Lately, Nigerian senators reacted to the current Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ban on trading cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The opinion toward cryptocurrencies differs because a cross-session of the lawmakers claim that these currencies are making the Nigerian currency useless. There is also a session of lawmakers who believe that cryptocurrencies have huge opportunities for the Nigerian economy. These lawmakers want cryptocurrencies to be regulated.
One member of the senate, Sen Bioding Olujimi of the Ekiti South Constituency said that it is futile for Nigeria to resent crypto trading efforts at this time because it is having a huge impact on businesses nationwide and is also helping to grow the local economy.
According to Olujimi, since Nigeria didn’t create a cryptocurrency, Nigeria cannot kill it, and also Nigeria cannot refuse to make the currencies work for us. He said that Nigerian youths are doing great business with this type of trading, and they getting positive results, so why should anyone want to kill it?
On the other side, Sen Sani Musa of the Niger East Senatorial District doesn’t think that any regulatory measures can check the activities of crypto traders. He said that the technology behind it is so strong, hence the need to ban it in Nigeria. He gave three reasons why the trade must be banned in Nigeria, that (1) no one can identify who owns cryptocurrency, (2) the technology is so strong that it can’t be regulated by any government, and (3) it has made Naira almost valueless.
Another lawmaker, Sen, Tokunbo Abiru, representing the Lagos East Senatorial district says that banning crypto trading will not make it go away.
Yet, the last has not been heard about cryptocurrency trading in Nigeria. The lawmakers are calling on industry players and financial sector stakeholders to summon the CBN governor for a session on the opportunities and risks involved in crypto trading.
