Business
Real Sector Growth: CBN Canvasses Dev Of Requisite Infrastructure
The Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) says the country must develop a requisite infrastructure for the growth of the real sector to attract stable and less speculative investments to the country.
The Director of Reserves Management, CBN, Alhaji Lamido Yuguda, said this at the ongoing CBN’s 20th Seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors in Calabar.
Yuguda said coming up with such requisite attractive incentives, including building of infrastructure, would help boost the revenue for the nation’s external reserves
Yuguda said that government could ensure that lives and properties must be among its top priorities.
The official added that an economy must possess strong economic fundamentals, saying the nation’s source of foreign exchange earnings should be diversified to address the dominance of the oil sector.
He said that National Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) should also be strenghtened through more funding, to establish fiscal buffer that would improve Nigeria’s credit rating.
Yuguda said there had been misconceptions about the external reserves, stressing that they were owned by the Federal Government, Federation and the CBN.
He added the bulk of the external reserves belonged to the CBN because the bank monetised government foreign earnings at its request by buying the forex and paying Naira value to fund its budgetary provision.
According to him, the growth of economy amidst a sound financial and political environment attracts foreign investments, bringing with it attendant benefits.
He said that the country had sustained capital inflows above outflows which had cushioned the effect of foreign exchange demand.
Yuguda added that confidence had been established in the financial system and that had strengthened the economy.
The CBN director said the economy must possess strong economic fundamentals , especially Foreign Direct Inflow (FDI) to sustain a level of inflow.
Yuguda also said that Nigeria was able to attract all types of foreign capital before the 2008 global financial crisis due partly to a robust level of reserves.
The CBN director said that only Foreign Porfolio Investors (FPI) flow was sustained at a higher level after the crisis.
Yuguda said that the growth of external reserves in the past came from inflow such as Foreign Direct InFlow (FDI) but which was not forthcoming due to the volatilities in the foreign exchange market.
He said that in spite of the high interest rate, portfolio investors were reluctant to invest in the country because of the insecurity challenges.
The director said there was the need to diversify the structure of the foreign reserves because the country cannot continue to depend solely on revenue from sale of crude oil.
According to him, the entire world is already moving away from use of oil for energy to alternative source of energy.
Yuguda added that there was the probability that the role of oil might change in 25 years time.
He expressed the belief that if the nation changed its structure and composition of foreign exchange generation, the pace at which its external reserves increased would grow.
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.