Business
ICRC Urges Speedy Resolution Of Ports Concession Disputes
The Infrastructure Con cession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) says there is need to urgently resolve disputes relating to concession agreements at Nigerian ports, toward making them more effective and efficient.
The Acting Director General of the ICRC, Mr Chidi Izuwah, made the assertion on Wednesday during a monitoring visit to the Tin Can Island Port, Lagos which is being operated by Josepdam Ports Services (JPS) Limited.
Izuwah said the concession agreement entered between JPS and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) in 2006 had not yielded the desired results due to some challenges.
He said that JPS had listed the challenges to include third party (Honeywell Group) plant and equipment occupying more than 25 per cent of the terminal land mass and litigation filed against the company by the third party.
According to him, they also include problem of access road to the port, 100 per cent physical examination of containers which has resulted to undue delays in cargo clearance and multiplicity of government agencies around the port area.
Izuwah said that the NPA had also raised concerns against JPS, including delay/partial payment of lease fees which were agreed in the concession agreements and not fully implementing the port development plans.
“It is on this premise that the ICRC decided to embark on this monitoring exercise to brainstorm with your management and the NPA on the way forward.
“As the regulator of the lease agreement, we cannot fold our hands and leave you to struggle it out alone.
“Under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, there is a will to address this issue and effort is being made to resolve it to create a win-win situation for all parties, “ he said.
Izuwah maintained that all disagreements relating to concession exercises at the ports must therefore be resolved in order to make Nigerian ports the hub for international shipping trade in the West and Central African sub-region.
In his speech, Managing Director, JBS, Mr Simon Travers urged the commission to assist in finding an amicable settlement on the issue of the third party presence at the terminal which was hindering its operations.
He recommended that the NPA should review and extend the lease agreement for years lost due to the third party interference and also appealed to the government to repair the access road to the port.
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.
