Business
Expert Tasks Banks On Customer-Friendly Packages
A financial expert, Dr Samuel Nzekwe has advised banks in the country to initiate customer-friendly packages to encourage and shore up level of customers’ patronage of the financial sector.
Nzekwe, a former President, Association of National Accountants of Nigeria (ANAN) gave the advice while speaking with The Tide source in Ota, Ogun State.
He said the advice became imperative following the recent statistics, which showed a decline in banks’ customer patronage from 65 million in 2016 to 63 million in 2017.
Recall that the Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) had on Monday reported that the total number of customers’ accounts dropped from 61 million in 2016, to 59 million in 2017.
The former ANAN president noted that the number of bank customers dropped due to the harsh economic situation, which had forced many people with multiple accounts to close some of the accounts.
Nzekwe, however, noted that the situation was not the best for the nation’s economy, saying that even the banks had not helped matters, especially with its draconian conditions to access loan.
“Banks in the country should initiate customer-friendly programmes that will remove all forms of hurdles in accessing loans in the sector.
“A lot of people are outside the banking net because most of the banks had failed in performing its financial intermediation role as well as giving incentives to customers.”
Nzekwe explained that the cost of borrowing and the cost of charges on loans were very high, which he said could discourage both old and new customers to the banking sector.
According to him, there are times that money is not even available when customers need them.
He said that it was a misnomer for Nigerian banks to charge monthly fees on customers’ accounts instead of paying interest on money kept at its custody.
Nzekwe said that the micro finance banks had rather performed better in the area of providing loans to customers as well as monitoring them.
He, however, advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to strengthen its monitoring and enforcement unit to be able to check excesses of banks as well as attract new customers into the financial sector.
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.
