Business
SON Seals Warehouse Over Substandard Goods
The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) on Saturday sealed up the warehouse of a Chinese firm, “Three Friends International”, over low quality aluminium coils. Mr Bede Obayi, the Head of Inspectorate and Compliance of the organisation, led a task force on an enforcement exercise to the aluminium coil warehouses in Lagos.
Obayi said that the company stocked aluminium which quality was below the Nigerian Industrial Standard (NIS) minimum specification of 0.4 millimetres. Obayi said that SON was determined to rid the country of substandard products.
He explained that the team was on routine inspection to ensure that the company complied with the NIS minimum requirement for aluminium roofing sheets.
The Tide source reports that the minimum standard for aluminium sheet is NIS 487 and 486.
Obayi said that the company used quality plain coil of about four layers to cover the low gauge coated coils.
He noted that some unscrupulous importers indulged in such sharp practice to evade payment of complete duty.
“The duty on colour coated aluminium coil is 20 per cent while plain coil is five per cent. “We must ensure that what the consumers want is commensurate with the value of products they are getting so that they are not cheated.’’
He advised that importers and dealers should sell the right products at the right quantity and quality. “Your 0.50 mm, should be 0.55 mm. Anybody who wants to buy aluminium roofing sheet should go to the right source with expertise for standard measure,” he said.
He stressed that SON would confiscate any roofing sheet that fell below 0.4 millimetres. He appealed to Nigerians to give relevant information on any company or individuals involved in illicit businesses. Reports say that the team also visited BOZAC Continental, a leading importer of aluminium coils and expressed satisfaction with the quality of coils in its warehouse. Obayi commended BOZAC for meeting the minimum requirement for aluminium roofing sheets in the country. “We have inspected more than 500 aluminium coils in the factory and took random samples. “We are impressed with the standards; the company met the minimum requirements,’’ he said.
Mr Okechukwu Anolue, the Director of BOZAC, pledged the company’s willingness to cooperate with the SON in the task of ensuring standard products in 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.
