'Cryptocurrency is not legitimate money,' says Nigeria's central bank governor

[Sithara007]

If that's their opinion of cryptocurrency then so be it. It is their domestic economy which will miss some of the benefits of accepting crypto so let them have it. The whole world is turning positive with cryptocurrencies while Nigeria is still afraid of it being used in criminal activities and illicit affairs. No matter how hard the government and the central bank suppress crypto in the country, if the people wants to use it, they will find a way.

They are missing a lot in terms of taxes and investment opportunities in here tbh.

It is not just about taxes and investment. I am from India and here the government made the same mistake two decades ago. When the dot com boom was at its peak, the government refused to relax strict regulatory rules for the IT firms. As a result, most of the investment in the IT sector went to other countries and the Indian IT companies, which had a good start during the 90s saw stagnation during the 2000-2010 period. By the time the government realized its mistake, it was too late. Many of the companies and qualified professionals had moved to other countries by this time. This time also they are doing the same mistake by taking a hostile stance against cryptocurrency. These people never learn from their mistakes.

[torrantz]

but they should atleast not ban it right? they could make it commodity tbh so it won't confront nigerian's own money but the bank decide to outright ban it and punish whoever has it on their posession and that seem limiting human right. people buy btc with their own money not with bank's money so why so hard on it.

[FanEagle]

Nigeria SEC in support of cryptocurrencies while CBN not in support, p2p has been the best though, no bank charges and no conversion charges. 

Nigerian money is not a legitimate money to me. Here I said this, does that make nigerian money worthless? Does it make it zero? It doesn't, whatever I say about nigerian money (no idea what it is called) doesn't change the fact that a whole nation uses it and will keep on using it and me saying it is worthless will not make anything, if I call it illegitimate that doesn't change anything for them.

Same goes for the central bank governor of nigeria as well, he could call bitcoin whatever he wants and that will change absolutely nothing. It will not change anything for people outside of nigeria of course, because we do not care about this dude at all, it is as if anyone else said it, it is literally same as some citizen of nigeria said it, it has the same weight, to us any regular person and governor of central bank have the same worth, and even in nigeria people will still use it.

[doomloop]

Nigerian money is not a legitimate money to me. Here I said this, does that make nigerian money worthless? Does it make it zero? It doesn't, whatever I say about nigerian money (no idea what it is called) doesn't change the fact that a whole nation uses it and will keep on using it and me saying it is worthless will not make anything, if I call it illegitimate that doesn't change anything for them.

It is called Nigerian Naira and I know the sentiment on your comment because even I was upset when I read the article and news. But from the government's point of view, what they wanted to say was that they don't recognize Bitcoins as a legal means of payment and currency, which is being understood as if Nigerian government has voiced against Bitcoin. I don't like their decision either but a lot of countries have banned the use of crypto and their the one in power, they can take decisions for their country.

Countries are reluctant against legalizing of cryptocurrencies because of the illegal means that come along with the legalization and no one can deny that the use of bitcoins, although unfortunate, is dominant in the black market and is easily used for illegal purchases.

[darewaller]

You don't de-legitimize what a community choose to use as currency/money/token.

Yes, with all the due respect to the USA, I can call US dollar as not legit currency. But my statement has as much impact as Nigeria calling Bitcoins as not legit money. People are selling their ass and buying bitcoins so there is hardly any debate we should have on this.

Tesla are selling car for BTC so if BTC is not legit then Tesla would be going in loss, according to this kind of theory.

It's already legitimate, it's just left for the bank to accept it.

As long as there are people buying/selling BTC, it's legit and worth in the market. I don't think banks will ever accept it though.

I don't understand why we are trying to get BTC legalized and accepted by banks, the sole purpose of developing BTC was to kill the central payment system and take away the control from banks.

[carlisle1]

Nigerian money is not a legitimate money to me. Here I said this, does that make nigerian money worthless? Does it make it zero? It doesn't, whatever I say about nigerian money (no idea what it is called) doesn't change the fact that a whole nation uses it and will keep on using it and me saying it is worthless will not make anything, if I call it illegitimate that doesn't change anything for them.

It is called Nigerian Naira and I know the sentiment on your comment because even I was upset when I read the article and news. But from the government's point of view, what they wanted to say was that they don't recognize Bitcoins as a legal means of payment and currency, which is being understood as if Nigerian government has voiced against Bitcoin. I don't like their decision either but a lot of countries have banned the use of crypto and their the one in power, they can take decisions for their country.

Countries are reluctant against legalizing of cryptocurrencies because of the illegal means that come along with the legalization and no one can deny that the use of bitcoins, although unfortunate, is dominant in the black market and is easily used for illegal purchases.

Lots of illegal doers always finding ways to deal with their illegal transactions, which means crypto is not exempted,
but there's no excuses with how Nigerian government foreseen this industry.

If they think that this system is not acceptable as payment means then it's their predicament and that's part of their rights.
They are seeing it from the understanding that they've known about this entity.

