Business
Nestlé Partners IDH, TechnoServe For Improved Farming
No fewer than 5,000 smallholder farmers will now earn better livelihood by supplying high quality maize, soybeans, millet, and sorghum to Nestlé, through the Developing Inclusive Grain Value Chains project.
The Developing Inclusive Grain Value Chains project is expected to improve the incomes of 5,000 smallholder farmers and increase the sales of the six aggregator SMEs by at least 10 per cent.
The initiative, launched on Monday, is initiated by Nestlé in collaboration with IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiate and Technoserve,’’ a statement by Nestle Nigeria says.
The seven-month project will enable more inclusive and transparent sourcing of maize, soybeans, millet, and sorghum for Nestlé’s operations in Nigeria.
According to it, incorporating smallholders into a value chain like Nestlé’s, will not only benefit the farmers who will see increased incomes from selling into stable and formal markets, but also the company, which will benefit from a steady supply of locally grown crops.
The importance of local supply chains has been highlighted over the past year, as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted global shipping.
Over the last few years, Nestlé has worked with smallholder farmers and aggregators in Kaduna State, to improve crop quality, significantly reducing rejection rates from over 30 per cent to four per cent.
“The project will work with six small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that aggregate crops and supply them to Nestlé factories.
“The initiative will build the capacity of businesses all along the grain value chain: aggregators and sub-aggregators will receive training on proper grain handling, storage, and testing, as well as entrepreneurial and financial skills.
“Logistics partners will receive training on proper handling and storage of grain during transit.
“The initiative will also work with extension agents from the aggre-gators to provide agro-nomy training to farmers, with a focus on good agricultural practices and post-harvest handling,’’ it said.
Nestlé Nigeria Managing Director and CEO, Wassim Elhusseini, said of the project: “At Nestlé, we are committed to building strong communities and supply chains, improving livelihoods in communities directly connected to our business activities.
“Therefore, we are delighted to work with IDH and TechnoServe to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and SMEs, who work within our supply chain.
“This project will help 5,000 families apply more sustainable farming prac-tices to improve their household income while protecting the environment for the generations to come.
Country Director, IDH Nigeria, Cyril Ugwu, said: “We are excited at this opportunity of working with TechnoServe and Nestlé in our joint mission to contribute to the improvement of agribusiness entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
“The partnership is crucial as it not only contributes to improved local sourcing of commodities by a reputable brand as Nestlé, it also contributes to food security and the economic wellbeing of a teeming number of farmers in the region,’’ he said.
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.
