Business
Lawmaker Seeks Quick Passage Of Pending Bills
Member of the House of Representatives for Degema/Bonny Federal Consistency, Hon Sokonte Davies, has stressed the need for the amendment of the House rules to enable bills pending in the House to be passed with ease before the present Assembly runs its course.
Hon Davies who made the suggestion in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt at the weekend said amending the House rules would facilitate the passage of the bills without allowing them to pass through all the laid down procedures.
He said doing so would go a long way to reduce the pressure being piled on the House by members of the public seeking the passage of the bills, acknowledging that such pressure had become enormous, overwhelming and unbearable.
The lawmaker who also acknowledged that several bills were still pending in the House despite the present Assembly having barely a few weeks to wind up its activities suggested that urgent measures should be put in place to ensure that such bills were not carried over to the next Assembly expected to be inaugurated next month.
According to him, carrying the bills over to the next Assembly would amount to a colossal waste of public funds since the processes leading to their passage would start all over again.
To this end, Hon Davies said the greatest challenge facing the present National Assembly was to pass the bills before the expiration of the tenure of the sixth Assembly, stressing, however, that there was the need to properly pass the bills despite the pressure on the House. “People are saying pass these bills, pass these bills. It is not proper to pass the bills in a hurry because most times if the bills are passed, there are certain areas that are not part of the bills. So, it will also be important that we pass a proper bill because it is said that what is worth doing is worth doing well,” he said
The parliamentarian, however, disclosed that the Freedom of Information Bill had already been passed by both the Senate and House of Representatives while a Conference Committee had been set up to harmonise what had been passed by the two chambers of the National Assembly.
He noted that processes for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill had reached an advanced stage, and pleaded for understanding.
Hon Davies who also admitted that the N10billion loan scandal involving the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Dimeji Bankole had divided members of the House assured that the members would at the end of the day come up with a decision that would not rub off on the credibility ad integrity of the House.
Hon Davies who said the presentation of a certificate of return to him by INEC symbolised the end of the electioneering period appealed to members of other political parties who contested the April 9 National Assembly elections with him to join hands in taking the Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency to the next level, expressing delight that they accepted the outcome of the elections in good faith.
He said the fact that his opponents did not challenge his victory in court had put him in a better stead to concentrate on the task ahead in the next four years and provide the much-needed dividends of democracy to his constituents.
The lawmaker also extended his hands of fellowship to members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who contested the primaries of the party with him, urging them to come on board because as he put it, “I don’t believe that anybody is a loser”..
He said he needed the support of everybody in the constituency in the same way he would have supported the candidate of the party if he had lost the primaries, and thanked his constituents for their support.
Donatus Ebi
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.