CBN and Bitcoin Ban, after 6 Months
Patricia, the cryptocurrency startup, is getting stronger, and Nigeria’s ban on crypto since February has not changed the trajectory of the adoption of the new “currency”. In this piece, John Mc Keown posits that “skills need to be built for the growing generation to master the tools of the future, and the CBN ban has been a huge own goal in ensuring that Nigerian expertise is ahead of the game especially in giving the youth experience.”
Indeed, for a very long time, crypto is the only category I do know that Nigerian young people got in really early, at creative level, and could have picked a strong seat on the table of opportunities. But that has been punted, and that is not the major problem: cryptocurrency and bitcoin do not have many fans in Abuja and state capitals for many valid reasons.
The challenge is that Nigeria could have possibly thrown away the baby with the water, severely wounding interests on blockchain, a critical element of future commerce. Since the crypto ban, the signals on blockchain in agriculture, trade and some other areas have cooled.
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Indeed, Nigeria' apex bank needs to try harder to get ahead of this curve - and it needs to, fiercely.