Business
‘DPR Generated N1.3tn In 2018’
The Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr Mordecai Ladan, has said the organisation generated N1.3 trillion as revenue and additional 200 million dollars from legacy indebtedness in 2018.
Ladan made this known at the opening of a workshop on Revenue Generation, Accounting and Reporting Process to the Federation Allocation Accounting Committee (FAAC) in Abuja, yesterday.
The workshop was organised by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF).
Ladan, represented by Mr Adewale Johnson, said that the DPR had over the years been working assiduously to shore up federation government revenue profile.
“In DPR, to shore up our revenue we embarked on reducing approval time for permit certificates as it now takes 48 hours to get approval for permits.
“All our interventions are to ensure that revenue accruable to the federation account comes in as soon as possible and in 2018, for the first time, we collected N1.3 trillion as revenue for the year.’’
The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, while declaring the workshop open, called on revenue generating agencies to re-strategise on their operational methods to surpass their previous records and targets.
The minister was represented by the Executive Secretary, Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), Mr Mohammed Dikwa.
According to Ahmed, low oil price and low revenue performance by some of the agencies resulted in low revenue, which in turn necessitated the introduction of series of palliative measures by the Federal Government to support states in payment of salaries.
They include bail-out funds of N10 billion to each of the 35 states that had outstanding salary payments, restructuring of commercial loans and Budget Support Facility which the 35 states also participated in.
She added that from the repayment of the Paris Club funds over deductions, N1.38 trillion was paid to the states in three tranches.
Ahmed, however, said that there was the urgent need on the part of all revenue generating agencies to ensure accountability and transparency in the collection and remittances to the federation account.
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.
