Business
2014 Budget: NGE Bemoans Drop In Capital Expenditure
The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has urged the Federal Government to implement its promise of increasing its vote for capital expenditure.
It noted that capital expenditure had dropped from 32 per cent in the 2013 budget to 27 pen r cent in the 2014 budget.
The NGE said this yesterday, in a communiqué which was signed, respectively, by Mr Femi Adesina, President, and Mr Isaac Ighure, Secretary, and made available to newsmen in Lagos.
The union made the remark at the end of its standing committee meeting held in Calabar, Cross River State.
The NGE also expressed relief at the resolution of the stalemate between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The editors urged both parties to be faithful to the agreements reached, in order to avoid a reoccurrence.
The Guild also urged the FG to immediately negotiate with doctors and oil workers, who had served notices of industrial actions, noting that Nigerians were tired of strikes.
The communiqué urged Nigerian politicians to restrain from making rebellious remarks that could heat up an already unsteady polity.
It also advised politicians to ensure that the interest of the nation took pre-eminence above their personal interests.
The NGE also expressed happiness at the successful conduct of the council election in Yobe State.
“Whereas the state of insecurity in the country had been frightening, there seems an appreciable improvement in recent times”.
The Guild also commended the security agencies for the positive development shown by the successful conduct of the council elections in Yobe.
It urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take a cue from the election and work towards conducting successful elections in the three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in 2015.
The Guild also praised the withdrawal of the proposed legislation in the Senate against online publications considered injurious to members of the society.
“Such legislation could be mishandled to stifle the press and restrain free expression, which is vital to the growth of our democracy,” it said.
The body noted the positive development in road and railway transportation in the country, but urged the government to double its effort towards improving the state of roads nationwide.
It also urged government to explore the potentials of water transport, in some parts of the country.
The Editors commended the Cross River State Government for sustaining the annual carnival, which it noted had boosted culture, tourism and revenue generation in the state.
Beauticians at work in preparation for New Year at Mile 1 in Port Harcourt, recently.
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.