The Nigeria Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has set up a committee to work on a framework that will see to the regulation of blockchain and virtual financial assets for the country’s capital market.
This is coming at a time that over 30 million Nigerians are still without bank accounts.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) hopes to reduce the population to about 20% by 2020.
The committee, “FinTech Roadmap Working Group”, consists of officials from the different sectors, including regulatory agencies, tech experts and private sector operators.
The committee, which is headed by Ade Bajomo, will develop a framework to facilitate innovations and regulation within the Blockchain and cryptocurrency space.
The committee’s mandates include ensuring financial market integrity, investor protection, and financial stability.
The FinTech Roadmap Working Group is mandated to compare global practices on regulatory taxonomisation and definition of cryptocurrencies, whether they are a commodity, securities, or as a currency.
The Nigeria Stock Exchange Commission (SEC) will draw the lines to regulate the financial technology industry in Nigeria based on the framework reported by the committee.
The committee will recommend a suitable model for the adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in the Nigerian Capital Market, through which the country’s SEC will draw its lines to regulate the industry.
The committee is expected to submit its report by November 2019.
The SEC had already noted that it would join forces with other regulatory agencies to introduce licensing regimes for several FinTech businesses in Nigeria, which opportunities are significantly huge.
