Business
Airline Pledges Mass Route Expansion In 2018
The Chairman, Air Peace, Mr Allen Onyema says the airline will in 2018 end air travel woes of most underserved destinations in Nigeria and the West Coast of Africa.
Onyema said that the airline would also offer the flying public a preferred alternative on some key international routes in 2018.
According to a statement by the airline’s Communications Manager, Mr Chris Iwarah, on Sunday, Onyema spoke at the management session to review the airline’s flight operations in 2017.
Onyema said that the airline deserved commendations for rescuing Nigerian aviation industry and giving air travellers hope in the period under review.
The airline chairman said he was quite satisfied that Air Peace was able to expand its fleet to 24 aircraft, in spite of the nation’s economic downturn and what the aviation sector experienced in 2017.
Onyema attributed the airline’s success in the three years of its existence to the unflinching support of the flying public and the quality leadership of its management team.
The Air Peace chief said that the airline would remain grateful to its customers for their patronage over the years, urging the flying public to continue to trust the carrier’s services.
According to him, Air Peace will continue to strive to sustain its uncompromising approach to safety, prioritisation of the comfort of its customers and jobs creation.
He, however, said that the airline still has a lot of grounds to cover in its vision to transform air travel experience in Nigeria, West Coast of Africa and Dubai, Guangzhou-China, London, Houston, Mumbai and Johannesburg routes.
He urged carrier’s management to brace up for the challenge of implementing the airline’s plan.
Onyema said that this was to deepen air connectivity on many routes in the Northern part of Nigeria, including Kano and Yola, and other domestic routes.
He expressed regret that industrial unrest by Air Traffic Control in Senegal compelled Air Peace to suspend the launch of its Freetown, Banjul and Dakar routes planned for December 15.
Onyema, however, assured that the carrier would soon announce a new date for the launch of the three suspended West Coast routes.
He said that the airline, which began flight operations to Accra-Ghana on February 16, was determined to expand to about nine destinations on the West Coast of Africa.
Onyema added that the airline was awaiting the delivery of the two Boeing 777 Aircraft it recently acquired to start its flight operations to Dubai, Guangzhou, London, Houston, Mumbai and Johannesburg.
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.
