Business
Unions Flay Dissolution Of NUBIFIE’s Executive
The Leadership of the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE) and the United Labour Congress (ULC) have kicked against the dissolution of the NUBIFIE newly elected National Executive Officers.
In a statement issued last Friday by the union’s National Secretary, Comrade Muhammad Sheikh said that the leadership of NUBIFIE and United Labour Congress, to which the union is affiliated have rejected the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity’s directive to dissolve the union’s national elected executive officers suspend the union’s activities and the appointment of caretaker committee to run the union.
Sheikh warned that the action would further precipitate more crises in the organised labour and industrial unrest in the financial sector of the nation’s economy.
The union advised the Ministry of Labour and Productivity officials to stop meddling in the affairs of the union, stressing that its National Executive Officers elected on September 15, 2017 at the Airport Hotel Lagos, witnessed by the ministry officials remained its authentic elected officers.
NUBIFIE specifically accused the ministry officials of acting on the instruction of an external body that has not been comfortable with the place and union affiliation to ULC.
Sheikh explained that the union has taken steps to explain to Mrs Akpan O.U, Director of Trade Unions Service, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity and to forward all relevant documents to the ministry that there is no industrial crisis in the union.
The union said the only sin of its officials is their affiliation to ULC.
The Tide investigation revealed that the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity through its Director of Trade Unions Service and Industrial Relations Department, dissolved the leadership of the union in what the ministry considered as “intractable crisis in the union”.
In its place, the ministry appointed a 15-man caretaker committee to run the affairs of the union and organise another conference within 10 weeks.
The Tide learnt that also suspended was the union’s appointed General Secretary, who is the administrative head of the union and in its place, appointed an official from the ministry to act as secretary of the union.
The caretaker committee members are to be inaugurated on November 10, 2017 at the Ministry’s Conference room, Federal Secretariat Complex, Abuja.
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Banking/ Finance
Ripple Survey Reveals Appetite for Digital Assets
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.
