The Central Bank of Nigeria has reversed its stance on cryptocurrency, instructing banks to ignore its previous ban in light of a new circular released on December 22, 2023.
The circular with reference number FPR/DIR/RUB/CiR/002/003, is signed by the Central Bank's Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Haruna Mustafa.
The circular titled "Circular to all Banks and other Financial Institutions Guidelines on Operations of Bank Accounts for Virtual Assets Service Providers (VASPS)" stated that the current trends globally have shown the need for crypto regulation.
However, according to the circular Banks and regulated financial institutions still can not deal with crypto either as a store of value or traceable asset on its own. So any regulated fintech (e.g. with MFB authorization) that would have wanted to use this opportunity to infuse crypto into their treasury or operational processes, is effectively still prohibited from doing so by their regulator, the CBN.
Rather, the circular allows crypto-native fintech with an SEC authorization (e.g. Virtual Assets Service Provider (VASP), and Digital Asset Exchange (DAX) to power their fiat on-ramp and off-ramp solutions by partnering with Banks and eligible OFIs) to open designated accounts, etc. See the full CBN Circular on Crypto Guidelines for details.
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