BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
The Nigerian Senate on Thursday summoned the Governor of Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele over the ban of Cryptocurrencies.
The resolution to invite the CBN to appear before the Senate relevant committees – Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions; ICT and Cybercrimes and Capital Market was sequel to a motion titled:
“CBN’s Decision to Stop Financial Institutions from Transacting in Cryptocurrencies and Matters Arising therefrom by Senator ID Gyang.
Senator Gyang while presenting the motion said “The last five years, we have had people changing cryptocurrencies to over 500 million dollars. It is good to ban because of the challenges it has presented; in reality, banning it doesn’t take it away. Even our Security Exchange Commission (SEC) also recognized cryptocurrency as a financial asset they need to regulate. What we should do is to invite the major stakeholders to a public hearing.”
“I am strongly against the outright ban of this medium of exchange by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). What the CBN should be telling Nigerians are the regulations put in place to regulate the activities of the operators. All over the world, these cryptocurrencies are regulated. The operators of this so called currency are everywhere. I would indulge this Senate to allow the regulators also to be invited so that they can also tell the Committees their own position concerning the operation of cryptocurrency in Nigeria.” Senator Solomon Adeola said in his contribution.
“We didn’t create Cryptocurrency and so we cannot kill it and cannot also refuse to ensure it works for us. These children are doing great business with it and they are getting result and Nigeria cannot immune itself from this sort of business. What we can do is ensure bad people must not use it. This motion is most important to us. The time has come for us to harmonize all the issues concerning cryptocurrency,” – Senator Biodun Olujimi
Following the motion and contributions Senate Mandated the Committees on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, ICT and Cybercrimes, and Capital Market to invite the CBN Governor for briefing on the opportunities and threats of the Cryptocurrency on the nation’s economy and security and to report back findings within two weeks.