We can't deny the fact that there are alike mindsets all around the world, just need to accept what other's opinions or what they've think about this system.

[wxa7115]

It doesn't look smart to badmouth and ban bitcoin to save a priceless national currency. At this point venezuelan dictatorship is smarter than nigerian rulers, as it seems the government is turning a blind eye to bitcoin usage there. That is because they know bitcoin adoption helps citizens to not fall totally on poverty, so they are able to keep the economy working somehow and generating taxes for the government.
In Nigeria the authorities could do the same. Let people use bitcoin as they want and the government will be benefited in the end with people buying more and consequently paying more taxes.

I can guarantee you they think the opposite, they think they are being smart because they think with this they are protecting their economy and their fiat currency, but what they do not understand is that if they wanted to protect their currency then they should have taken better decisions and should have avoided to abuse their position to enrich themselves.

But we know that is not going to happen and people know it so despite their prohibitions people are going to keep dealing with cryptocurrencies because they know what they are up to and people are not going to go against their self-interests just to abide to their wishes.

[qwertyup23]

As usual, too many people are just missing the point out there. It is only for the community to decide if Bitcoin is legitimate.

I highly agree.

Banking institutions will always defend their system as being a third-party consensus in which people would store cash due to a fiduciary relationship being formed. Cryptocurrencies eliminate for the need of such third-party and the banking institutions see this as a threat to the business.

While we are still at it, I speculate that cryptocurrencies would be one of the main currencies used in the future. The blockchain technology, also, will remain as the future generation of transactions in which the people are the ones who decided which are legitimate or not.

[Hamphser]

As usual, too many people are just missing the point out there. It is only for the community to decide if Bitcoin is legitimate.

I highly agree.

Banking institutions will always defend their system as being a third-party consensus in which people would store cash due to a fiduciary relationship being formed. Cryptocurrencies eliminate for the need of such third-party and the banking institutions see this as a threat to the business.

While we are still at it, I speculate that cryptocurrencies would be one of the main currencies used in the future. The blockchain technology, also, will remain as the future generation of transactions in which the people are the ones who decided which are legitimate or not.

You would really be expecting these kind of calls from those government and other traditional big investors about crypto.They do simply hate something which is decentralized
and anonymous.

There's no way that they can easily accept crypto specially those banksters which its no surprising that they will really be giving out negative input with it
and trying to show off some false sentiments for people to believe on.

It is true that only the community will be the one to decide whether its legit or not.

[Snappycoco]

Do we still have to talk about legitimacy when it is clearly shown in data's. I doubt these governor wasn't aware of this new technology as well as its advantage.

[Rruchi man]

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, has defended the apex bank’s decision to ban banks from servicing cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. Appearing before a joint Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions; ICT and Cybercrime; and Capital Market, Emefiele remarked that the CBN ban was in the best interest of Nigerians.

According to a report by media outlet Punch, while addressing the Senate committee, Emefiele remarked: “Cryptocurrency is not legitimate money. Cryptocurrency has no place in our monetary system at this time and cryptocurrency transactions should not be carried out through the Nigerian banking system.”
The CBN governor also reiterated that despite the ban, the central bank was doing its due diligence to better under the emerging digital asset space.

The CBN governor also reiterated that despite the ban, the central bank was doing its due diligence to better under the emerging digital asset space.

Nigeria SEC in support of cryptocurrencies while CBN not in support, p2p has been the best though, no bank charges and no conversion charges. 

The Central bank of that country Nigeria is an extension of the federal government. And from the comments online that we have both read and heard from most officials occupying top government positions in that country, it is obvious that many of them are underinformed, misinformed or still holding on to old knowledge amd refusing to regard change

[Ozero]

Bankers and their management may have their own opinions about cryptocurrencies. As a rule, this opinion is negative, since the cryptocurrency is a direct competitor to the banking system.
I am most interested in the position of the legislators of this country and what regulations are adopted in Nigeria in relation to cryptocurrency.

[wxa7115]

As usual, too many people are just missing the point out there. It is only for the community to decide if Bitcoin is legitimate.

I highly agree.

Banking institutions will always defend their system as being a third-party consensus in which people would store cash due to a fiduciary relationship being formed. Cryptocurrencies eliminate for the need of such third-party and the banking institutions see this as a threat to the business.

While we are still at it, I speculate that cryptocurrencies would be one of the main currencies used in the future. The blockchain technology, also, will remain as the future generation of transactions in which the people are the ones who decided which are legitimate or not.

The issue is those institutions have a top to down vision of issues when most of the time things are resolved from the bottom to top, they think that since they have a lot of power they get to define what is a legitimate currency and that is not true.

Historically we know that a currency wins or losses by the usage that people give to the assets that are competing to become the dominant currency, bitcoin is better than fiat and over the long term the best currency has the tendency to win, they are trying to alter the natural flow of things with their decrees but it is not going to work as this does not change the underlying reality, and as long as that is the case and bitcoin is better than their fiat then they should prepare themselves because people are not going to stop using bitcoin at all despite whatever they say or do.

