Business
Stock Market Downturn: Shareholders Task FG On Friendly Economic Policies
Some shareholder groups
on Monday in Lagos decried the free fall of equities at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), The Tide source reports.
The shareholders said that government needed to pursue policies that would propel economic activities and boost investor confidence.
They urged the Federal Government to pursue a friendly economic blueprint that would revamp the economy.
The NSE market capitalisation last week lost N1.21 trillion or 13 per cent to close at N8.087 trillion against N9.296 trillion achieved in the preceding week.
Also, the All-Share Index which opened for the week at 27,028.39 lost 3514.35 points or 13 per cent to close at 23,514.04 due to massive profit taking.
A turnover of 1.46 billion shares worth N14.17 billion were exchanged by investors’ in 15,164 deals last week.
This was against 899.60 million shares valued at N7.67 billion traded in 14,164 deals in the corresponding week.
The Financial Services Industry led the week’s activity chart with 1.29 billion shares worth N8.95 billion transacted in 10,020 deals.
The Consumer Goods sector followed with 59.83 million shares worth N3.07 billion achieved in 2,165 deals.
The third place was occupied by the conglomerates Industry with a turnover of 56.61 million shares worth N152.95 million in 695 deals.
Reports also say that the market since the beginning of 2016 had dropped by 17.89 per cent, compared with 17.4 per cent decline posted in 2015.
Alhaji Gbadebo Olatokunbo, a founding member of Nigeria Shareholders Solidarity Association, said that government should work harder to fix the economy.
Olatokunbo said that National Assembly members should ensure a speedy passage of the budget.
“We expect NASS to hit the ground running instead of the rumour of missing or new-versions of the budget.
“Nigerians expect all hands to be on deck for the betterment of the economy,’’ Olatokunbo said.
He said that government at all levels should ensure discipline in order to correct the errors of the past.
“We messed up our economy and have to pay the price, and until things get back to order, we have to live with the sad situation we have created,’’ he added.
The shareholder, however, said that bad habits of the past years could not be fixed within a very short period.
He noted that the ongoing downward trend did not affect the book values of quoted companies, but their price of equities.
Olatokunbo said the fundamentals of quoted companies were sound and strong, adding that stocks would bounce back once the economy recovered.
President, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Mr Boniface Okezie, said that government should pursue diversification to enhance revenue generation.
Okezie said he was optimistic that the market would pick up with friendly economic and foreign exchange policies.
He said that government could not bail the market with funds, urging the country to learn from the lessons of China.
Okezie said the free fall would continue if market regulators failed to pursue strategies that would bring retail investors back to the market.
He blamed the NSE, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Central Bank of Nigeria for the current market development.
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.
