(Ecofin Agency) - Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission says it wants to regulate digital currency transactions. According to the commission, any person, natural or legal, whose activities involve any aspect of virtual digital asset services related to the blockchain must be registered by the Commission and as such will be subject to regulatory guidelines.

Digital asset products that existed before the implementation of the regulatory guidelines now have three months to comply with the new requirements. The country's authorities have in the past refused to accept digital currencies as legal tender as the Central Bank of Nigeria declared in 2018 that crypto money, such as Bitcoin and others, were not considered as money.

“Digital asset offerings provide alternative investment opportunities for the investing public; it is, therefore, essential to ensure that these offerings operate in a manner that is consistent with investor protection, the interest of the public, market integrity and transparency,” explains the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to a report published on July 15, 2020, by Arcane Research, a firm specializing in studies on cryptocurrencies, 11% of the research of Internet users in Nigeria concerns digital currency. Platforms such as Coin Market Cap reveal that 46% of the active young people there are from Nigeria.

Idriss Linge