CBN, SEC To Regulate Cryptocurrency Trading In Nigeria

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced a collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria to work on regulating cryptocurrency trading in Nigeria.

The Director-General, SEC, Lamido Yuguda, revealed this at the 2021 first post-Capital Market Committee (CMC) virtual news conference. He said that the commission had suspended the implementation of crypto assets guidelines due to a lack of access to Nigerian bank accounts.⁣

Yuguda said that the commission was in discussion with the CBN for better understanding and regulation of the crypto-assets market.

He also pointed that the Fintech market had been disrupted by the CBN’s ban on access to Nigerian bank accounts and that the body was doing its best to invest and provide support to Fintechs in the country.

Meanwhile, despite the ban on crypto trading, Nigeria is leading bitcoin P2P trading across Africa in Q1 2021.

Between January and March, Nigeria posted a peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin trading value worth $99.1 million, followed by Kenya with $38.4 million.