Business
‘33 States Can’t Survive Without Federal Allocation’
Thirty-three state governments cannot finance their recurrent expenditure without allocation from the federation account, a report prepared by BudgiT has said.
The federation account, according to nigerianstat.gov.ng, is the central pocket through which the three tiers of governments maintain their respective workforce and fund their developmental projects.
BudgiT said in the report released in Abuja on Wednesday that going by its findings, many states would be in jeopardy if the federal allocation were to reduce owing to oil price fluctuations.
The report titled, ‘State of states 2019’, explained that only three state governments could finance their recurrent expenditure independently, without funds from the federal allocation.
It gave the three states as Lagos, Rivers and Akwa Ibom.
Speaking on the outcome of its findings, the Lead Researcher, BudgiT, Orji Uche, said only 19 states could meet their expenditure with internally generated revenue and federal allocation.
The report wondered why a state such as Delta was running huge recurrent expenditure reaching up to N200bn.
It also wondered why despite the size of its population, Bayelsa State still had recurrent bill as high as N137bn, compared with Ebonyi, which had a recurrent bill of N30bn; Sokoto, N38bn; Jigawa, N43bn; and Yobe, N35bn.
The report said it was a recurring development to see states in the South-South region running high recurrent bills, mainly driven by the high revenues earned as a result of the 13 per cent derivation principle.
In its analysis, the firm said it was also interesting to see states such as Cross River with a bogus budget of N1.04tn spend less than N93bn on an annual basis.
Uche said with the current uncertainties facing the oil market, state governments should not continue to rely heavily on federal allocation.
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.