The founders of DigitalEncode have warned Nigeria not to enter the crypto currency market as late comers, as it was in adopting the internet and other technologies in the past.
They said that, while several governments, in the developed world, are now embracing it, Nigeria is curiously is working against it. They argue that Nigeria monetary and government officials are fighting the trend because it is about empowerment. They fear money would migrate from the traditional banking system to the crypto world and thus reduce the control banks have on the financial system.
Dr Wale Obadare, Chief Visionary Officer and Dr Oluseyi Akindeinde, Chief Technology Officer, co-founders of Digital Encode and apostles of Cyptocurrency and the benefits that Nigeria could have embracing the technology, said that as was the case during the emergence of the internet when many spoke against it as an unnecessary disrupter, it was futile to fight technology because those who do so later realize they could not win the war.
They duo spoke to ICT journalists, in Lagos, yesterday, explaining the workings and nature of the new financial transaction, insisting that crypto currency is not mere a financial transaction but an asset.
It would be recalled that Nigeria’s central bank on November 3, 2021 resolved to bank bitcoin transactions via a circular issued by J.Y. Mamman, the Bank’s Director of Banking Supervision, instructing banks to close the accounts of designated bank customers and place their funds in suspense accounts.
The November 3, 2021 circular reiterated the contents of an older circular from 2017, which warned banks not to deal in cryptocurrency and to ensure their virtual currency exchange customers had effective anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing controls that enabled them to comply with KYC and transaction monitoring regulations.
The United States, Canada, European Union, Australia and El Salvadore are some of the countries that have legalized cryptocurrency, while China, Russia and Vietnam are some of the countries that have discouraged the system.
The Ecode chiefs argue that Nigerian government would be falling into the mistake many fell into when internet first came and several government officials were skeptical about ii, adding that the country should not wait until everything has gone midstream, when the developed world has taken the centre stage in the bitcoin market before they join the rave.
According to them, in the digital world there are three categories of entrants, the digital champions, digital adopters and digital latecomers, and it seems Nigeria prefers to always play as digital later comers.
They asked rhetorically: “if the investment system was bad why didn’t US and the European Nation no ban it. Why have they accepted it”.
