Central Bank Of Nigeria Has Not Banned Residents From Trading Crypto, Says Deputy Governor

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria has purportedly calmed down his stance on digital assets for individuals, if not banks.

Notably, the bank had earlier prohibited the banks from servicing virtual asset exchanges. Now, the governor of the country’s central bank, Godwin Emefiele, has allegedly elucidated the bank’s perspective on the use of virtual assets in the nation.

Adamu Lamtek, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria mentioned on behalf of Emefiele that the bank had not prohibited Nigerian citizens from purchasing, trading, or selling digital currencies, as per local news outlet TodayNG. Nevertheless, the bank has protected the banking sector from the activities of virtual currencies, as per the media outlet. Lamtek discussed the issue at a seminar for the Finance Correspondents and Business Editors held at Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria.

Emefiele commented,

“The CBN did not place restrictions from use of cryptocurrencies and we are not discouraging people from trading in it. What we have just done was to prohibit transactions on cryptocurrencies in the banking sector.”

Nonetheless, several regulators and digital currency enthusiasts in the country have denounced the prohibition. A couple of policy makers in the Nigerian Senate have suggested inviting the central bank’s governor and key stakeholders of the crypto ecosystem to a hearing to converse about subjects associated with digital currency regulations in the nation.

Since the central bank introduced the digital asset prohibition, the price of Bitcoin has been trading at a premium in the nation. As per data from digital asset exchange Luno, Bitcoin has momentarily surged to a more than seventy percent premium in Nigeria.