Business
Disengaged Workers Drag NPA To Court
The 530 disengaged workers of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), has appealed to the federal government to prevail on the management of the company to ensure that all their entitlements and salaries are paid accordingly.
A statement from the disengaged workers, said the call become necessary after the death of 10 of their members who they said died due to hardship and frustration resulting from the unpaid money by NPA.
They recalled that a high court sitting in Port Harcourt, which was presided over by one Justice Gladys Olotu some time in 2009, directed an out-of court settlement which the NPA failed, through their counsel Bar. S. Acho Ochonma under the protect that the road leading to the venue of the meeting was under construction.
The statement which described Ochonma’s excuse as flimsy, pointed out that he (Ochonma) was still attending to other matters in the court amid the construction works in the state.
They regretted that NPA could not still address their issue after the N5,000 fine slammed on them by the court, over their failure to appear before it during the first hearing.
According to them, the inability of the management of NPA to calculate and pay the disengaged workers on the monetised rate, was among other striking issues that made the body to take the court option.
They also explained that the national salaries, incomes and wages commission has sometime in January 2008, granted an approval to the NPA for the full implementation of the said scheme with effect from same month and year.
On that ground, they stressed that the disengaged workers are entitled for five months arrears of monitisation, having retired from May 31, 2008.
In September 2010, they said, two months monitisation arrears was paid to them, leaving a balance of three months which according to them, contradicted the earlier claim by NPA that they were not entitled for benefits.
The Tide also gathered that only retirees who have attained 50 years of age received a paltry sum of about N3,000 per month.
The above argument, they maintained, was drawn from the 2004 pension policy, adding that what was disbursed was deducted from July 2004 when the new pension reform policy was established.
However, they have noted that the three months salary in lieu of notice in line with section 0427 CAP four of the public service rules, laws of the federation 2004 is still unpaid.
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.