Business
NADDC Applauds Private Sector Investment In Auto Industry
The Director-General, of National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Jelani Aliyu Dogondaji, has commended the private sector for investing over N500 billion in the Nigerian automotive manufacturing industry.
He said the support and encouragement given by his commission has enabled the private sector to invest over half a trillion naira to set up vehicles assembly plants and factories across the country.
The NADDC boss disclosed this to journalists in Sokoto while speaking on efforts made by the NADDC to boost the local production of vehicles in Nigeria.
According to him, companies such as Dangote, Sinotrucks, Innoson, Elizade, Lanre Shittu, Honda West Africa, Mikano and Nord, are currently producing vehicles in the country.
“We also have companies and assembly plants in Lagos, Nnewi, Kaduna and Kano, while some are beginning to come up in Bauchi, Kano and Ogun states.
“these companies have a combined capacity of producing up to 400,000 vehicles per year.
“We are, however, doing a lot to unlock that potential and put a stop to the importation of new and fairly used vehicles into Nigeria.
“As am speaking, there are individuals and companies that believe in the current and future economy of Nigeria, enough to invest this huge amount of money.” He explained.
He said the NADDC is in consultation with other multinational companies such as Toyota, Volkswagen and Nissan to come and directly set up their production plants in Nigeria.
According to him, the council is working to effectively implement an automotive policy agenda, with a view to bringing these companies back to Nigeria.
“When these companies come in, they will invest hundreds of millions of dollars.
“They want to have a guarantee that regardless of whichever government is in power their investments will be protected,” the DG said.
He stated further that the council has also engaged an international firm, KPMG, to review the automotive policy.
This, he explained, “is to make it now in tune with the extant global movement in producing vehicles”.
Dogondaji recalled how in the ’70s and 80s firms like Peugeot, Volkswagen, Anamco and Leyland were producing over 140,000 vehicles per year, but suddenly stopped.
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.
