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The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has recently defended the apex bank’s decision in excluding cryptocurrencies from Nigeria’s financial ecosystem.
Appearing before a joint Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions; ICT and Cybercrime, Godwin Emefiele stated that the Crypto ban was in the best interest of Nigerians.
According to a report by an online media outlet, while addressing the Senate committee, Godwin Emefiele remarked,
“Cryptocurrency is not legitimate money. Cryptocurrency has no place in our monetary system at this time and cryptocurrency transactions should not be carried out through the Nigerian banking system.”
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READ: CBN crypto ban and its ramifications for Nigerian banks
“Cryptocurrency is used to describe the activities of players in an electronic dark world” – CBN Governor. pic.twitter.com/2VQuY3HbX7
— YabaLeftOnline (@yabaleftonline) February 25, 2021
The head of the apex bank affirmed Nigeria’s central bank resolve in continuing its surveillance and deeper understanding of the crypto ecosystem, buttressing that its major objective remains to educate Africa’s largest economy on emerging financial risks and protect Nigeria’s financial system from the activities of money launderers, currency speculators, and foreign-based fraudsters.
Recall in a press release dated, the 7th of Feberuary 2021, the CBN had explained in detail the motives for its directive to Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) and other financial institutions to desist from transacting in and with entities dealing in cryptocurrencies.
READ: CBN claims no immunity for Emefiele as it fires back at NESG
“Due to the fact that cryptocurrencies are largely speculative, anonymous, and untraceable, they are increasingly being used for money laundering, terrorism financing, and other criminal activities. Small retail and unsophisticated investors also face a high probability of loss due to the high volatility of the investments in recent times.
“In light of these realities and analyses, the CBN has no comfort in cryptocurrencies at this time and will continue to do all within its regulatory powers to educate Nigerians to desist from their use and protect our financial system from the activities of fraudsters,” the CBN stated.
READ: CBN’s Emefiele explains why banks restructured N7.8 trillion loans to customers
What you should know: The CBN, some weeks ago issued a circular prohibiting banks and other financial institutions from carrying out transactions in cryptocurrencies or facilitating payments for crypto exchanges.
- The CBN’s directive has since gotten very harsh reactions on social media with many condemning the policy as a deliberate attempt by the government to impoverish young Nigerians who have been able to create wealth for themselves through crypto trading.
- Interestingly, Nigeria along with other countries ranked as the worst countries to start a career do not wholly accept or legally recognize cryptocurrency and other digital assets.
so that means we can’t purchase crypto anymore????
There are still P2P solutions like localbitcoins, Paxful, Remitano, Binance, Patricia (coming soon) just read about them.
The CBN governor either doesn’t understand crypto or he does and predictably wants to protect his turf. But this doesn’t change much, Nigeria isn’t the first country to ban cryptocurrencies and it won’t be the last. China, India, Pakistan and more that are more advanced than Nigeria were unable to prevent people from using it, keep that in mind. Furthermore, companies in the US – Square, MicroStrategy, Tesla and more – are putting Bitcoin on their balance sheet and follow due process and regulation in doing so. Essentially, the governor is not being honest or is willfully ignorant; it is probably the former. In the end, it is all about control.
There will be a refresh of institutions this decade. The same way Church was separated from State back in the 17th century, State (nation states, central banks) will be separated from money. With increasing number of countries wanting to break way from the US dollar system – which will crash, all fiat currencies do – and already mining bitcoin, this change is inevitable.
Centrally planned economies do not work. The Soviet Union with multiple PhDs at its helm, could not prevent its collapse. We live in interesting times.
Analog CBN Governor. Retrogressive CBN Governor. Please try to get more education
Sports betting and stock markets are also traded speculatively by many individuals which doesn’t make it ilegal. In my opinion, adults should be left to take responsibility for their investment decisions. What is needed is a robust technology for monitoring transactions associated with the country for detection of links to criminal networks, etc.
But how can CBN support and approve betting but against cryptocurrency trading it is absurd.
I agree 100% sir. Why should someone else tell me how to spend my money? And your suggestion about detecting transactions linked to criminal networks should be the focus, in this new “electronic dark world”.
These are our leaders for you,they only pass law that favor’s them without considering there citizens opinion. How can you just wake up and put a barn on people investment without any notice that’s insane, or what right do you have on my strively earned money to tell me how to spend it. They just don’t want our progress and I believed the anger of God will soon set on them and all there generation.
How can I join p2p trading
Try to lead right do not oppress anyone because you the power remember one day you go shift whether you like it or not.