Business
Develop Ajaokuta Steel Plant Before Privatisation – Lawmaker
The Chairman, House Committee on Steel, Rep. Sadiq Mohammed, has called on the Federal Government to complete the Ajaokuta Steel Company before privatisation.
Mohammed, who said this last Thursday in Abuja at a two-day stakeholders workshop, organised by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, argued that no investor could afford the N83 billion required to complete the complex.
“The steel sector is privately driven globally, like in Russia, India, South Korea, Germany, France, Italy and the US.
In these countries, their steel industries were first developed by their governments before privatisation.”
Mohammed said that the steel sector was critical to the nation’s economic and social development, adding that “it is only the government that can develop the entire infrastructure needed in the industry.”
He called for a metallurgical bill and manual to enable the sector thrive.
He said that Egypt had built a six-lane super highway into the desert in order to mine its iron ore because of the importance it attached to steel development.
“The steel sector is important to any country that needs to develop industrially. There is no nation that is fully developed that does not first develop its iron and steel sector.”
In his speech, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Musa Sada, said the essence of the metallurgic bill was to discourage dumping of all sorts of steel materials in the country.
According to him, the nation cannot move forward in terms of economic development without first developing its mines and steel sector.
Sada decried the situation whereby no attention was paid to health, safety and environmental concerns by many operators in the metal industry, and advised that this should be addressed.
Dr Oleg Svistunov, the Managing Director of Ruskij Aluminij (Nig) Ltd., commended the organisers of the workshop, saying that the workshop would enable investors to brainstorm on the issues in the industry.
He called on the Federal Government to establish an enabling environment to encourage investors, both foreign and local, to invest in the industry.
According to Svistunov, the Federal Government should develop the infrastructure such as roads, electricity, and training of manpower to develop the sector.
He said that problems like employment, shortfall in the revenue and poor standard of living of Nigerians could be addressed with the development of the steel sector.
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.
