Former vice president Atiku Abubakar, has kicked against the ban on cryptocurrency exchange by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), noting that the measure would further shut the economy.
The CBN had in a letter to commercial banks on Friday, banned them from facilitating Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency transactions over “risks associated with transactions in crypto currency.”
However, the former vice president in a statement on Saturday argued that the ban would compound the unemployment problem the country is currently facing.
“What Nigeria needs now, perhaps more than ever, are jobs and an opening up of our economy, especially after yesterday’s report by the National Bureau of Statistics indicated that foreign capital inflow into Nigeria is at a four year low, having plummeted from $23.9 billion in 2019 to just $9.68 billion in 2020.
“Already, the nation suffered severe economic losses from the border closure and the effects of the #COVID19 pandemic,” he said.
He said this “is definitely the wrong time to introduce policies that will restrict the inflow of capital into Nigeria, and I urge that the policy to prohibit the dealing and transaction of cryptocurrencies be revisited.”
