Business
FG To Protect Poultry Industry Against Epidemic
The Federal Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) has begun the training of key stakeholders in the poultry industry to enhance disease prevention, detection and control.
The Director, Department of Animal Production and Husbandry Services, Dr Ademola Raji, made the disclosure at a workshop organised for stakeholders on Wednesday at New Nyanyan in Nasarawa State.
He said that the step became necessary as attention was being focused on animal health globally.
Raji, who was represented by a Deputy Director, Dr John Taiwo, said the workshop, titled, “Behaviour Change in Bio-security in Poultry Production’’, was aimed at empowering stakeholders to prevent diseases.
He said that such workshop was necessary following the recent outbreak of Avian Influenza in the country.
According to him, proper knowledge and application of bio-security will help to curb the ugly situation.
“The objective of the workshop is to develop an action plan in all aspects of disease detection, prevention and control.
“It is also to develop appropriate bio-security for poultry farms and live birds market in rural and urban areas.
“It will build capacity in technical, communication skills and advise poultry growers, sellers and live birds marketing administrators on developing a bio-safety plan,’’ he said.
Raji listed co-organisers of the workshop as Federal Department of Agricultural Extension Services, the Nigerian Institute for Animal Science (NIAS) and Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN).
Speaking on the sidelines of the workshop, the Registrar of the NAIS, Dr Oyedele Oyedeji, said the workshop would address many challenges facing the poultry sub-sector.
According to him, the forum will have great impact on the standards used in crop and animal production.
He added that, “products are as good as the process used in producing them’’.
He said the participating stakeholders were required to retrain farmers and other actors along the poultry value chain in their various localities.
The registrar urged the department to convene a meeting of all stakeholders to review the livestock policy for Nigeria.
Oyedeji said it would give a proper direction to animal breeding and genetics, animal nutrition marketing, operating procedures and animal welfare which would be disseminated to states through the extension services.
He said that this would enable the country meet all international benchmarks in animal feed, product and human food safety.
In an interview with The Tide source the Zonal Secretary, North Central, Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Mr Dennis Eze, commended the department for organising the workshop.
He said that the training was timely as many poultry farmers had recorded huge losses in the recent outbreak of Avian Influenza otherwise called “Birds Flu’’.
Eze identified diseases as the major challenge facing the sector and urged the department to also sensitise farmers in the area of feed production.
The secretary encouraged poultry farmers not to lose hope in spite of the various challenges.
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.
