Business
Slam Heavy Taxes On Tobacco Firms, CSO Tells FG
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), has called on the Federal Government to raise taxes on and prices of tobacco to reduce its consumption in the country.
Executive Director, CISLAC, Mr Auwal Rafsanjani, said this in a statement in Abuja, Sunday, insisting that, such measure had been implemented in countries where the tobacco companies operated.
Rafsanjani also said that such companies paid huge penalties for the violation of such law in their home countries, adding that, Nigeria should not jettison the measure.
He said CISLAC condemned in totality, the open display of rascality arising from the recent threats by a tobacco company and other multinational tobacco firms in some African countries.
“We are not unaware of some dangerous and terrible efforts by the group to frustrate successes against tobacco use across Uganda, Namibia, Togo, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya and Burkina Faso.
“They do not mind the fact that tobacco use constitutes the second major cause of mortality in the world, leading to untimely deaths of millions of people worldwide with six million deaths annually.”
He said that there was also the potential of having eight million estimated deaths by 2030, most especially people in developing countries.
The executive director said that CISLAC was also aware of evil propensity of Tobacco Industries’ legal intimidation and threats.
He said but such threats should not constitute a formidable obstacle to the current gains recorded against the dreaded effects of tobacco use in Africa.
The executive director said the ongoing drives for the passage of Tobacco Control Regulations in Nigeria would soon be before the National Assembly for the effective implementation of the National Tobacco Control Act 2015.
He urged the National Assembly and the government not to succumb to the legal and economic threats by the tobacco firms.
Rafsanjani also called on them to uphold the implementation of the regulations in accordance to the pro-poor provisions of WHO.
He said the advice became necessary in view of the serious implication of the use of tobacco to the socio-economic burden of use on families, the poor, and health systems.
Rafsanjani also called on the Federal and state Ministries of Agriculture to invest in healthy means of livelihood for Nigerians and find alternative crops for hapless tobacco farmers to effectively engage in.
This, he said was to avert economic threats by tobacco industries and avoid epidemic of Green Tobacco Sickness, a disease common to tobacco farmers.
He also called for intensified and continuous awareness among policy sponsors and policy champions of tobacco control to fast-track the passage/implementation of Comprehensive Tobacco Control laws across Africa.
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.
