Business
SON Impounds N10m Tyres In Awka
The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) on Wednesday impounded two truckloads of fake tyres worth N10 million from a warehouse in Awka.
The warehouse located at a residential building on Zik Ave., Awka, was discovered following intelligence reports, according to the organisation.
Speaking with newsmen, the Head of the organisation in Anambra, Mr Samuel Ayuba, said the raid was part of the national campaign to rid the country of fake and substandard tyres.
He said that substandard tyres included those that had been used or stayed for up to six years, saying they had caused a lot crashes and deaths.
“With our surveillance, we identified where this business is thriving and now we are on a raid, the target is to remove all substandard tyres from circulation in Anambra.
“Some of them got wind of our operation today and they took off and moved their tyres to secret places and here in this residential building. You can see a large quantity of these substandard tyres.
“These are tyres that have been used in other countries, produced for very temperate regions and even made for short distances like agricultural purposes but these people import them, clean them and sell them to our people.
“The seizures we made here are in the upward of N10 million. This now amounts to economic loss to the country,” he said.
Mr John Obi, one of the dealers in the product, said that their business was genuine and wondered why they should be the ones to bear the brunt of the loss.
“The issue of used tyres should be addressed at the ports and borders if the government wants to remove them from the markets,’’ he said.
Also speaking, a motorists who preferred anonymity, said the clampdown on used tyres would further worsen the plight of the users, as they were economically cheaper.
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.