Business
Immigration Decries Poor Power Supply By EKEDC
The Controller of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Passport Office, Ikoyi, Lagos, Deputy Comptroller Ibrahim Liman, has raised concerns over incessant power outage caused by the management of Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC).
He said the situation poses serious threat to passport issuance to Nigerians.
The immigration boss raised the concern during a brief award ceremony held in his honour to mark his 100 days in office at the Ikoyi Command.
Liman who bagged the award of the most outstanding officer of the Nigeria Immigration Service for the year 2021 from Daily Focus Nigeria, maintained that the daily operational activities of passport personnel suffered setbacks due to poor power supply by the distribution company.
According to him, the command, before now, was sharing the same power lines with the Dodan Barracks which has regular power supply, but noted that for the past three months, the distribution company has disconnected the command from the line that supplies power to the Dodan Barracks.
Liman lamented that due to the pressure imposed by high demand for passport, some staff now spend additional days in the office without visiting their families in a bid to meet the yearnings of Nigerians.
He pointed out that the command now relied heavily on generator to function effectively, noting however, that the cost of fuelling it on daily basis was having negative implications on the service.
He called on the EKEDC to reconnect the command to the Dodan Barrack lines to enable it enjoy regular power supply.
Liman dedicated the award to officers and men of the command and stressed the need for dedication, hard work and team spirit.
He also assured the media and prospective passport owners of an open door policy.
Earlier, the Editor, Daily Focus Nigeria, Comrade Roland Ekama, said that a survey was conducted in some of the service commands across the country on the issuance of passports to citizens and found the Ikoyi Command to be most outstanding.
Efforts to speak with the General Manager, Corporate Communication, EKEDC, Mr. Godwin Idemudia, have proved abortive as at the time of filing this report.
By: NkpemenyieMcdominic, Lagos
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.
