Dark Cloud: Nigeria's Central Bank not Going Back on Its Crypto stance

By: Henry Felix

February 25, 2021 5:27 AM

Central bank governor Godwin Emefiele says cryptocurrency is not legitimate money while the CBN is ready to double down on its anti-crypto stance.

Godwin Emefiele, the CBN director defends the decision to ban banks and regulated financial institutions from offering its services to local crypto exchanges.

As previously reported by Coinnewsafrica, Emefiele was asked to appear before the senate committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions; and Capital Market. The CBN director stated that the ban was in the best interest of the nation.

According to a recent report by Punch, as Emefiele addressed the senate, he added:

“Cryptocurrency is not a legitimate money, and crypto has no place in our monetary system at this time and cryptocurrency transactions should not be carried out through the Nigerian banking system.”

However, the CBN director also restated that despite the ban, the central bank was doing its due diligence to better understand the developing digital asset space.

Blockchain intelligence firms such as Chainalysis and CipherTrace has built robust platforms which has aided several law enforcement agencies to arrest criminals involved in crypto scams.

Chainalysis in it's 2020 report revealed that only 0.34% of all crypto transactions for the year were involved in criminal activities. However, a report on September 2020, by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs which totaled that money laundering in mainstream finance amounted to 2.7%.

Lamido Yuguda, the director general of Nigeria SEC also appeared before the senate. Yuguda added that the Security and Exchange Commission of Nigeria has to pause it's planned regulatory framework for digital assets in the Country amid the CBN crypto ban.

It's been back and forth with the SEC as they unveiled their plans to create a regulatory framework for digital assets. In early Feb. the SEC backed the CBN ban on cryptocurrencies.

As reported by Coinnewsafrica in Feb. SEC executive Timi Agama started that the commission was working with other relevant agencies to resume it's plans of creating a legal framework for digital assets, with the Securities and Exchange Commission claiming the then $1.74 Trillion crypto market is too big to ignore.

Although, Senator Uba Sani of the Kaduna Central Senatorial District has vowed that the panel would work to accommodate all the recommendation received from appropriate stakeholders.