The crypto space in Nigeria had one of its most impressive years in 2022; coming from 2021 when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) restrictions on cryptocurrency hit the market hard.
2022 was more of industry-regulator engagements’ year, especially from the point of view of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),” Senator Ihenyen, President of Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SiBAN), said during a chat with TechEconomy.
In line with that, he wants the aspirants for 2023 Presidential elections (in Nigeria) to unveil their policy directions with regards digital assets in the country.
This, Ihenyen said, would assist more young Nigerians to make right choices with regards investments and participation in governance.
He cited example of the engagements with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in the past year as step towards having a regulatory framework for digital assets in the country.
“We have made some headway with the SEC; a regulatory framework for those offering virtual assets, custodians of exchanges in the form of initial offerings. That was big news for Nigeria in the year 2022.”
“SiBAN also had interesting developments like virtual assets being recognized under the new Money Laundering Act 2022.
“This was the first time in Nigeria a law was introduced by the National Assembly recognizing virtual assets to ensure Nigeria has effective and efficient AML (Anti-money laundering) and CFT (Combating the Financing of Terrorism) policy; ensuring accountability and transparency in the system”.
Edging on the recent comments by the CBN Governor about crypto being a dark world or a world for criminals, the President of SiBAN said that with regulations, especially the new AML Act, it will no longer be regarded as a dark world.
“So, those were the major reviews of the year 2022 for the crypto industry in Nigeria. We have seen more industry players working together.”
“For us at SiBAN, we introduced, in June 2022, a code of conduct for Virtual Assets Providers in Nigeria which is a proactive way of ensuring consumer protection and investor safety in the system. So, seeing FTX and what happened around the exchange, it reinforces the need for government regulations, and self-regulations by industry stakeholders.”
Commenting on the forthcoming 2023 general elections in Nigeria and the need for aspirants to disclose their understanding and plans for the digital economy space, the SiBAN President said, “I would have to commend the current Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami. He has done wonderful work by giving the government a sense of direction as far as the Digital Economy is concerned.
“What we have lacked so far is collaboration with other government agencies, especially when you look at things from the Financial Services Industry (FSI). There appear to be inconsistencies going on there because we do not have the government taking a stance on what it wants to do with technology in that space. We have seen the CBN singing a different song, the SEC facing the other way, and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, singing a completely different song. We have seen this in the design of the eNaira. It also reoccurred during the redesign of the Naira. There is no working together; recently, the ‘Finance Ministry’ came out to say they are taxing digital currencies and digital assets which is contrary to what the CBN is looking at. So, there is an obvious lack of collaboration.
“What we think needs to happen, especially with the new government expected to be sworn-in by May 29, 2023, whether an APC Government, PDP or Labour Party Government, or any other party, it must have a policy direction for Nigeria so we can maximize opportunities provided by the digital economy. We do not seem to have seen the big picture. We are taking it little by little which is not in our best interest,” he added.
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