Business
Stakeholder Decries Non-Patronage Of Local Printers
A business magnate in
the printing industry, Emmanuel Adeoye, has lamented the lack of patronage of local printers by multinationals, Federal Government Ministries and agencies and state governments.
Adeoye, Chief Executive officer of Print Express, a Port Harcourt-based digital printing outfit, expressed his displeasure in a chat with The Tide at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, Wednesday, shortly after his arrival from attending the Fourth Digital Print solution Exhibition in Abuja.
He lamented that rather than patronise indigenous printing firms, “these multinationals and governments ministries, and agencies, including state government, prefer to do their printing abroad, thereby helping to stifle the industry in Nigeria”.
He observed that given the quality of products brought in from abroad, Nigerian printers are not doing badly.
According to him, “if you look at the jobs they bring in, like calenders, diaries, customized folders, they are not exactly better than what we do here”.
He added that the printing industry in the country was capable of creating thousands of jobs across the country.
He, however, noted that inadequate power supply was a major challenge they were grappling with in the industry, saying, “most of us have to be on independent power for as long as 18 hours per day and that eats deep into our profit. If we must stay in business then our fees have to be brought down to the minimum profit.”
He commended organizers of the Exhibition, Skysat Technologies which collaborated with Konica Minolta and Duplo to hold the exhibition and prayed that government would live up to its responsibilities by providing enabling environment for indigenous business to thrive.
He used the opportunity to call on government to patronise indigenous printers, saying, “our business has the potential to revive the economy as it is a multi-billion naira industry”.
Tonye Nria-Dappa
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.