Business
ANAN Cautions On Cashless Economy
President of the Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN), Hajiya Maryam Ibrahim has suggested that the implementation of cashless economy should be gradual.
She made the call at a News Agency of Nigeria’s (NAN) forum on Sunday in Abuja.
She said it was a laudable initiative that bordered on development and should be encouraged for Nigeria to be at par with developed countries.
Ibrahim, however, advocated that its inherent challenges be sorted out before implementing it.
“The entire world is a village now and if that be the case, why shouldn’t we encourage a cashless society? But then there are a lot challenges.’’
She noted that for cashless operations to be effective, a lot of advocacy and awareness must be done by the CBN.
“Challenges are so enormous that it has to be a gradual thing, but it must be intensified; no matter the challenge, there is no challenge that is not surmountable.
“We must work hard to achieve that so that Nigeria is not left behind, but we should consider our rural areas as to provide the infrastructure that is needed to be able to achieve the cashless economy.
“It’s a good policy I must say but it will run pari-pasu with other policies of the CBN.
“I believe that a lot of advocacy and awareness creation is needed by the CBN.
“CBN and its management team must wake up to give a great awareness, provide the necessary logistics to the rural areas.
“We could say that power is part of the problem, but then if we look at the large economies that have succeeded in running the cashless society you will find out that they are using the Point of Sale (POS) with batteries so we should be able to generate some of those things that don’t really require electricity.
“We have a lot of sunlight in this country; we should translate it into energy. We have coal; we should translate that into energy.
“There are lots of things we have in this country that are wasting; we have a lot of manpower that the Federal Government can put together and start making them to generate ideas that will help to bring us up.
“Developed countries did not just come overnight, they became rugged to be able to achieve and sustain the level that they’ve found themselves.’’
Ibrahim called on President Goodluck Jonathan to inaugurate the Board for Public Procurement to operate a transparent government.
She told NAN that if the body took responsibility for procurement, it would ensure that contracts were awarded in accordance with due process.
“Every Wednesday you hear that so (much) contract is being awarded by the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
“I’m not saying that the various ministries that package these contracts don’t have their due processes.
“But honestly, for the president to act transparently and for every citizen to believe that it’s not that the FEC just comes together and award contracts, he should transfer that responsibility to the body which should vet and he will be able to have the good stick to whip up that body if it is not doing its job.
“That procurement board is to do the nitty-gritty of the process; they will be able to show that transparently the due process required in procurement in the award of contracts is being followed.
“All we are talking about is that we should be responsible, accountable and transparent in all our activities as much as possible.’’
Ibrahim told NAN that since democracy was all about openness; it is not out of place to be open and accountable to the people.
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.
