Business
Fuel Import Gulps 30% Of Forex – Adeosun
The Minister of Finance,
Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has said that 30 per cent of the country’s demand for foreign exchange is for fuel importation.
Adeosun stated this in Lagos at the launch of “FirstGem” , a product of First Bank of Nigeria Ltd., aimed at empowering women through wealth creation.
She said that government was working very hard to transform the country from consumption driven to investment driven nation.
Adeosun said that it was disheartening that Nigeria exports crude oil and imports petroleum.
“We lose a lot of money exporting unprocessed raw materials. We don’t have the power to process and that’s why we need to build infrastructure to export processed products in order to earn more foreign exchange,” she said.
She said that the Federal Government was committed at rebuilding the country’s infrastructure to boost local production for job creation.
“If we have an enabling infrastructure such as power, roads , among others, cost of doing business in Nigeria will reduce drastically,” Adeosun stated.
She said that government would continue to improve the country’s competitiveness through the provision of basic amenities.
The finance minister said that funds borrowed by the government would be tied to capital projects to boost infrastructure development.
She stated that government revenue had reduced due to drop in the price of oil at the global market.
“Its a difficult time but we will get out of it. We will survive and get better. Nigeria is tough but we are very resilient,” Adeosun said.
Speaking on the FirstGem product, Adeosun said that women were very critical to the country’s development.
She said that women needed to be financially independent as they represent 52 per cent of the country’s population, adding that, 70 per cent SMEs operators were women.
The minister, who commended the bank for introducing the product noted that FirstGem would help women to show track record of success that would make banks to offer them funds to grow their businesses.
Adeosun stated that women must learn to save and stick with their budget in order to prepare for tough times, noting that, women must not spend all their monies on consumables.
“Women have to open their eyes, your children are not your pension because it doesn’t work any more,” she added.
Also speaking, the wife of the Vice President, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, who was the special guest of honour, commended the bank for the product aimed at empowering women.
Osinbajo urged women to take advantage of the product and empower themselves, noting that, recession had opened up a lot of opportunities that were yet to be tapped.
Chairman, Board of Directors, First Bank of Nigeria Ltd., Mrs Ibukun Awosika, said that the product was introduced to support and make women more financially responsible to be good entrepreneurs.
She added that the given country was going through tough times and women needed to wake up in order to support their families.
“We want to ensure that women stand on their own when the need arises, its time for the women to wake up and must not be a liability.
We want to use the product to challenge the mind of women to save and have the capacity to stand on their own,” Awosika said.
FBN Chief Executive Officer, Mr Adesola Adeduntan, said the significant role of women in economic development was not debatable
Adeduntan said that FirstGem was initiated in order to empower more women to contribute their quota to economic development.
“When women thrive the whole society benefits because there will be sustainable growth,” he added.
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.
