Business
FinTech Growth: ICT Experts Task Stakeholders On Collaboration
A group of panelists at the E-Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (E-PPAN) yesterday said that collaboration among stakeholders would aid FinTech growth in the country.
They discussed on the theme, “FinTech: Tackling the Challenges of Innovations In Payment”.
Founder, Gboza Gbosa Technology Limited, Mr Ade Atobatele said that the best practice that would push the FinTech forward was collaboration.
“In life, one needs to do things with other people as doing things on one’s own does not make a lot of sense, likewise in organisations.
“In the FinTech world, there is need to understand that customer acquisition is not cheap and one needs to scale up if they collaborate with others, ” he said.
Atobatele said that the Application Programming Interface (API) being already shared was a good form of collaboration for the industry to grow.
Head, Payment System Policy and Oversight Division, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Musa Jimoh, said that CBN understood the need for collaboration, saying that operators would be advised when to connect.
According to him, there should be a form of regulation to enable people to collaborate well.
“The FinTechs are coming with a speed that is unmatched by the bank and so a need for a symbiotic relationship between the technology and the banks.
“They should ensure that the entities that are connecting to the financial sector meet the requirements that are needed, ” he said.
Jimoh said that these issues were of great concern to CBN, saying that there was need to bring stakeholders together so that the industry could thrive.
Head, Products Strategy and Innovation, Interswitch Ltd., Mr Inalegwu Alogwu, said that innovation should not be challenged in the industry “but to promote and bring about growth”.
Alogwu said that to bring about that growth, there was need to figure out ways to regulate the FinTech and to ensure the convergence between the FinTech and the banks.
He said that for the convergence to happen, all the entities must connect to each other, saying that FinTechs had a major focus on first time market.
Alogwu also urged industry operators to device a risk base control mechanism before pushing out their financial products, saying the operators were too eager to push out financial products.
The E-PPAN conference brought industry stakeholders together to discuss and brainstorm on current trends in payment fraud and learn strategies to manage risk and prevent fraud.
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.
