The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been advised to come up with a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and Blockchain transactions in the country, rather than an outright ban.
Stakeholders in the financial sector gave the charge at a blockchain/cryptocurrency policy conference organised by the National Chamber Policy Centre (NCPC) of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI).
Bank accounts of persons involved in cryptocurrency operations have been closed for 14 months now, following a directive from the CBN, which has also penalised some banks for allowing their platforms to be used for such payments.
Executive director, NCPC, Olawale Rasheed, in an address at the event, said despite the ban, Nigeria remains one of the top destinations for crypto trading with values increasing quarterly.
He said that it was therefore necessary to adopt regulatory steps to reap the benefits and contain the negative exposure observable in the sector.
According to him, nations, except China, were not banning but rather creating structures to accommodate the crypto industry, which is now almost two trillion dollars worldwide.
Also speaking, president, Association of Capital Market Academics of Nigeria, Uche Uwalaka, expressed concern that at present, there was no law specifically directed at cryptocurrencies or crypto assets.
He said there is an identity crisis in relation to the treatment of virtual currencies and assets in Nigeria.
“This explains in part why the CBN and the Securities and Exchange Commission appear to be asserting overlapping jurisdiction for market participants transacting in virtual currencies or other digital assets,’’ Uwalaka said.
He said that the existing financial regulations were inadequate to monitor and guide cryptocurrency activity in the financial system.
Uwalaka said they are also insufficient to protect the financial system from key risks such as fraud, money laundering, and the irreversibility of erroneous transactions.
He therefore called on the government to do more to support blockchain innovation and adoption through supporting public sector adoption, creation of a flexible regulatory environment to allow experimentation, and using targeted regulatory enforcement, adding that cross-jurisdictional cooperation and government-industry collaboration were essential to developing a blockchain and cryptocurrency policy for Nigeria.