Business
NCDMB Recommits To Partnership … As New Scribe Visits Governing Council Heads
Newly appointed Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, has stated the willingness of the NCDMB to deepen its partnership with key agencies of the Federal Government.
This, he said, is to achieve the economic aspirations of President Bola Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Ogbe made the commitment, Tuesday, when he visited the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, and the Commissioner for Insurance of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Mr. Sunday Olorundare Thomas, at their respective offices in Abuja.
The Executive Secretary’s visit, according to a statement by the Board’s Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination Directorate, was aimed at familiarizing himself with Chief Executives of institutions that are represented on the NCDMB’s Governing Council, and exploring areas of collaboration.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary noted that cooperation and teamwork were key to accomplishing any noble objective.
He promised that the Board would work closely with NAICOM to review and operationalize the insurance services regulations jointly issued by both agencies in June 2022, to get Nigerian oil and gas companies to patronize local insurance firms and retain spending in the economy.
On his part, the Commissioner for NAICOM, Mr. Thomas, congratulated Ogbe on his appointment, noting that he would be building on the solid foundation laid by his predecessors.
“The NCDMB is a formidable institution. I want to commend the founding fathers of the Board for their foresight in creating such an important agency”, he said.
He also lauded the former Executive Secretaries of the NCDMB for their innovative projects and achievements while in office that added value to the economy, describing insurance as the oxygen of business operations.
While noting that the insurance services regulations that were signed by the commission and NCDMB were yet to be implemented, he requested the Executive Secretary to address the challenges.
The insurance boss hinted that implementing the regulations would bring the needed changes in the insurance subsector of the oil and gas industry before being extended to other key sectors of the economy.
Similarly, at the NUPRC, the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB reiterated the need for teamwork and partnership amongst various agencies under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources to sustain the growth of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
“I’ll like to reiterate that collaboration would create an enabling environment that would attract investments and new projects into the sector, which would help in creating employment opportunities for youths and address insecurity in the polity.
“Local Content development would be stunted if projects and investments in the oil and gas sector do not flourish. I’ll suggest that NCDMB and NUPRC should organize workshops to examine and resolve concerns identified by investors as obstacles to investments and new projects.
“Investment decisions by IOCs and gas companies are often affected by their assessment of their Return on Investments (ROI)”, the NCDMB’s Executive Secretary said.
In his response, the Chief Executive of NUPRC, Engr. Komolafe, congratulated him on his appointment, noting that the industry was pleased to have a person of his pedigree as the new helmsman of the Board.
The NUPRC’s boss highlighted the important role of the NCDMB in the operations of the upstream sector of the petroleum industry and commended the new Executive Secretary for seeking closer cooperation among the agencies.
By; Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa
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.
