Central Bank of Nigeria has said the country’s citizens were free to use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and that all it has done is to prohibit their usage within the banking system.
The Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this in Abuja at the recent 30th seminar for Finance Correspondents and Business Editors organised by the bank.
Central Bank of Nigeria insists only protecting banks
Emefiele, who was represented by Adamu Lamtek, Deputy Governor, Corporate Services, said what the bank did was to protect the banking sector from the activities of Cryptocurrencies and not a ban on its activities.
He said the CBN did not place restrictions on Cryptocurrencies’ use and was not discouraging people from trading in them.
“What we have just done was to prohibit transactions on Cryptocurrencies in the banking sector,” said the Governor.
Nigeria is considered the world’s second-largest Bitcoin market after the USA.
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Reports that it had banned the trading of cryptocurrencies triggered a severe public backlash among Nigerians who have taken to the cryptos as a safe haven in a severely battered economy.
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