Nigeria’s Vice President Osinbajo and CBN Differ on Cryptocurrency

Last weekend, Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo subtly criticised Nigeria’s Central Bank for its outright prohibition of the operation of cryptocurrency, suggesting that the Central Bank should have come up with an alternative regulatory framework. It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) only recently prohibited banks from allowing the operations of accounts involved in cryptocurrency transactions. Ranked as the second country with the largest operation of cryptocurrency in the world, Nigeria has seen a huge soaring of transactions in recent years. Nigerians worry that the CBN’s prohibition of the operations of accounts trading with cryptocurrency is driven more by political reasons rather than economics. Government officials have laid the blame of funding for recent #EndSARS protests on cryptocurrency and it would appear that, that action is being taken by CBN to keep a tab or hold on all manners of finances in the country. The nature of cryptocurrencies of course, makes this an impossible task. The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while briefing some Committees of the Senate, had described cryptocurrency as “money that is created out of thin air.” A description that was widely derided as ignorant by critics, raising even more questions about his understanding of digital currencies.