Business
Ministry Develops National Policy On Productivity
The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, says that the Ministry has developed a National Policy on Productivity.
Wogu, who made the disclosure in an interview in Abuja on Monday, said that the policy was awaiting approval by the National Economic Council.
“The salaries of Federal Civil Servants was increased from what it used to be to the level of 53.6 per cent, which is novel, motivating and which we ordinarily believed would improve the productivity of the Nigerian workers.
‘’So, what the Federal Government expects from workers with the new national minimum wage Act of 18,000 is improved and increased productivity.’’
Wogu said that in 2010, a policy paper on local content initiative on employment was approved by the Federal Executive Council.
He said the local content policy on employment was simply aimed at making sure and making it compulsory for programmes and contracts of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the federal level to indicate the number of jobs that would go to Nigerians.
“What that policy seeks to do in addition to creating jobs is to protect the jobs for Nigerians.
“It is a pro-Nigerian worker initiative of this administration. “At various levels, most ministries have embarked on some social welfare packages for their workers, this includes development of estates, provision of buses amongst others.
“These are attempts by our administration to alleviate the sufferings of the Nigerian workers and we have been able to step in and make sure that things are done properly.’’
The minister said that in the bid of Mr President to diversify the economy, he had given a large window for job creation.
He said agriculture was one area of the diversification of the economy because the Federal Government had always operated a mono-product economy.
Wogu said that with the value chain approach to agriculture, the country would achieve food sufficiency, export food and create employment for the population.
“All these are in line with the transformation agenda which is targeted at repositioning Nigeria and improving decayed infrastructure whereby when we engage in public works like road construction, jobs will be created.
“We are equally using our zonal and state offices as job centres to be able to capture approximately the number of people who do not have jobs, the under-employed and those having jobs.
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.