Business
Stakeholder Hails Road Projects In Rivers Community
The Rivers State Government has continued to receive commendations over the planned flag-off of Omerelu internal road projects.
This latest commendation came from an opinion leader in the community, Sir Christopher Ejinmah when he spoke in an interview with newsmen last Monday in Omerelu, Ikwerre Local Government Area.
He said, internal road projects have been the challenge of the community over the years due to inability of concerned appropriate authorities to take necessary action.
Ejinmah noted that if the project is executed, that business and economic activities in the area would revive.
According to him, the best way to bring governance close to the rural areas is to ensure that all its social amenities are in good shape and functional.
He was of the view that lack of social amenities is responsible for the high rate of rural migration to urban areas.
The opinion leader stressed that, if the rural communities are considered in the projects execution by the government then the issue of rural-urban migration would be minimised.
He maintained that some youths leaving the rural areas in search of greener pasture to the urban areas are doing so against their wishes.
Narrating the hardship suffered by his people as a result of the bad road, he said that many business operators in the community relocated to areas with better roads and other social amenities.
Farm products, he hinted was difficult to transport home or to the market, thereby causing poor sales on market days. Concerning the benefits of the road upon completion, he said that there would be business boom as soon as the road is commissioned due to the economic viability of the area.
It would be recalled that the Omerelu internal road project was among the projects penciled by the state Governor Chief Nyesom Wike for execution in 2018.
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.