Business
FG Tasks Govs On Truck Transit Parks
The Federal Government has urged state governors to fast-track the process of developing Truck Transit Parks (TTP) and critical road infrastructure across the country.
The Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, made the plea at a two-day National Summit on the Establishment, Management and Operation of Truck Transit Parks in Nigeria, held in Abuja last Tuesday.
“The Federal Government shall ensure that TTP projects independently developed by state governments and private investors meet a minimum standard in the number of facilities provided at such TTP sites.
“Government plans over the next couple of years to develop Truck Transit Parks at Lokoja in Kogi State, Obollo-Afor in Enugu State, Ogere in Ogun State, Jebba in Kwara State and Porto Novo Creek in Lagos.
“The TTP are an alternative strategy to address the menace of truck congestion at the seaports in Apapa and Port Harcourt.
“These are meant to complete the Ore Sunshine City in Ondo State and the ones being processed by the Kaduna State Government at Mararaban, Jos, Buruku and Tapa on the Kaduna -Abuja highway,’’ Amaechi said.
According to him, the Federal Government focuses on the diversification of the economy, the transportation of agricultural commodities and solid mineral resources from the hinterland to the ports and the haulage.
He said that imported cargo from the ports would come to the fore with the establishment of TTPs. Amaechi said the rail had been abandoned for over three decades which had increased the volume of trade transit within and across the country’s borders.
He said that the increasing use of the Nigerian ports as transit ports by landlocked neighbouring countries of Niger and Chad gave rise to dependence on road haulage as the major means of long distance transportation of goods.
In his message to the occasion, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, said that the absence of rail had accommodated trailers and other Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs).
Fashola, who was represented by , a Director in the ministry, Mr Chukwuwike Uzo said the activities of HGVs had made them important tools for the economic advancement of any nation.
He said that the activities of the big vehicles were not well managed, adding that this had caused traffic gridlocks and destruction of the road pavements.
“The Apapa Wharf road is a case in point where HGV drivers wanting to access the tank farms and Apapa port have turned the carriageways into parking lots.
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.
