Business
Minister Suspends Air Traffic Controller Over Near Mishap
An Air Traffic Controller (ATC) at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa, has been suspended over last week near air mishap.
Also, the two aircrafts involved in the near air mishap have been grounded by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) while the pilots and crew members were invited for more interrogation.
Speaking recently, the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Babatunde Omotoba, revealed that the Air Traffic Controller on duty gave the two air crafts wrong signals.
Omotoba assured Nigerians that the nation’s air space is safe.
It would be recalled that last two Fridays, there was a near air mishap over Port Harcourt Air Space. An aircraft was taking off from Calabar while another one was coming to land in Calabar, and they were about to collide.
The minister, however, said investigation revealed that the fault came from the Air Traffic Controller who gave faulty wrong signals.
“When we looked at his logbook, he asked the pilot that was about to land to descend to a level of 21,000 feet where as what he put down on his logbook was 25,000 feet.
“And then he also asked the other one which was taking off to Lagos to stay at 21,000 feet, so they had to cross path.”
He revealed that what save the situation was the defence we have in our airspace. “On every aircraft in Nigeria we have what is call “Traffic Collision Avoidence System (TCAS)”, he said.
“So the system in one of the air crafts was able to notice that an aircraft was coming very close to it and the it decided to come down to 5,000 feet to ensure that there was no collision.
Omotoba, however, expressed happiness that there was no collision and that the TCAS that was put on our air craft is working, otherwise it would have been disastrous.”
The Minister, however, revealed government’s plans to make the air space safe, stressing that, the total radar coverage at Port Harcourt would be fully ready and functional and these errors would be reduced and the visual would be clearer.
He further revealed that the federal government has approved N4.6 billion for the maintenance of the total radar coverage deployed by NAMA.
The contract, he said is in line with the federal government’s efforts to enhance safety in the airspace.
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.