Business
Pension Boss Tags Nigeria ‘Viable Investment Destination’
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Sigma Pensions, Mr Dave Uduanu, says Nigeria remains a viable investment haven despite negative macroeconomic indicators.
A statement from the pension body said Uduanu and some corporate executives spoke during a pension business roundtable organised by Sigma with the topic ‘Preserving Value in Turbulent times’.
Panelists at the roundtable were the Chief Marketing Officer, Ikeja Electric, Mr Ugo Obi-Chukwu; Co-Founder and Managing Director, CardinalStone Capital Advisers, Mr Femi Ogunjimi; Vice President, Sahel Group, Ms Tosin Ojo; Principal at Actis, Ms Folaseto Akin-Olugbade; and the Director, Real Estate, Actis, Ms Funke Okubadejo.
Speaking on the investment climate in Nigeria, Uduanu said, “Nigeria could be at an inflection point and for us to come out stronger, we have to believe in markets, especially with unifying exchange rates.”
He stated that there was a huge potential yet untapped in organising the informal sectors and technology as well as in funding assets.
Uduanu said, “In terms of investments, there is a renewed focus on every alternative, whether it is real estate, or private equity. But I would like to highlight asset financing.
“Today, everybody, every school, every hospital, owns their real estate. You don’t need to own your real estate, especially as the PFAs have a lot of liquidity, and this liquidity can be used to finance assets.”
On his part, Ogunjimi said, “I think Nigeria is definitely investable. I have a bit of a contrarian view when it comes to investments.
“And, I think it is really usually institutions of turmoil that create generational wealth because if you have a perfect environment, it is hard to get any kind of investment when all the problems have been solved.
“So the question is, how do you look at the problems we have as opportunities? I do agree that those problems create a lot of challenges, especially for us as institutional investors but for people as individual investors, I think there are a lot of opportunities.”
Speaking on investing in Nigeria, Akin-Olugbade noted that investments should be targeted towards investing in companies and products that were solutions to problems in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is totally investable. I think, fundamentally, investors should invest in businesses that are addressing the basic necessities of life,” she said.
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.
