Nigeria's SEC Governor General - Crypto Ban Causing Market Disruptions.
2021-04-16 | Mike Hallen
The director-general of Nigeria’s SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission], Lamido Yuguda has said the central bank’s crypto ban has caused significant disruptions to the existing market.
In line with an official
report by The Guardian, the SEC director-general made this assertion known within a
press conference organized after the meeting of the Capital Market Committee earlier on Thursday.
As reported earlier, the central bank of Nigeria barred commercial banks from servicing crypto exchanges earlier in February.
In line with Yuguda, the Commission has been forced to halt its planned
cryptocurrency regulatory framework, as revealed earlier in the month of September last year.
The SEC director-general also maintained that the suspension of the Commission’s cryptocurrency regulatory plans will remain
in situ until cryptocurrency exchanges can operate bank accounts within the country.
As
a part of his address, the SEC chief maintained that the Commission was working with the
CBN to make an optimal regulatory regime for cryptocurrencies
within the country. Consistent with Yuguda, the cryptocurrency ban aside, the SEC continues
to form strides in supporting
the expansion of fintech in Nigeria.
Following the CBN cryptocurrency ban, cryptocurrency purchasing and selling
is merely possible via p2p channels
resulting in massive premiums on virtual currency prices. Earlier in March, the
central bank governor remarked that the CBN
wasn't against crypto trading within the country but that such transactions can’t occur via commercial banks.
As per an earlier official statement, crypto exchange platform Lumo reacted to the CBN ban revealing that “blanket bans push people underground,” adding:
“Pushing people underground also makes it easier for scammers
to take advantage of Nigerians,
and that we are already seeing Bitcoin trade at huge premiums
within the country as a
result of the ban. Other companies have made
the selection to seek out workarounds that are less visible for regulators –
for instance, P2P trading. Our view is that P2P trading would go against the spirit of the CBN’s directive.”
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