Local Nigerian newspaper published the fact that Babangida Ibrahim, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital Market and Institutions of Nigeria said that the country is set to pass legislation which will make the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies legal. The bill will modify the law of 2007 on Investments and Securities Act and would allow bitcoin to be considered legal capital to invest in.
In February 2021 Nigeria actually banned bitcoin use by enacting a law that prohibited regulated financial companies to “dealing” with cryptocurrencies. In the same year Bitcoin Magazine reported Nigeria soaring to the highest amount of bitcoin peer-to peer trading globally. Chain analyses indicated that Nigeria was a major contributor to the rapid growth of the adoption of bitcoin.
The newspaper reported on the way Ibrahim made the case for Nigeria having a long way to go in relation to regulation of the sector in his statement “As I stated earlier in this second debate, we must have an effective and active financial market within Nigeria. To achieve that we need to follow current with global standards.”
If the regulation is properly deals with the rising use of bitcoin in this country, then it can become an important catalyst for the African continent’s largest densely populated nation.
Bitcoin has been a major presence in Nigeria, despite the current ban which includes the creation of the Bitcoin village, Nigerian Bitcoiners taking part in various forms of development projects, charity work by Bitcoin firms and mining as an active sector in Nigeria.