Business
FG Provides N3bn For Micro Biz Dev
Sole Administrator, Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority, Dame Aleruchi Cookey-Gam (left), conferring with Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon. Emmanuel Chindah. With them is Women Affairs Commissioner, Mrs Joeba West.
The Federal Government says it provided N3 billion through the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) for micro enterprises across all the states of the federation from January to September 2013.
The Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, said the direct micro-enterprise funding further demonstrated the commitment of the President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration to develop enterprises at the grassroots in order to create jobs, enhance growth and ultimately reduce poverty.
Aganga spoke through his Senior Special Assistant on Corporate Communications, Mrs. Yemi Kolapo, who received the ‘Star Ambassador of Nigerian Women Business Journalists’ award on the sidelines of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings, in Washington, DC, United States.
He said the NEDEP provided the necessary platform for sustainable ongoing funding of the micro enterprises, adding that the programme, through the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria’s business development training, also ensured the financial readiness of the micro enterprises and, thus, their ability to repay the disbursed loans.
Micro-enterprises are businesses with less than 10 employees and or less than N5 million in assets (excluding land and buildings). They currently represent 99.87 per cent of Nigeria’s MSME population.
According to the minister, the NEDEP is an initiative spearheaded by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment and its three parastatals, the Bank of Industry, SMEDAN and the Industrial Training Fund.
He said, “The Federal Government is deepening its interventions at the grassroots by implementing new initiatives in each state and local government of the federation. Over the last three months, SMEDAN has expanded its operational footprint and the agency is now present in every state of the federation, a remarkable feat within such a short period. This will enable it to provide the necessary support in an efficient manner in the different states.
“Nigeria has over 17 million MSMEs, according to a survey carried out by SMEDAN in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, and employs over 32 million people. Most Nigerians are employed in this sector and future job growth in Nigeria, like in most developed countries, is expected to come from this sector.”
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.