Business
PHED Decries Loss Of Revenue To Thieves
The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company,( PHED)says it has lost about 30 percent of her anticipated revenue to energy theft .
The Acting Chief Executive Officer of PHED, Engr. Kingsley Achife, who revealed this last Wednesday, during a Town-hall meeting on Customers Bill of Right in Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt frowned at the constant loss of her anticipated revenue to energy theft on monthly basis, a situation he described as unacceptable.
Achife disclosed that the firm is currently collaborating with security agencies and a crack team of anti-energy theft squad established to work on daily basis with the Revenue Protection Department ( RPD) of the company, to clamp down energy theft throughout its network covering areas.
“We can assure you that anybody caught in meter tampering, by-pass through diversion of load or hooking directly to power lines must face the full weight of law’’.
“We cannot continue to condone energy thieves in our network, it must be stopped. This is an era of energy accountability and for us to sustain the power industry, energy theft must be eradicated’’, he said
He however, urged customers and Nigerians to join in the war against energy theft, and threatened to arrest and prosecute any person, group of persons or corporate body found to be engaged in energy theft in its network
The Tide learnt that the spate of energy theft in PHED has become a major source of huge revenue leakage to the distribution company. The firm which is saddled with the responsibility of distributing power supply in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers States is said to be losing greatly due to energy theft despite huge amount it pays to buy gas and energy from the Energy Company.
Sources revealed that, with the warning and the setting up of the crack team of anti- energy theft, the company is battle ready to tackle the ugly monster called energy theft in the system.
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.
