Business
Chamber Cautions On Proposed PENGASSAN, NUPENG Strike
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has warned that the economy would lose an estimated N150 billion daily, if the proposed strike by PENGASSAN and NUPENG is not averted.
The Director-General of LCCI, Mr Muda Yusuf disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
Yusuf said that it would not be a good development for an economy that was just emerging from recession.
The Tide source recalls that the two unions had threatened to embark on an indefinite strike over delay in the payment of N800 billion subsidy arrears to oil marketers.
Yusuf urged the Federal Government to engage the unions and propose a credible payment plan to settle the arrears.
He noted that the consequences of the proposed strike would be severe because of the strategic and critical nature of the oil and gas sector.
“It would paralyse the chain of logistics in the economy as economic activities are driven largely by road transportation, both for commuting and freight.
“It will impact on revenue as the upstream sector would be affected as well. It would impact the power sector which is largely powered by gas,”he said.
The LCCI boss noted that the fuel subsidy phenomenon had become a recurring distraction in the management of the country’s economy.
“It is regrettable that government has over the years got itself entangled in a problem which should not have arisen in the first place,”he said.
He alleged that the country’s economy had suffered serial scandals and monumental corruption in the oil and gas sector because of the phenomenon of petrol subsidy.
“We have consistently argued that the government should completely decouple itself from the business of importation, refining, transportation and retailing of petroleum products.
“This arrangement has created considerable distortions and stagnated private investment in the downstream sector because these are enterprises that the private sector is best suited to manage,”he said.
Yusuf said that government has no business fixing prices and subsidising the players.
He said that in spite of the monumental problem the economy had from the subsidy regime, government has not taken urgent steps to put an end to price fixing for PMS.
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.
