Business
Osinbajo Tasks Public Servants On Attitudinal Change
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has called for attitudinal change among public servants and the enforcement of sanctions against offenders to improve Nigeria’s business environment.
Osinbajo gave the advice in Abuja last Monday at the expanded Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council meeting tagged: ‘Building An Enabling Business Environment: The Journey So Far’.
According to the vice president, the Presidency remains committed to putting every mechanism in place to make the business environment to work.
“The combination of this re-orientation as well as sanctions will greatly help in changing our business environment.
“But more importantly in changing some of the bad habits that have been imbibed over the years.”
He said that President Muhammadu Buhari had requested the council to apply sanctions where necessary.
According to him, building an enabling business environment is not even more of a journey of national transformation, but changing attitudes that have long been entrenched.
He explained that the attitudinal change required involved changing mindsets and the way people thought.
“If people had for years thought that when I am in any position as a regulator it means that this is also a position that I can bully people, I can make money for myself, and all of that.
“If people have that impression, and have had that impression for years, it will take a while and those who they deal with will believe that perhaps they have the right to actually do what they are doing.
“So it takes a while to be able to change that and part of it, of cause, is ensuring there is consequence for misbehaviour.
“And this is one of the issues that the President himself has asked that we take a good look at,” he added.
Osinbajo observed that some of the frustrations experienced by businesses were also experienced at the intelligence level, but expressed gladness that the country was committed to fostering change.
He noted that the Council had spent so much time with the NNPC and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to enable the organisations to understand that the measures put in place were not just about revenues but first about trying to do things right.
He said that things must be done in a manner that it worked for everyone, especially the private sector being the investors in the environment.
Osinbajo added that for the NNPC it was an on-going reform process and challenge adding that the administration was not unmindful of the challenges because it knew there were issues to be dealt with.
He said that the council could not be naïve about how the changes could take place and how quickly it should happen.
“We recognise here that we are dealing with systemic problems that have taken a while to entrench themselves and we need the private sector,” the VP said.
He, therefore, urged the business community to be patient to enable the government to surmount some of the difficulties being experienced.
Osinbajo also expressed disappointment with the arbitrariness being carried out in the NCS and the oil sector but noted that efforts were on to address them.
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.