Business
SON To Intensify Consumer Education On Substandard Products
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) says it will intensify its education of consumers on what to look for while making purchase decisions.
The Director General of the organization, Dr Joseph Odumodu, said during the organiation’s day at the on-going 23rd Enugu Trade Fair that the sensitisation was necessary as the consumer was the most effective controller of substandard products.
According to him, the sensitisation will cover mostly the detection of fake and original locally made products.
Odumodu said that only 10 out of 464 locally-made products exhibited at the trade fair were registered with SON.
He called on consumers to support the ‘zero tolerance to substandard products’ itiative of the organisation through their purchase decisions, adding that the fight was also their responsibility.
“I call on local manufacturers to commence the process of certifying their products to the requirements of Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) and SON.
“Our target this year is to be able to reduce the presence of substandard products in markets to not more than 30 per cent,” he said.
The DG lamented that only five out of the 155 boarders in Nigeria were manned by the organisation so it did not have the wherewithal to check the influx of substandard products into the country.
Odumodu said the organisation was working on a new regime which would ensure that products being imported into the country carried SON Conformity Assessment Programme (SONCAP) certificate.
“SONCAP is currently being reviewed. We are working on a new regime that will start in June which will make sure that every product that enters Nigeria will carry a SONCAP certificate,” he said.
He, however called on journalists to assist the organisation in spreading the message of the zero tolerance initiative.
On his part, the President of the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA), Dr Theo Okonkwo, expressed optimism that members of the public would be better equipped with the dealings of the organisation.
“This is a strategic thinking to bring the activities of the organisation to the purview of a greater number of the public,” Okonkwo said.
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.