By: Damian Okonkwo
Nigeria is currently working on passing new laws that will recognize cryptocurrencies as investment capitals. This was revealed last week by Ibrahim Babangida - the Chairman of the House of representative committee on Capital Markets and Institutions while speaking with Punch.
According to the statement by Ibrahim, the country will pass the bill as soon as it has been approved by the Senate. The said bill for the recognition of crypto as investment capital is contained in the amendment bill on Investment and Securities Act of 2007 currently under review. The bill will also have to define the roles of the CBN towards crypto.
The plan to recognize crypto as capital for investment comes up barely two weeks after Finance minister Zainab Ahmed disclosed that the Finance bill for 2022, had pushed to include taxation for cryptos describing them as digital assets.
The current move from the Nigerian government to recognize crypto as investment capital and to further add taxation for crypto trading seem to be a major move towards recognizing cryptocurrency as a legal tender within the country.
Recall that Nigeria has hitherto maintained a hostile attitude towards crypto after the CBN proceeded to restrict the banks on February 2021 from facilitating crypto transactions within the country. The banks were also compelled to confiscate the accounts of all found to be dealing with Crypto. This has given many the impression that crypto trading is illegal within the country.
Speaking on the legality of crypto trading within the country today, Ibrahim told Punch
“It is not that they are illegal but we dont have regulation for them. So, these are some of the reasons why we need to review the Act and put some regulations for most of the activities – derivatives, commodity exchanges, digital currencies, and so many other things,”.
With these new laws expected to come into effect at a later date, not mentioned by Ibrahim, Cryptocurrencies will therefore become a legal dealing within the country.