Business
NCC Appoints Consortium To Implement Number Portability Services
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Monday appointed a consortium of three companies to implement the proposed Number Portability services in Nigeria.
Mr Reuben Muoka, the commission’s spokesperson, disclosed this in a statement in Lagos that the Number Portability service would allow phone users to migrate from one network to another without losing their numbers.
He said that the consortium of Interconnect, Saab Grintek and Telecordia was announced as the preferred vendor for the service after the technical, financial and demo presentations by the bidding vendors.
“Consequently, the companies will be responsible for the set up and implementation of Number Portability Clearing House in Nigeria.
“They will also provide mobile number portability solution administration in Nigeria within six months of receiving the licence with a testing period of two months,” he said.
Mouka said that members of the consortium were to execute a tripartite agreement.
He said that this would indicate their specific responsibilities in the process with the regulator approving such agreement to tally with the conditions of the provision of the service in Nigeria.
“The NCC also mandates the consortium to ensure that local content participation and adequate skills transfer are entrenched in the process during the implementation of the five-year licence.
“The consortium is also expected to configure the technical solution for Number Portability in Nigeria in line with the consultation documents as earlier published by the Commission,” he said.
It would be recalled that the commission had earlier indicated that the Number Portability programme would be the next logical step following the SIM Card registration exercise.
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.
