Business
PENGASSAN, NUPENG Suspend Strike
Members of Nigeria’s major labour unions in the oil and gas sector have suspended the strike they embarked upon in protest against the non-payment of their salaries.
Officials of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers said the strike was called off after various agreements were reached with the Federal Government.
The National Public Relations Officer, PENGASSAN, who doubles as the Rivers State Secretary of the Trade Union Congress, Fortune Obi, confirmed the suspension yesterday to newsmen.
“Strike suspended as Federal Government agrees to pay the owed salaries while the IPPS (Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System) is sorted out in the future,” he said.
On August 13, 2020, newsmen reported that members of PENGASSAN in the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and some of its agencies commenced a three-day warning strike.
The senior workers had downed tools in protest against the non-payment of their salaries for the past three months.
They also embarked on the strike to kick against the Federal Government’s inclusion of oil workers in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
It was, however, gathered yesterday morning, that the two unions had an impromptu meeting with the Accountant-General of the Federation on Monday night in Abuja.
At the meeting, it was resolved that the three months salary arrears owed the oil workers be paid through the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System platform.
Sources at the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation said the OAGF had commenced the process of payment effective Monday night (August 17, 2020).
It was also agreed that all affected agencies were to submit a copy of the letter the OAGF sent to them and the soft copy of salary upload for May, June, and July 2020.
Parties at the meeting resolved that a new date would be fixed for all stakeholders to meet and discuss concerns surrounding the enrollment of oil workers on the IPPIS platform.
They noted that with that development, the strike was hereby suspended.
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.