Business
FG, US Firm Partner On Solar-Powered Farm
The Federal Government is set to begin the installation of a 50MW solar power farm project in Kaduna State, Mrs. Bahijjatu Abubakar, the desk officer, Renewable Energy in the Ministry of Environment has said.
She told newsmen in Abuja on Monday that the 50MW solar power farm would be situated between the Nigerian Defence Academy and the international airport in Kaduna.
Abubakar said that Kaduna government was the first to respond to the call by the Federal Ministry of Environment to states to imbibe the use of solar energy.
She said that Kaduna State and the Synergent Powershare Group of investors from the United States of America had signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of the project.
She added that the solar power investors preferred the northern part of the country for solar power because of intense sun radiation in the area and wind energy in Enugu State, adding that they preferred to invest in energy generated by waves in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Calabar.
The desk officer said that the groundbreaking ceremony for the Kaduna project had been slated for February 19.
According to her, the investors would execute the project without Federal Government’s financial assistance.
The Federal Government would provide incentives such as import duty rebate and power purchase agreement and reasonable feed in tariffs, she said.
“All the government needs to do is to give them the enabling environment and appropriate incentives such as the tax and import duty rebate, power purchase agreement and feedin-tariffs.
“The feed-in-tariffs are very important as they will give the investors the incentives to know how long it will take for them to recover their investment.”
Abubakar said: “This Synergent Group are investors. They do not want one kobo from the Nigerian government. All they want is to ensure that we give them the enabling environment to be able to invest and that is what we have done. That is the reason why we are getting a lot of investors coming into Nigeria in this sector.
“What had happened in the past is that a lot of people want government to put money into this venture and we are saying under this renewable energy programme that government has no business putting money into power generation in renewable energy.”
She added that the ministries of environment and that of power were collaborating to ensure the success of the project, adding that the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission had also set up a renewable energy desk to attend to investors on daily basis.
Abubakar said that the investors did not only make profits from their investment alone in developing countries, but that they also generated revenue, through carbon credit.
She advised states, local governments and big corporations to be mindful of the need to establish the viability of their projects before executing them.
She called on the states’ ministries of environment to set up renewable energy desks to benefit from the Carbon Credit project.
Carbon Credit is a leader in capturing the benefits of carbon finance to help deploy projects that reduce greenhouse gas emission and commercialise new clean technologies worldwide.
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.