Business
Fish Farmer Laments Catfish Importation
A Lagos-based fish farmer, Mr Linus Dibia last Monday raised alarm over the importation of catfish into the country to the detriment of local farmers.
Dibia told newsmen in Lagos that catfish was being imported from neighbouring African countries and sold at lower rates to market women.
He said that the imported variety was cheaper because the governments of those African countries subsidised inputs.
He said that Nigeria was a beneficiary of the World Bank’s West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) assisted regional agricultural project which included aqua culture but that Nigerian farmers were not feeling the impact of the aid.
Dibia operates a catfish farm in Ijegun in Ikotun/Igando Local Council Development Area (LCDA).
He said governments of other African countries through the grant, were assisting their fish farmers but Nigerian farmers were not able to compete because of high cost of fish feeds.
“Presently the price of fish is going down while that of feeds is increasing.
“People are importing catfish from other African countries where their governments are using the World Bank assisted project to assist the farmers.
“We cannot compete favourably because instead of our own to be cheaper, it is more expensive so, the market women prefer to buy the imported catfish.
“Both the state and federal government should subsidise fish feeds for us,” he said. He lamented that the federal government always said it was releasing funds but that it was not getting to the real farmers.
He said that fish farmers relied on foreign fish feeds which were expensive and sold for N6,500 per 15 kilograms while the same quantity of the local variety sold for about N5,000.
He appealed to the federal and state government to support fish farmers as was done to other farmers.
“We want Lagos state and federal government to support us with fish feeds as they do to other local farmers that they give fertilisers,” he said.
He also appealed to the federal government to ensure ongoing registration of farmers in the country was not an exercise in futility.
He urged government to keep its promise to assist the farmers as according to him farmers in Lagos were being registered a fourth time.
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.