Business
Retiree Urges FG To Meet Pension Obligations
A retired senior civil servant, Chief Manasseh Accra Jaja, has called on the relevant authorities in charge of Federal Government pensions and gratuities to urgently meet their pension obligations.
This is as he hinted that while the Akwa Ibom State Government has been regular with the payment of its own part of the pension to its retirees; the Federal Government was yet to meet up with their own counterpart pension funding.
Jaja alleged that certain elements in some quarters have been sending text messages, urging them to come forward with N50,000 for the processing of their pension documents and lamented that the fraudsters are only taking advantage of the long delay in the payment of their pension by the relevant authorities to defraud unsuspecting retirees.
The retiree, who spoke to our correspondent in a chat at Opobo Town, seat of power of Opobo/ Nkoro Local Government Area recently, however revealed that the firm incharge of pensions payment is much aware of the fraudulent moves by some fraudulent individuals. “This is why the pension company in-charge of our pension in Abuja, that is, the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate, warned us to beware of the antics of fraudsters who are using their name to forward such messages to our phones.
But I do believe that if the agency incharge has met with its obligations long ago, over the payment of our pensions, the criminals would not have the means to leverage on the opening to attempt to defraud unsuspecting retirees.
The text message which was sighted by our correspondent reads: “This is to inform all pensioner that they can call PTAD at no cost on 08002255782. Beware of Fraudsters”, the message advised.
According to Chief Accra – Jaja, “The text message was forwarded to our cell phones by our pension directorate as a warning, following the incessant calls from these fraudsters telling us to pay the sum of N50,000 for the processing of our pension documents, I retired since 1986 from the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Health as Principal Health Superintendent (PHS).
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.
