Nigeria

Nigeria’s top finance regulator plans to license providers of virtual assets including cryptocurrencies to tap opportunities and protect investors as adoption rates surge in the West African nation, Bloomberg News reported. The Abuja-based Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to issue its first licenses for digital service and tokenized assets this month, Director-General Emomotimi Agama said. “Being a crypto enthusiast and fintech enthusiast, I can tell you without doubt that this is going to happen sooner than you think,” Agama said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

Nigeria’s annual inflation quickened for an 18th straight month, raising the prospect of another interest-rate increase when the central bank meets next week, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 34.2% in June from 34% a month earlier, according to data published on the website of the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday. The median estimate of eight economists in a Bloomberg survey was 34%. The main drivers of the acceleration were higher rental, transport and grain costs.

A Nigerian court has adjourned a tax evasion case against Binance to next month for possible arraignment of the cryptocurrency exchange and two of its executives after a trial stalled on Wednesday, the judge said, Reuters reported. The matter stalled because authorities failed to bring Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and Binance head of financial crime compliance, to court. No reason was given for Gambaryan's absence in court. On Friday, an Abuja court ruled that Gambaryan could stand trial in the tax evasion case on behalf of Binance.

A Nigerian court on Friday ruled that Binance executive Tigran Gambaryan can stand trial on behalf of the cryptocurrency exchange in an ongoing tax evasion case, Reuters reported. Binance and executives Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and head of financial crimes compliance, and British-Kenyan national Nadeem Anjarwalla, a regional manager for Africa, face four counts of tax evasion. In a separate case, they have also been charged with laundering more than $35 million and engaging in specialised financial activities without a licence.

A Nigerian court on Thursday adjourned a money laundering trial against cryptocurrency exchange Binance and two of its executives to May 17 after a lawyer for the exchange said he had not been served with documents needed to prepare for the case, Reuters reported. Binance and its executives Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and head of financial crime compliance, and British-Kenyan Nadeem Anjarwalla, a regional manager for Africa, have been charged with laundering more than $35 million and engaging in specialised financial activities without a licence. They have all pleaded not guilty.

Nigeria’s central bank curbed the ability of banks to grant loans as it seeks to reduce market liquidity and help reduce an inflation rate that rose to a 28-year high in March, Bloomberg News reported. The Abuja-based Central Bank of Nigeria cut the bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio by 15 percentage points to 50% “to align with the current monetary tightening,” it said in a circular to lenders on Wednesday. The new limit is in line with the banks’ required cash reserve ratio, it added.

Nigeria is burning through foreign-exchange reserves at a rate not seen in four years, raising concerns that the central bank is depleting its dollar holdings to support the naira after pledging it would allow the currency to float more freely, Bloomberg News reported. Liquid reserves declined 5.6% since March 18, when the naira started its rebound from record-low levels against the dollar, to $31.7 billion as of April 12, according to Bloomberg’s calculations based on the latest available data from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Nigerian authorities asked in court Thursday for cryptocurrency exchange Binance and two of its executives to be tried for alleged money laundering and tax evasion, the first legal step following weeks of a criminal investigation into the trading platform, the Associated Press reported. Only Tigran Gambaryan, an American citizen and Binance’s head of financial crime compliance, attended the court hearing as Nadeem Anjarwalla, the company’s regional manager remains at large after fleeing custody in late March.

Nigerian authorities have asked an Abuja court to extend the detention of two Binance executives caught up in the country's cryptocurrency crackdown after an initial warrant used to hold them lapsed this week, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Tigran Gambaryan, a U.S. citizen and Binance's head of financial crime compliance, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan who is Binance's regional manager for Africa, flew to Nigeria following the country's decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites, but they were detained on arrival on Feb. 26.

Nigeria’s central bank, in its first policy meeting since July, announced a supersized increase in interest rates to tackle runaway inflation and stem the collapse in the country’s currency, Bloomberg News reported. Governor Olayemi Cardoso and his other 11 monetary policy committee colleagues on Tuesday raised the benchmark rate by 400 basis points to 22.75%. That exceeded the 21.25% median estimate of 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.