Business
Don Blames Lack Of Dev On Poor Environment
A lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Prof. Emmanuel Oladapo, has said that poor environmental performance is hindering sustainable development in Nigeria Oladapo noted in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Saturday that a lot of unchecked environmental activities had polluted the country’s environment.
“A lot of activities are going on in our environment which have polluted the air, land and water. These challenges need government attention to reduce the effect on the environment.
“Gas flaring in the Niger Delta needs to be tackled with all seriousness.
“Statistics has shown that 69.1 per cent of Nigerians are poor, indicating that something is wrong with our development. We have not been consistent in promoting environmental sustainability.”
Oladapo, who is also a climatology and environmentalist, urged the Federal Government to map out strategies to address environmental issues in a coherent manner as environment holds the key to sustainability.
However, he noted that a strong political will and accountability would assist in promoting socio-economic, environmental, educational issues, among others.
He noted that the forthcoming Rio+20 in Brazil slated for June would focus on green economy in the context of sustainable development, poverty eradication, and institutional framework for sustainable development.
He expressed the need for Nigeria to strive for green and sustainable economic development to achieve the goals of Vision 20:20:20 and the MDGs by 2015.
Oladapo also expressed the need for all stakeholders, including MDAs, NGOs, the media, CBOs and the academia, to come up with suggestions to achieve the goals.
“All stakeholders have to come up with different suggestions in areas they felt government should address.
“And all these should be put together in a summary as a document for presentation at the Rio +20 conference.
“Areas that are expected to be captured in the document should include the achievement, opportunity, challenges, next line of action, among others.
“All these suggestions should be included in the draft for sustainable development we are developing for the country.”
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.