Business
NCC Approves New Guidelines For Debtor Telecom Operators
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Thursday said that it had approved the new “Guidelines on Procedure for Granting of Approval to Disconnect Telecommunication Operators’’. The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah, disclosed this in Lagos during the “Regulatory Forum on the High Incidence of Interconnection Indebtedness in the Nigerian Telecommunications Industry’’.
Juwah said that the new document was necessary since the existing one was approved in 2004 and was due for review, to facilitate debt payment among interconnect partners.
He said that it had been observed that some operators took advantage of the provisions of the old guidelines to deliberately refuse to promptly discharge their financial obligations to their interconnect partners.
The NCC chief noted that this was possible because of the processes that had to be followed before the Commission could authorise the disconnection of an operator.
He said that several operators had also noted that Interconnect Exchanges had also become a major part of the problem.
‘’They now owe other operators interconnection charges, thus compounding the problem they were meant to alleviate. ‘’The problem has continued to escalate and the current cumulative debt profile in the industry is worrisome; if the continued high interconnection indebtedness is left unchecked, it will impact negatively on the industry,’’ Juwah said.
According to him, the provisions of the new guidelines have taken into consideration the disconnection of all operators, including interconnect exchanges, and shortened the process for granting approval for disconnection.
‘’This is a measure to ensure that interconnection indebtedness is not detrimental to the effective administration of viable telecommunication businesses,’’ the EVC said.
Mr Yetunde Akinloye, Assistant Director, Legal and Regulatory Services, NCC, said that interconnection was critical as it enabled subscribers to communicate across and within networks.
Akinloye said that the new guidelines would promote public confidence and ensure stability, transparency, competition, innovation and growth in the telecoms industry. She said that it would create a favourable environment for seamless interconnection in the industry.
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.