Nigeria Adopts Bitcoin Massively, Naira Currency Is Abandoned

Nigeria Widespread Bitcoin Adoption (The Next Web)

JAKARTA – The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele is optimistic that his country will legalize transactions using Bitcoin (BTC). In Nigeria, crypto money is excellent because it is loved by the people.

Emefiele's belief in Bitcoin was expressed at the 279th Monetary Policy Committee meeting held in Abuja. Emefiele believes Bitcoin will soon be legal in his country, as reported by Business Insider, Wednesday, June 2.

However, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria did not publicly disclose that his party was canceling the ban on institutions to buy or sell cryptocurrencies.

Nonetheless, Emefiele's belief is a green light for the growth of the cryptocurrency economy in Nigeria.

“We are committed to CBN, and I can assure everyone that digital currencies will live on even in Nigeria. Under cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin, Nigeria is in 2nd place. While in the global economy, Nigeria is at number 27. We are still conducting an investigation, and we will provide our data”, Emefiele said as quoted by Cointelegraph.

In addition, Emefiele also emphasized that the government would prevent crypto money from being used to fund illicit activities.

“We found that most of our society is in cryptocurrency, not the best. Don't get me wrong, some may be legal, but most are illegal", he added.

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria expressed his concern over the crash of the crypto market in mid-May.

“We saw the market crash. Initially, when Elon Musk tweeted when we said our banking and payment facilities are no longer available for cryptocurrency transactions, and he tweeted (again) to invest USD 1.5 billion, then the price went up. Then he tweeted some concerns, and it (the crypto market) crashed”.

In 2020, Nigeria became the country with the largest Bitcoin trading volume in Africa. Nigeria is also one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets in the world.

According to Paxful's P2P report, Nigeria is in second place after the United States in terms of the highest trading volume in December 2020.

The Central Bank of Nigeria is more inclined towards cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin rather than the national currency naira. In that country, the adoption of Bitcoin is carried out on a large scale by the people. This makes the national naira money abandoned and becomes worthless.

“Bitcoin has rendered our currency almost useless or worthless”, Senator Sani Musa said in February. After Emefiele's statement, the value of the naira fell 1.2 percent to its lowest level.