Nabilah Safira
TechInAfrica – Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has set up a committee to work on the framework for blockchain and virtual financial assets for the Nigerian capital market. The blockchain revolution and virtual financial assets are coming to the country, and one team has decided to welcome these new waves of changes. The Fintech Roadmap Working Group, as it’s called as a committee, is tasked with developing a mechanism that will support innovation and regulation within the blockchain and virtual assets space.
The committee will be headed by experienced financial experts, Ade Bajomo to make sure the resolutions made by the committee are aligned with the best global practices. The regulatory itself will contain the aspect of effective investor protection, financial market integrity, and financial stability as the main focus, while the currently processed framework will be used as a stepping stone in achieving those three points. Regulatory of taxation and cryptocurrency’s classification will also be reviewed for its regulatory in global practice, and afterward, a best-suited model for the country’s market will be regulated.
The committee is consisting of officials from the regulatory agencies, tech experts, and stakeholders in the private sector and has until the last day of November to generate a practical plan of regulating both blockchain and virtual assets in terms of introducing their presence to Nigerian capital market’s audience. After the committee has finished its part, the SEC will continue the effort to work with other regulatory agencies to producing clear and specific licensing regimes for different fintech businesses in Nigeria. The latest move by SEC can be considered as a trigger to financial inclusion growth in Nigeria and the protection of the investors’ fund with the best practices.
As Nigeria is embracing the idea and benefits of the blockchain and virtual financial assets, it also shows how extensive the fintech market potential are, with 36 million Nigerians are yet to have their bank accounts. By 2020, CBN hopes to trim the number to at least a 20% threshold, and thus, the development of these blockchain and virtual financial assets regulation may have these conditions in mind.
Source: Weetracker.com
