© Reuters. FILEPHOTO: This view depicts the Nigeria Central Bank headquarters at Abuja in Nigeria, November 22, 2020. Picture taken November 22, 2020. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/File PhotoLAGOS, (Reuters) – Nigeria’s market regulator published a series of rules for digital assets. It signals that Africa’s most populous nation is looking to find a compromise between a complete ban on cryptocurrency assets and unregulated usage.
Last year, Nigeria’s central banking banned financial institutions and banks from facilitating or dealing with digital currency transactions.
The country’s tech-savvy youth have embraced cryptocurrency, including peer-to-peer trade offered by crypto-exchanges, to get around the ban on the financial sector.
Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission published “New Rules On Issuance Platforms and Custody Digital Assets”.
It contains 54 pages and outlines registration requirements to offer digital assets and their custodians. The document also classifies assets as securities under regulation by the SEC.
An official from the central bank didn’t answer his phone calls.
The SEC stated no digital assets exchange was allowed to facilitate the trading of assets, unless it received a ruling “no objection” from them.
An additional fee of $30 million will be charged to register a digital asset exchange.
Nigeria’s digital currency, eNaira was launched in October to expand access to banks. The central bank backs and controls official digital currencies. This is in contrast to other cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin.
