The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it is the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate cryptocurrency transactions in the country, and not the responsibility of the apex bank.
CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso stated this during the apex bank’s 294th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Tuesday in Abuja when the MPC hiked interest rate by from 22.75% to 24.75%.
Cardoso, however, said collaboration with SEC, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Office of the National Security Adviser has been yielding positive outcomes in the last one month.
The apex bank chief was responding to a question on the apex bank’s update on crypto exchange platform Binance which has come under intense clampdown of the Federal Government since the last MPC meeting in February when the CBN governor said $26bn suspicious flows passed through Binance last year.
Cardoso, on Tuesday, said, “We consider ourselves as having the wherewithal to collaborate with other agencies of government and that is a very important function for us.
“About a month ago, we actually did have collaboration with law enforcement agencies, EFCC, the SEC and other regulatory bodies as well, and what came out of that, is a work in progress, but very positive as far as I can say.
“The NSA, we’ve been sharing information together. However, in this particular case, the responsibility for regulating cryptocurrency is not our role, it isn’t ours; it is strictly that of the Security and Exchange Commission, not our responsibility.”
Nigeria is battling rising inflation, food inflation, forex crisis, economic hardship and high cost of living occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy, attracting protests in parts of the country as the purchasing power of the naira and disposable income of common Nigerians shrink.
The Nigerian naira has seen a dip in the last nine months since the President Bola Tinubu administration collapsed the foreign exchange window. Prices of commodities have skyrocketed to as high as double as the naira experienced an all-time low, falling from about N700/$1 last May to about N2,000/$1 last month, before its gradual appreciation in March.
The authorities have since turned their focus to cryptocurrency platforms like Binance, accusing them of speculation.
Last month, the NSA office detained two Binance executives who were in the country to hold talks with the government. One of the suspects — Nadeem Anjarwalla — however escaped from lawful custody and the government has since launched a manhunt for him, contacting the Interpol.
The government immediately filed filed tax evasion charges against the platform, Anjarwalla and his ally Tigran Gambaryan.
The government had also approached the court to compel Binance to publish the names of its Nigerian traders but the platform won’t budge.
