Nigeria

Nigeria ordered telecommunications companies and other internet service providers in the West African nation to block access to cryptocurrency trading platforms, a presidential spokesman confirmed, Bloomberg News reported. The directive affects websites including those operated by Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, which are popular in Africa’s most populous nation where Nigerians use crypto as a hedge against frequent devaluation of the naira. In a statement to Bloomberg News, Binance confirmed that some users in Nigeria were experiencing issues accessing its website.

Like a lot of explosive financial scandals, the story of Michael Quinn and Brendan Cahill could fairly be described as a simple proposition that spun completely out of control, the New York Times reported. Quinn was an Irish oil-and-gas man with warm eyes and a mustache; Cahill was his longtime partner, an accountant by training. The two had been working in Nigeria since the 1970s, doing small-time deals in the energy and defense sectors, like fixing tanks and siting oil wells. But in the mid-2000s, they spied a bigger opportunity.

Nigeria's central bank aims for inflation to fall to about 21% and will work to strengthen the country's undervalued naira currency, Governor Olayemi Cardoso said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Cardoso faces pressure to raise interest rates when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) holds a rate-setting meeting next month for the first time since he took office in September. Inflation in December hit 28.92%, its highest level in more than 27 years.

Nigeria’s central bank has released inaugural guidelines for banks opening cryptocurrency accounts, while retaining its ban on them holding or trading in virtual assets on their own behalf, Bloomberg News reported. The rules, published on the central bank’s website on Tuesday, flesh out the regulator’s decision last month to lift its prohibition on banks operating accounts for crypto service providers. “Current trends globally have shown that there is need to regulate the activities of virtual assets service providers which include cryptocurrencies and cryptoassets,” it said.

Nigeria's central bank has lifted a ban on transacting in cryptocurrencies, while saying global trends had shown a need to regulate such activities, the bank said in its latest circular, Reuters reported. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Feb. 2021 barred banks and financial institutions from dealing in or facilitating transactions in crypto assets, citing money laundering and terrorism financing risks.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday filed charges against Nigerian businessman Dozy Mmobuosi and three companies of which he is CEO, alleging they inflated the financial performance of the companies and key subsidiaries to defraud investors, Reuters reported. The SEC said in a statement that it filed charges in U.S. District Court in New York against Mmobuosi, who made headlines this year following a bid to buy an English premier league team.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu met top officials of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to negotiate a "multi-billion dollar infrastructure finance facility" to help build ports and power plants, his spokesperson said on Tuesday. Tinubu held talks with IsDB vice president Mansur Muhtar late on Monday in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement. He didn't provide further details of the finance package sought by the Nigerian government.

When Olayemi Cardoso takes full control of Nigeria‘s central bank this week, his biggest challenges will be to restore its credibility after eight years of mismanagement, boost confidence in Africa’s worst-performing currency and slow an inflation rate that’s among the highest on the continent, Bloomberg News reported. Since taking office in May, President Bola Tinubu has instituted a raft of new policies — scrapping a $10 billion annual fuel subsidy and liberalizing the foreign-exchange market. The reforms were much-needed, but crippled an economy long on its knees.

Cryptocurrency usage is growing in Nigeria as Africa's largest economy grapples with a weakening currency and soaring inflation, New York-based blockchain research firm Chainalysis said in a report on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Nigeria's volume of crypto transactions grew 9% year-over-year to $56.7 billion between July 2022 and June 2023. In Uganda, crypto use is smaller but growing fast, rising 245% to $1.6 billion in the same period, while its use in Kenya fell more than a half to $8.4 billion, the report said.

Nigeria's suspended central bank governor Godwin Emefiele will appear in a high court in Abuja on Thursday, when he is expected to enter a plea in a 20-count indictment, a government lawyer said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Government lawyers, on Tuesday, said they had filed additional graft charges against the governor, including allegedly "conferring unlawful advantages" and "unlawful procurement".