Business
Lagos Establishes Cassava Flour Mill
The Lagos State Government has established a cassava processing factory with the capacity to process 64 tonnes of cassava into high quality flour daily.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Co-operatives, Mr Gbolahan Lawal, said this in an interview with newsmen last Saturday in Lagos.
He said that the mill located at Epe was established to increase the supply of cassava flour in line with the Federal Government‘s policy of 20 per cent cassava flour inclusion in bread.
“About 65 per cent of flour mills in the country are located in Lagos; none of them is meeting the 20 per cent cassava inclusion in the flour for bread because of inadequate supply.
“I think what they have achieved is about three per cent or less.
“So, apart from keying into the cassava bread policy, we established this mill to increase supply and create jobs.
“The cassava processing factory has so far generated no fewer than 600 direct and indirect jobs for our people, and we intend to generate more as we scale up the capacity in the future,’’ he said.
The commissioner said that cassava farmers had a ready market in the mill as their harvests were taken up to be processed into flour and other cassava derivatives such as ‘garri’.
He dismissed the fear that the establishment of the mill would affect the supply of ‘garri’ and other cassava derivatives.
“We are supporting cassava farmers‘ clusters across the state with all they need to improve production under our AGOA programme.
“I can say we are happy with all the improvements.
“The mill, though designed mainly to produce cassava flour, has the capacity to produce garri, starch and other cassava derivatives.
“As we produce cassava flour for bread, we are producing more garri and starch. Nothing suffers.
“The whole thing is to enrich the cassava value chain and boost food security,‘’ he 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.