Business
Niger Republic Dumps Nigeria’s Ports
The Shippers Council of Niger has jettisoned a Memorandum of Understanding it entered into with the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to ship transit cargo through Nigeria.
The country has instead decided to ship its cargoes through the ports of Cotonou and Ghana.
The Executive Secretary, NSC, Mr Hassan Bello, confirmed this last Friday at a seminar organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Freight Forwarders Group.
He said the operators from Niger Republic found it easier moving their cargoes through Ghana and Cotonou ports than Nigeria’s.
Bello, who spoke through the Assistant Director, Enforcement and Compliance, Public Service Department, NSC, Mr Akujobi Chukwuemeka listed time wasting, insecurity and poor customer service among the reasons why the operators refused to honour the agreeme nt with the Nigerian agency.
He said, “If it will take them two days to clear their consignment in Cotonou while it takes them two weeks to do that in Nigeria, they will choose Cotonou.
“So they abandoned that agreement we had with them. If you go to Shippers Council, you will still see them there but they are not doing anything. “
Bello decried the poor customer service delivery in the seaports, noting that it was one of the major causes of inefficiency and the reason why most importers preferred to clear their cargoes through ports of neighbouring countries.
He blamed this on lack of automation of processes, time wasting in positioning containers and processing documents, lackluster and poor attitude of operators and government agencies to work and towards customers.
He said, “Do the ports provide good service and in a reliable manner? Is the service consistent? What of the safety of the cargoes, security of the shipment and the issues connected to documentation? How long does it take for documentation processes to be finalised in respect of clearance of cargo?
“So when we talk of customer service, these are small ingredients that will make a customer rate the port as an efficient one. When all these things are not there, you cannot be talking about customer service.”
He said, effective customer relations meant that the agencies would interact in a friendly manner with customers, thus making it easy for people to obtain information while making enquiries from Customs, terminal operators and other government agencies.
In other ports, it would take a few hours to discharge oversized cargo, while in Nigeria, it would take days because the operators lacked the equipment and the customer would wait for days for them to hire equipment to operate such cargo, the NSC executive director pointed out.
According to him, the port charges in Nigeria are also on the high side compared to other ports.
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.