"Bitcoin has made our currency almost useless or worthless." - These were the words of Nigerian Senator Sani Musa on Thursday, February 11, during a plenary session, while he and other lawmakers debated about the Central Bank's decision to ban the use of digital currency in Nigeria.
On February 5, the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) ordered all commercial banks to close the accounts of any of their cryptocurrency customers. CBN's justification was that “cryptocurrencies were being used to finance crimes such as terrorism, kidnapping and others.”
This made Nigerian senators outraged over the bitcoin ban, and strongly opposed the action by the Central Bank of Nigeria, demanding that he appear in the Senate to explain himself.
“I am strongly against a total ban on this medium of exchange by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). What CBN should say to Nigerians is the regulations established to regulate activities, ”said Solomon O. Adeola, a Nigerian lawmaker, adding:
“Across the world, these cryptocurrencies are regulated. Users of these coins are everywhere. ”
Other lawmakers agreed, with Senator Sani Musa saying that bitcoin has made Nigeria's currency, Naira, “useless”. He said:
"If we have a very weak economy and we can't regulate cryptocurrency in Nigeria, I don't know what our economy would look like in the next seven years."
Naira
The Nigerian currency, Naira (NGN), was worth about $ 0.006 in 2014. However, over the next few years, its value has fallen further, and now it is worth $ 0.0026, effectively losing 58% of its value. value in five years, according to Google Finance data.
Nigeria, which has more than 200 million inhabitants, is by far one of the countries most interested in bitcoin, and Senator Musa's words explain why.
On Google Trends, Nigeria ranks first in searches for 'bitcoin', ahead of the U.S.
Thus, more and more Nigerians prefer to keep their savings in bitcoin, rather than the local currency, which is worthless and of no use, in the words of the Senator.
“Cryptocurrencies have gone global and you can't even identify who owns them. It is protected by the blockchain. The technology is very strong. I don't know what kind of regulation we can make.
Another very important thing that we should know is that Bitcoin made our currency almost useless or worthless, because I remember that about six or seven years ago, my son bought three bitcoins online and today he comes to tell me that he has bitcoin for sale.
Where is it? because it's not physical.
He said he has it on sale because he bought it and each is going for 17 million Nairas. So, if we have a very weak economy and we can't regulate cryptocurrency in Nigeria, I don't know what our economy will look like in the next few years, ”he said.
The meeting ended with the Senate stating that “the Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, ICT, Cybercrime and Capital Market Committees, invite the Central Bank president for a briefing on the opportunities and threats of cryptocurrencies in the country's economy and security. ”, The findings must be presented within two weeks.
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