Business
Pilot Ranching: FG Releases N1bn Grant To Four States …Lists Conditions For Funds Provision To 18 States
The Federal Government has released N1bn seed grant to Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa and Kaduna states for the development of pilot ranches in their domains as part of measures to halt clashes between herders and farmers.
It was gathered on Sunday that the fund was released after about 22 state governors indicated interest in developing ranches in their states.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Agriculture, Andrew Kwasari, who also coordinates the NLTP, had earlier told journalists that the Federal Government would start disbursing funds for model ranches without further delay.
According to him, states whose governors had written the Federal Government include Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Adamawa, Plateau, Zamfara, Kano, Ondo, Katsina, Bauchi, Yobe, Borno, Gombe, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto, Ekiti, Kogi, Ebonyi and Kwara.
Following incessant clashes between farmers and herders, the Federal Government in 2018 came up with various ranching models, including Ruga and the NLTP, to settle nomadic herdsmen, who are mostly Fulani.
Giving some details of ranching support funds to states to newsmen, Kwasari explained that four states had received N1bn.
He also outlined the conditions that must be met before funds would be released to other states that had shown interest in ranching.
”We write in response to your request for the above information, sequel to our earlier engagement with your team. In our last interview, it was stated that the Federal Government would be releasing ranching support funds to Nasarawa and Plateau states, not Bauchi.
“And yes, according to the timeline given then, the fund was released on November 2, 2021. A sum of N1bn was released as seed grant for the four states of Nasarawa, Plateau, Adamawa, and Kaduna through the Ministry of Finance Incorporated”, he said.
Kwasari added, “This represents 80 per cent start-up fund for a pilot model ranch to be constructed for the training of pastoralist and crop farmer households within the grazing reserve and the state is expected to fund 20 per cent of the pilot”.
He explained that this percentage contribution was the major condition attached to the funding, adding that other conditions include the setting up of a State NLTP company limited at the state level.
“This is to facilitate the channelling of investments into the project. Of these fund, Nasarawa and Plateau states have accessed a sum of N232,000,000 and work has commenced at the project sites.
”As for the release of funds to the remaining states in Tiers 2 through 4, the degree of preparedness of the state teams is a major determinant for the initiation of funds release.
“PACE (Project for Agricultural Coordination and Planning) secretariat is working with the state teams to achieve required level of preparedness upon which the request for seed funding is based”, Kwasari explained.
In October, the President’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, in a write-up in response to a story published by The Economist of London, said the Federal Government’s ranching programme had reduced insecurity in the country in the last 12 months.
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.
