Nigeria’s SEC has created a specialist fintech division that will have the role of studying crypto investments and creating a course for the regulation of cryptocurrencies.
Lamido Yuguda, the SEC Director-General, has said that the markets regulator will step in with regulations as soon as the Nigerian banking system allows crypto.
He declared: “We are looking at this market closely to see how we can bring out regulations that will help investors protect their investment in blockchain.”
The SEC has been fighting for a long time to regulate crypto assets by classifying them as securities.
The central bank of Nigeria doesn’t have a pro-crypto stance as in February it ordered for all accounts dealing in crypto to be closed.
But this didn’t stop Nigerians from using crypto as they simply turned to peer-to-peer trading or direct payments.
Source: CoinDesk.com