Business
Badagry Seaport Project’ll Preserve Historic Sites – Commissioner
The Lagos State Gov
ernment on Sunday assured that the Badagry seaport project would not tamper with historic sites in the ancient town.
The State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, said in Lagos that the project’s design would preserve slave routes and other historic sites.
According to him, the Atlantic shore, known as ‘point of no return’, where slaves were transported abroad and other historic heritages would be protected.
“The slave trade took place along that axis, that is, the point of no return. We are trying to ensure that in building the port, that heritage is preserved.”
The commissioner said the execution of the project would also depend on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to be carried out.
“We have finalised the design now and we are doing the EIA.
“The completion of the entire design, which has been on for six months, depends on when the EIA is completed and on what is achievable,’’ he said.
The commissioner explained that the design can be altered at any stage into the construction of the seaport if it jeopardised the EIA.
He said that the bulk of the fund required for the project would come from the private sector, with the federal government having 20 per cent share of the project and 15 per cent share by the state government.
The commissioner, however, said the final cost of the project would be determined after the EIA.
“The contract cannot be awarded because the design is not fully finalised.
“It is when the design is finalised that we can cost it; what we are trying to do is to ensure that the EIA is alright,” Hamzat 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.
