Nigeria will soon pass legislation that will recognise cryptocurrencies as legal.
If the Investments and Securities Act 2007 (Amendment) Bill is passed into law, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will “recognise cryptocurrency and other digital funds as capital for investment.”
Currently, the bill has passed the second reading.
In addition to legally recognising Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the law will reveal the regulatory functions of the CBN and SEC regarding digital currencies.
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Markets and Institutions, Babangida Ibrahim, stated during an interview that the bill seeks to regulate digital currencies.
Why? Ibrahim stated that to remain “up to date with global practices,” Nigeria must keep up with global economic innovations.
Recall that in 2021, the CBN directed all financial institutions to block all accounts and ordered crypto exchanges and service providers to halt operations.
However, Ibrahim claims that the law is merely a secondary review of the CBN’s powers.
“It is not about [the] lifting of the ban, we are looking at the legality: what is legal and what is within the framework of our operations in Nigeria,” he said.
This comes as CBN’s digital currency, the eNaira, received a 0.5% adoption rate in October 2022, almost a year after its launch.