[milewilda]

Bankers and their management may have their own opinions about cryptocurrencies. As a rule, this opinion is negative, since the cryptocurrency is a direct competitor to the banking system.
I am most interested in the position of the legislators of this country and what regulations are adopted in Nigeria in relation to cryptocurrency.

They are on the positive side of things in spite of having those negative views and sentiments on some sectors.

They are global leader on BItcoin trade:https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56169917 but there are some confusions due to crackdown https://www.dw.com/en/nigerias-cryptocurrency-crackdown-causes-confusion/a-56547374 . You would really able to tell that there is still some uncertainty when it comes to full adoption.

[AndySt]

I absolutely do not support such restrictive measures against cryptocurrencies, but I perfectly understand the logic of such actions. It turns out that the Nigerian government sensibly assesses the possibilities of its national fiat currency and therefore are not going to arrange any competition between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies. Let's be frank that the banking sector is not quite adapted for this and for many authorities there is a temptation to go the simplest way of prohibitions, rather than to find ways of interaction. Therefore, I am sure that these are all temporary phenomena and in the future, cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies will calmly get along in the same Nigeria.

[nicecrypto]

Isn't it a bit premature for the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, to issue such statements when the central bank is still on the process of doing due diligence?

Or is everything merely temporary pending the final result of their study? After all, the governor is clear that all this is for the time being only. So the ban is just some sort of a prevention mechanism since the central bank is still trying to understand the emerging technology. Once everything has been thoroughly discussed and understood, the ban would either be lifted or continued to be implemented.

I can only hope that part of their objective due diligence process is to invite crypto experts as well as other crypto stakeholders so that they would come up with a comprehensive understanding of cryptocurrency.

As if the Nigerian Government has ever done or ever have the good intention for doing any thing good that while positively affects the citizens. I strongly believe that even the due diligence that they said would be done in understanding what and how the technology works is just a scam and they will never have any good intention to OK any thing that the citizens will benefit from. 

[Sithara007]

As if the Nigerian Government has ever done or ever have the good intention for doing any thing good that while positively affects the citizens. I strongly believe that even the due diligence that they said would be done in understanding what and how the technology works is just a scam and they will never have any good intention to OK any thing that the citizens will benefit from. 

Given the corruption and nepotism that is prevalent in the third world nations such as Nigeria, why are you even surprised? All they care about is how to increase the tax revenue. They don't really bother whether the citizens are benefitting from it or not. I am from India and here also the government's approach towards cryptocurrency is the same. They are worried that they can't tax cryptocurrency transactions.

[Kittygalore]

I absolutely do not support such restrictive measures against cryptocurrencies, but I perfectly understand the logic of such actions. It turns out that the Nigerian government sensibly assesses the possibilities of its national fiat currency and therefore are not going to arrange any competition between fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies. Let's be frank that the banking sector is not quite adapted for this and for many authorities there is a temptation to go the simplest way of prohibitions, rather than to find ways of interaction. Therefore, I am sure that these are all temporary phenomena and in the future, cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies will calmly get along in the same Nigeria.

That is what government does best after all, prohibit what makes their people happy and content. If they aren't quite adapted as you have said then shouldn't they take the initiative to do so because this is a new technology and with Nigeria in the second place for crypto traffic, I don't think that a reason like that is going to fly. Hopefully, you are right that this is a temporary stint in the cryptocurrency history in Nigeria because I feel bad that their government is going to get their people left out.

[geegaw]

Bankers and their management may have their own opinions about cryptocurrencies. As a rule, this opinion is negative, since the cryptocurrency is a direct competitor to the banking system.
I am most interested in the position of the legislators of this country and what regulations are adopted in Nigeria in relation to cryptocurrency.

I don't think their opinion is negative because most countries in the world don't accept crypto, although this situation has improved over the years as crypto offers value and economy for users and countries but apart from these positive benefits, fraud and illegal issues also revolve around crypto a lot, and the key to this story is deadlocked when the security of crypto is too great. If crypto is considered as legal currency, this situation will be more serious, governments of countries are never negative, they just want to protect their people

[bryant.coleman]

Sure they indeed have their own interest of preserving their own economy though if they truly want to get into competition they maybe need to create their own version of CBDC however it's still kinda "negative" when the bank bans people's account right off the bat after using proven to be involved in crypto activities but not doing any criminality, they should be more chill about crypto while finding some solution that could give them benefits and the user of crypto aswell.

Legally they have the power to close down bank accounts of people who go against their T&C. So in this case we can't do anything about it. The only real option is to go for non-bank options, such as physical cash or digital gift vouchers as long as the banking ban is in place. Hopefully the Nigerian Supreme Court will reject the banking ban, just like what happened in India (the supreme court of India removed the banking ban on Bitcoin in 2020).