The Country Manager (Nigeria) for Luno, Owenize Odia, says it is possible for Nigeria’s digital currency, e-naira to co-exist with other crypto assets and exchanges without posing any threat.
Odia, in an exclusive interview with BizWatch Nigeria, said the trading in cryptocurrencies cannot be totally banned but should be regulated to protect Nigerians and prevent illegal transactions.
She welcomed the plan of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to launch its first digital currency, advising the apex bank to work with existing crypto exchanges to provide more clarity on the use cases of e-naira.
According to her, many people are still unable to access their funds due to the ban by the CBN earlier this year.
She said, “I am happy with this move to create a distributed ledger technology by the Nigerian government, however, we do not believe the current approach achieves its initial objectives. The CBN ban on February 5 caught many people unaware because a lot of people’s money is currently stuck in the bank. People do not have access to their funds.
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“Hopefully, it will create an opportunity for crypto exchanges to operate by having the fiat and crypto in existence. It will allow both to co-exist.
“I think the CBN should consult stakeholders playing in the space because a lot of people are skeptical about e-naira; they don’t know the use cases and how much difference it will make compared with the regular financial system.”
The CBN had on February 5, 2021, stopped Nigerian banks from facilitating cryptocurrency transactions for Nigerians and Cryptocurrency exchanges, asking them not to “use, trade, hold/or transact in cryptocurrencies”.
The apex bank also directed banks and other financial institutions to close accounts of persons involved in cryptocurrency transactions.
The Nigerian financial regulator also claimed that cryptocurrencies are being used to finance several illegal activities, including terrorism and money laundering.
Odia, while speaking with BizWatch Nigeria stated that many exchanges, including Luno, are self-regulated to ensure investors operate in a safe place.
According to her, trading in cryptocurrency cannot be stopped but the government only needs to regulate the activities of exchanges to ensure illegal transactions are not being done.
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“Even though there is a ban on it, people are still transacting with crypto offline because it is interoperable than fiat. For us as a company, we self-regulate,” she said.
Odia added, “We act like we are under some regulation because we want to ensure we have the right people on board and more importantly when the government comes up with a regulation, it will be easy for us to transition to a new system.
“The most important thing is to protect Nigerian citizens by creating a regulation for these exchanges to operate by; ensure they meet the proper KYC rule and report suspicious transactions to NFIU just to ensure that they are monitoring transactions because no one can stop crypto trading.”
