Business
Envoy Wants Review Of Nigeria,China Trade Imbalance
Nigeria’s Ambassador to China, Aminu Wali said on Thursday that Nigeria would have to increase its exports to China as the trade balance was in the ratio of 7:1 in favour of the Asian country.
“Chinese exports to Nigeria stood at seven billion dollars in 2010, while Nigeria exported goods worth a little less than one billion dollars to China during the period.”
Wali, who spoke with a group of Nigerian journalists in Beijing, noted that Chinese businessmen and government were anxious to buy goods from Nigeria.
“Some Nigerian businessmen had approached us for information on doing business in China and we always encouraged them to look more in the areas of solid minerals and agricultural produce.
“Nigeria is currently China’s second biggest trading partner in Africa after South Africa, but we can be number one in two to three years.
“Though China is making inroads in the Nigerian oil sector, I am more concerned with the solid minerals and agricultural produce.”
Wali observed that China had been able to remove 300 million of its citizens from living below the poverty level in the last 30 years, adding that Nigeria could adapt the Asian country’s model.
Reports said that China still has 150 million of its 1.3 billion population living below poverty level, but that indications on ground show that they would soon be prosperous.
“There are Chinese that are still poor but they have the basic necessities of life including electricity, pipe borne water and food on their table.
On the influx of inferior goods into Nigeria from China, Wali said that dubious Nigerian businessmen were largely to blame.
He noted that Chinese goods were meeting the standard in the U.S., the EU and other developed nations but remained sub-standard in Nigeria because Nigerian importers wanted maximum profit.
He, however, said that the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and its Chinese counterpart had been meeting over the issue and would soon sign an agreement that would ensure that Chinese exports to Nigeria were inspected and certified before being allowed into Nigeria.
Wali noted that the enabling environment for the setting up of industries in Nigeria was also being addressed.
According to the ambassador, no Chinese industrialist will be too eager to move his factory to Nigeria for now because of unstable electricity supply.
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.
