.
He revealed that Messrs SIEMENS AG has been contacted and will arrive in less than six months for a major overhaul that would last between five to eight months.
“This will increase our standing in the grid, bring more revenue to our purse for the survival of the station and help to stabilize the grid network,” he said.
The company boss explained that the power plant, which started in 1962, has been a power supplier linked to the national grid but unfortunately Afam I, II, and III have been decommissioned due to old age and obsolete equipment.
Chairman of the House Committee on Power, Hon. Patrick Ikhariale said the committee was visiting power stations across the country to acquaint itself on the current status of the stations.
Hon. Ikhariale restated the commitment of the Federal Government towards improving the power situation in the country in view of the key role of power to the socio-economic development of Nigeria.
He promised that the committee will make sure that the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) will get its deserved allocation in the 2011 budget.
The committee, which arrived Rivers State from Akwa Ibom, the chairman said, has discovered that most transformers were bad, adding that Federal Government has started delivering transformers to most stations.
Another member of the committee, Hon. Chris Berewari, representing Andoni Federal Constituency in Rivers, urged PHCN workers to take their work seriously and to always show more commitment in the protection of equipment to enable government achieve its plans.
He noted that Federal Government has engaged some competent independent power companies to initiate new ideas towards better power supply in the country.
The committee promised to relay its findings and requests from Afam Power Plc to the Federal Government to guide its actions.
Chris Oluoh
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.