Ebuka Joseph, a famous art dealer from Nigeria, started putting in money into cryptocurrencies when pandemic was on its peak in 2019. Now he is finding it difficult to get out of it and instead wants to be part of it till the end.
Joseph commented that he feels free when he uses crypto for sending or receiving funds. The transaction takes less than a millisecond to mutualize so why not he should be interested in them.
In Africa, two countries are on top when it comes to crypto usage. One is South Africa and the other is Nigeria. However, there were ups and downs in Nigeria with regard to cryptocurrencies until Central Bank of Nigeria came up with an idea.
The idea was to develop a national digital currency i.e. e-naira. As per the latest news on the e-naira project, it is expected that the launch of e-naira is due after a few days. The launch of e-naira was earlier postponed because of a litigation dispute.
Now the dispute has been settled amicably as per the instructions of the Court. The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria was therefore pleased to announce soon arrival of e-naira.
It was because of this e-naira project that crypto garnered huge interest amongst Nigerians. However, there was a time when crypto trading as well as associated activities was banned in Nigeria.
Even the financial institutions were forced not to give any kind of support or assistance to crypto customers and crypto companies. While complying with the instructions of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the banks froze accounts whose beneficiaries were involved in crypto.
But with the passage of time, the strict viewpoint of Central Bank of Nigeria towards crypto was softened. Particularly when, the central bank itself initiated the project in which the bank wanted to design national digital currency.
Now once again Nigerian investors are taking too much interest in crypto investment. They want to ensure safety of their wealth because the local currency is losing value on fast pace basis. In addition, it is quite difficult for a person to acquire US Dollars if the person is residing in Nigeria.
Currently there are two major uses of cryptocurrencies in Nigeria. One major use is the crypto trading and related activities including the process of crypto mining.
Second use case of crypto in Nigeria is for receiving remittances coming in from abroad. Since a very good number of Nigerians are living abroad, therefore, they usually send money to their loved ones in Nigeria.
In an effort to save remittance fee, Nigerians living abroad use crypto remittances. By doing so they are not only able to send money in less than a second but also they are able to save extra charges against remittances.
It wouldn’t therefore be wrong to suggest that crypto is continuously thriving in Nigeria.
