Business
Organisation Empowers Niger Delta Youths, Widow
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Supreme Family Entertainment International Initiative, a Non Governmental Organization (NGO), Mrs Joyce Hemni Andrew, has stated the need for government to use genuine NGOs to achieve grassroots empowerment.
She stated this in an interview with The Tide shortly after the NGO’s empowerment of some Niger Delta Youths, widows and the less privileged in Port Harcourt at the Weekend.
The NGO boss, who is popularly known as “Mama Supreme”, said the organisation was in PH to economically empower the youths, students and widows from the nine States of the Niger Delta.
Mama Supreme, who distributed food items of different types, wrapper and cash, noted that the food stuff was meant for the less privileged ones, while the wrapper/cash was given to the widows.
She said the youths would be empowered according to their hearts desires, adding that the aim of the empowerment is to better the future of the youths in the nine States.
She encouraged the youths to stop listening to negative side talks from distractors, stating that, Niger Delta would be better.
“I have a dream that this country will be a better place for everyone to stay and enjoy a better future. I want to achieve that dream through the empowerment.
“When we empower the youths, they use whatever we give them to help themselves and create wealth, which automatically would end idleness and restlessness”, she said.
On why it’s difficult to ensure that government empowerment get to the grassroots, she stated that “government is not there to see the suffering of the masses. I have been on empowerment for over 10 years now.
“Government is expected to pass through genuine NGOs who are willing to do the needful because we the NGOs know the grassroots, we live with them and know their problems. We are always willing to do the needful to end the suffering of the masses”, she said.
She called on the government, corperate organisations and financially capable individuals in the society to do something to help the suffering masses, adding that empowering one person to start a business would go a long way in helping many others.
The Coordinator of the Niger Delta group, Mr Gift Obene, DSX commended Mama Supreme for responding to the cry of the Deltans, adding that the coordinators of the nine States would ever remain grateful for the empowerment.
He said the response was an expression of love by the CEO of the NGO and her husband who came by themselves to ensure that what they brought got to the grassroots.
A widow who benefited from the empowerment, Mrs Iya Isaac, from Kalabari, Rivers State, expressed her gratitude to what she called a show of love, adding that God would bless the NGO for remembering the widows and the less privileged ones in the society.
In his contribution, the President and CEO of IEBS-MATRIXX, Dr. Larry GoodWill Akiola, commended Mama Supreme for what he described as the great work the NGO has been doing.
He noted that the NGO has “been involved in empowering the less privileged ones in the society for over 10 years now”, adding that the issue of empowerment reduces unemployment to the barest minimum.
He called on politicians and wealthy people in the society to borrow a leaf from Mama Supreme.
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.
