Business
IMF Highlights Nigeria’s Failure In Export Diversification
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Nigeria has failed to diversify its exports, at an extensive margin.
In a selected Issues report made available to The Tide, the world apex financial organisation stated that Nigeria has not implemented much export diversification policy over the years.
“Nigeria has achieved little export diversification over the past decades. Diversification can be attained by including new commodities in the export portfolio (extensive margin) and changing the share of existing commodities (intensive margin).
“Over the past decades, Nigeria failed to diversify exports at the extensive margin, nor did it add new sub-products within the oil and the few commodities that it exports to achieve a more balanced mix of exports”, the report stated.
It continued that Nigeria added only 47 new products to the export portfolio between 1990 and 2020, unlike many other countries.
“Between 1990 and 2020, only 47 new products were added to Nigeria’s exports compared with an average increase of twice as many (95 products) for countries like Bangladesh, Cameroon, Pakistan, and Tanzania.
“In 2020, the total number of export products was 205, compared with an average of 258 for Sub Saharan Africa. More broadly, the export diversification index remained flat as of the 1970s after it collapsed from the high levels in the previous decade,” the report read.
The IMF further said that if the country can diversify its range of goods, there would be more intra-regional trade and growth.
”Diversifying the range of goods produced creates greater possibilities for intraregional trade and opportunities for growth.
”In countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and India where export diversification increased over time, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita rose markedly more than it did in Nigeria”, it further stated.
In the report, IMF also established that Nigeria had recorded a negative trade balance of N8.9tn between January and September 2021, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Within this period, total foreign trade stood at N35.09tn, comprising N22tn imports and N13.1tn exports, leading to N8.9tn trade deficit.
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.