Business
Dame Jonathan Tasks Women On Peace, Virtues
The First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, yesterday called on women to preach peace and unity to their children and wards for the development of the country.
Dame Jonathan made the call in Lagos at a rally organised by Women for Change and Development Initiative, a non-governmental organisation.
“While it is your legitimate right to demand for development, it is clear that no meaningful development can be achieved without peace and the safety of lives and property.
“It is therefore, not enough to talk about peace, we must believe in it; it is also not enough to believe in it, we must work for it and we must achieve it.
“As virtuous women, I enjoin you all to help preach the message of peace and unity to your husbands and children. They must all reject all forms of violence and shun evil companies,’’ she said.
She charged politicians to focus more on the imperatives of peace and safety as well as to deliver their electoral promises.
“It is an unfortunate irony that while politicians seek access to power with promises to provide security, safety of lives and property, effective health care and functional infrastructure, these same values have remained major challenges today, she said ’’
She said that it was everybody’s business to save Nigeria from the agonies of avoidable wars, adding that this could only be achieved through mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and good neighbourliness.
Also speaking at the rally, the wife of the Senate President, Mrs Helen Mark, thanked women for the support they gave to President Goodluck Jonathan during the April 2011 general elections.
“Women should go home today with pride for the support they gave to Jonathan during the April 2011 elections because the election brought to fore a good man,’’ she said.
She enjoined women to be agents of peace by ensuring that their children were taught the value of securing lives and property.
Our correspondent reports that the first lady visited Lagos State to propagate peace and to thank women in the state who voted for her husband in the April 2011 election.
The Tide correspondent reports that other dignitaries, who spoke at the rally, were the Minister for Women Affairs, Hajia Zainab Maina, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa and Mrs Nkechi Mba, President National Council of Women Societies, among others.
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.
