Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria, has reportedly clarified the CBN’s position on the use of cryptocurrencies in the country.
Recall that the regulator had previously directed all domestic banks to immediately cancel their services for customers who buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies. But the CBN Deputy Governor, Adamu Lamtek, while speaking on Emefiele’s behalf at a seminar for finance correspondents and business editors in Abuja, explained that the bank had not prohibited Nigerian residents from buying, trading or selling cryptocurrencies but that the CBN rather ” ‘protected’ the banking sector from cryptocurrency activities.”
“The CBN did not place restrictions on the use of cryptocurrencies and we are not dissuading people from trading with them,” Emefiele said in a TodayNG report. “What we just did was ban cryptocurrency transactions in the banking sector.”
The statement follows the CBN’s announcement last month in a circular that it had banned all regulated financial institutions from providing services to cryptocurrency exchanges in the country.
The ban ordered all commercial banks to close accounts belonging to crypto exchanges and other companies conducting cryptocurrency transactions in Nigeria, warning of “severe regulatory penalties” for any institution that breaches the law.
Emefiele previously referred to cryptocurrencies as “non-legitimate money” that has no place in the Nigerian monetary system.
The governor said at the time that the Central Bank was doing its due diligence to better understand the implications of the emerging space.
However, many regulators and crypto enthusiasts in Nigeria criticized the ban. Some Nigerian Senate lawmakers proposed inviting the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and major cryptocurrency stakeholders to a hearing to discuss issues related to the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the country.
