The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) called out for the bank accounts of the two allegedly crypto traders. These traders’ bank accounts are now frozen and suspended. This crackdown seems to be the beginning of more tightening measures!
The director of banking supervision, J.Y Mammanand, stated for all the Nigerian bank accounts that:
“We are directing to all the banks to close the accounts of the under listed bank customers. Place the funds in the suspense accounts to engage in the trading of the cryptocurrency”.
Moreover, the bank regulators also ordered the financial institutions and other commercial banks to use their systems to find the entities and individuals involved in crypto exchanges. In addition, The Central Bank of Nigeria closed their accounts and moved their funds to the “Suspense accounts”.
In February, CBN says that affairs of the crypto trading activities welcome the dangers of money laundering, terrorist financing and other risks. Also, they proceeded to ban the banks from servicing the crypto exchanges. However, this measure did not get appreciation by the Nigerians.
In addition, Nigeria showed the world’s biggest interest in Bitcoin in 2020. They had the largest Bitcoin volume trading in Africa during the same year. Though, this rapid adoption of the BTC started to worry the country’s officials and regulators. Further, some of them also claimed that the digital coin was the reason why the currency’s value has become worthless.
In conclusion, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said: “Rather than adopting the policy that forbids cryptocurrency operations, we must act with knowledge and not fear.”
