Business
Oil Mill Market: Traders, Motorists Differ On Choatic Traffic
The once popular oil mill market on the outskirts of Port Harcourt has over the years turned out to be every drivers’ nightmare, especially on Wednesdays.
Road users, especially motorists dread driving through the Port Harcourt-Aba Express Road, but it has become inevitable because for one to travel to Aba and vice versa, one has to pass through that axis.
Under the circumstance, our correspondent sought the opinion of the public on how to tackle the menace posed by the traders.
“As for me, they should stop the traders from displaying their articles near the road” was the submission of Mr Linus Ebele, a commercial bus driver who plies the Port Harcourt-Aba route on daily basis.
He opined that there is enough space in the market and wondered the traders choose to come all the way out to the busy highway
According to him, if he had his way, the trader should either be inside the market or be reloated away from the traffic area.
A public servant, and resident of Afam in the Oyigbo local government area of the State, Mr Sunny Onyebuchi who spoke to The Tide said he was always apprehensive on every Wednesday due to the hectic traffic situation at the market.
Onyebuchi who works at the State Secretariat said for him not to be late for work on Wednesdays, he wakes up “as early as 4am and before 5:30 am I am off.”
He said even at that, there were some Wednesdays that he still meets with heavy traffic.
Also speaking to our correspondent, one of the traders who sells sandals and slippers among other items said it was inevitable.
He said what was going on at oil mill market was not peculiar to Port Harcourt alone even as he said the city was witnessing an increased influx of traders and other business people.
While comparing the scenario at oil mill market with that at Oshodi in Lagos and Aba in Abia State, he said in some markets in Nigeria such markets operate on daily basis.
“There is no need from people to complain because the market operates once in a week, unlike those at other cities in the country,” he said.
He said the lustling and bustling at the oil will market on Wednesdays was part of economic development and urged motorists, traders and every road user to exercise patience on market days.
However, one trader who spoke to our correspondent opined that it was not only traders who benefit on every market day.
He said most drivers make good returns on market days due to increase in passenger availability, even as he said road traffic wardens also have a field day.
According to him, the market has come to stay because a lot of people, including the traders, make quick sales as goods are sold at subsidized rates to customers.
A traffic warden who spoke on the issue and asked not to be named told our correspondent that they always have a hectic time on market days as they have to contend with a lot of challenges.
He said touts come to the market all the way from Aba to join their Port Harcourt Counter-parts thereby increasing criminality on market days.
According to him, combining traffic control with checkmating criminal activities has been a major challenge for them, adding that there was need for increased security personnel on market days.
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.
