Chidi Samuel
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday warned Nigerians to distance themselves from the use of virtual currencies- bitcoin, ripples and litecoin. The warning was contained in a statement where the Apex bank explained that virtual currencies are largely used in terrorism financing and money laundering given the anonymity of virtual transactions.
According to the statement, “The attention of bank and other financial institutions is hereby drawn to the above risks and you are required to take the following actions actions pending substantive regulation or decision by the CBN,” the statement read.
“Ensure that you do not use, hold, trade and/or transact in any way in virtual currencies. Ensure that existing customers that are virtual currency exchangers have effective capital AML/CFT controls that enable them to comply with customer identification, verification and transfer, monitoring requirements.
“Where banks or other financial institutions are not satisfied with the controls put in place by the virtual currency exchanger/customers, the relationship should be discontinued immediately.
“Any suspicious transactions by these customers should immediately be reported to the Nigerian Finance Intellignece Unit (NFIU).”
The apex bank said anyone trading in bitcoin is doing so at his or her own risk.
“The CBN reiterates that VCs such as bitcoin, ripples, monero, litecoin, dogecion, onecoin, etc., and similar products are not legal tenders in Nigeria.
“Thus, any bank or institution that transacts in such businesses does so at its own risk.” the statement concluded.
Bitcoin is a form of digital currency, created and held electronically. No one controls it. Bitcoins aren’t printed, like dollars or euros – they’re produced by people, and increasingly businesses, running computers all around the world, using software that solves mathematical problems.
The Nigerian ponzi scheme MMM while announcing resumption of operations on the 13th of January 2017 promised to pay participants with bitcoins, an idea that did not go down well with millions of its participants.