Business
‘CBN’s Intervention Funds, Fuelling Inflation’
World Bank has warned that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) development finance intervention in Nigeria is fuelling inflation in the short term, and weakening the ability of the apex bank to control inflation.
The global banking body said the CBN’s continued provision of subsidised funding to certain sectors has to slow down as it is undermining the ability of commercial banks to lend on a risk-adjusted pricing basis.
The apex banking institution also stated that the CBN’s disbursement in the private sector as its share of private sector credit rose from 6.5 per cent in 2019 to 10 per cent in 2021.
The World Bank in its ‘Nigeria Development Update; June 2022: The Continuing Urgency of Business Unusual’, disclosed that CBN’s continued provision of heavily subsidised funding to certain sectors undermines commercial banks that lend on a risk-adjusted pricing basis and needs to be dialled down.
“CBN disbursements are growing in funding the private sector, with the CBN’s share of private sector credit rising from about 6.5 per cent at end-2019 to 10 per cent by end-2021.
“Although some of the COVID-related tools deployed by the CBN are being phased out (e.g., the moratorium on principal repayments on CBN-funded credits lapsed in March 2022), the Central Bank has introduced new intervention facilities without a publicly available evaluation of their impact.
“The CBN also stepped up disbursements and kept the monetary policy rate unchanged at 11.5 percent from September 2020 until May 2022.
“On March 15, 2022, the CBN extended the five percent per annum interest rate on its development finance intervention funds for one more year through end-February 2023.
“The Monetary Policy Committee has strongly encouraged the Central Bank to continue its development finance interventions, including a policy tool to help tame rising inflation.
“However, this stance fuels inflation in the short term from elevated aggregate demand and weakens the ability of the central bank to control inflation efficiently”, it stated.
According to the Washington-based bank, expanding government programmes to support micro, small, and medium enterprises is a priority to protect viable and vulnerable MSMEs against rising uncertainty.
It said while the banking system had proved resilient in the face of the pandemic, the operating environment for banks and firms has become more challenging recently.
It stated that the fallout from the war in Ukraine is driving inflation higher, increasing production costs and the cost of borrowing through higher rates.
It further said that loan quality over the next several quarters is likely to deteriorate, adding that certain medium-sized banks that cater for SMEs and intermediate CBN development finance could be stressed if economic recovery falters and SMEs, many of which have already suffered over the last two years, typically have less resiliency in revenue generation than larger, more diversified companies.
By: Corlins Walter
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.