Business
Bakassi Returnees Appeal For Monthly Stipends
The Bakassi returness in
Cross Rivers State have appealed to the state government to pay their monthly upkeep allowance of N5,000 to save them from hunger and starvation.
The returness made the appeal in Calabar on Wednesday during a peaceful protest to the state ministry of social welfare and community development.
The spokesperson of the group, Mr. Duke Bassey, said that the monthly stipend had not been paid since 2013, adding that the non-payment had inflicted serious pains on them.
“We were asked to leave our ancestral homes in Abana, our fishing settlement because it has been given to Cameroun and to relocate to Obutong in Ikang.
“The government out of its magnanimity decided to be giving a monthly stipend of N5000 each to registered families; they also used to bring various food items including garri, rice and beans to share to us.
“But since 2013, they have stopped giving us anything. We cannot fish there and there is nowhere to farm; so we are just left to rot. Our children can no longer go to school.
“So we are appealing to the state government to resume the payment to avoid causalities,” he said.
The protesters later demanded for money to transport themselves back to their homes.
Addressing the returnees, the Chief Security Officer of the Ministry, Mr. Egan Irebu, told them that non-payment of their stipends by the state government was not deliberate as the state was facing financial meltdown.
He called on them to expect a positive responds from the government as it was new and just settling down in office.
“You should please calm down. The government is new, barely three months in the office.
“The new government has to be informed and we have sent a memo which he is currently considering, so, I plead that you should give him some time.
“I am sure that you will be paid as soon as the financial situation of the state improves,” Irebu said.
He later gave the returness an undisclosed amount of money to transport themselves back to Ikang, Bakassi Local Government Area.
The Tide source reports that following the ceding of Bakassi peninsula to Cameroun and the signing of the Green Tree Agreement in 2008, Nigerians living there were asked to vacate the peninsula.
The returness are not all from Cross River as indigenes of Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Ondo state are also included.
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.
