Business
Groups Restates Commitment Towards Entrepreneurial Dev In PH
The National Association of Small Scale Industrialists NASSI has reassured it commitment towards the promotion of entrepreneurial growth and development in the country.
National President of the association, Dr Solomon Daniel in a chat with newsmen said the association is poised to promote the development of entrepreneurs in Port Harcourt and the nation at large.
He said his journey to Rivers State was for the inauguration of a seven man electoral committee was to ensure an organised transition for the association.
He noted that NASSI would succeed more as a team which could only come through determination and selfless service to the association, adding that united will stand.
He pointed out that lots of opportunities such as loans and other incentives exist in the country but were inaccessible because of lack of developing focus and unity of purpose among members of the association.
He commended the Rivers State Ministry of Commerce and Industry for their intervention into the crisis of the Rivers State chapter of the association and urged the members of the association to embrace peace and work collectively to achieve their goals and objectives.
The president also charged the members to ensure sanity in their conduct as members of the association.
In a related development, an entrepreneur, Mrs Evylen Iheanacho has reiterated the need for government to develop Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to end the menace of unemployment in the states and nation at large.
Mrs Iheanacho says, “the importance of SMEs to the nation cannot be overemphasized, as they drive the economy of any nation, stating that the problem of Nigeria as a country is rooted in her inability to develop the sector.
She called on the government to act fast and also ensure that the efforts toward financing SMEs get to the people, saying that monitoring training programmes and loans released to enterprises would go a long way in developing the industry.
By: Lilian Peters
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.