Browsing: africa cryptocurrency

While others are still skeptical around the world, crypto currency is not only taking root in Africa but is now starting to bear fruit. The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced it launching its own national digital currency, the eNaira.

This announcement makes Nigeria the first African country to have a central bank-backed digital currency.

Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele says the currency will serve to accelerate financial inclusion in the country of over 213 million people. A lot of African countries are taking only baby steps towards allowing the use of cryptocurrencies and may are warning their public to be wary.

However, Nigeria is proving why it is Africa’s biggest economy with its Central Bank envisioning the crypto option will accelerate financial inclusion and even allow for cheaper and faster remittances.

“This digital money, the cryptocurrency, will allow us to have easier targeted social interventions, as well as help …

Just months after the Nigerian government banned regulated financial institutions in the country from providing cryptocurrency-related services, a school in the West-African country is set to start accepting cryptocurrency as a means of school fees payment.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in February issued the ban through an announcement that was made via a circular.

However, New Oxford Science Academy, a private secondary school in Kano State, Nigeria, has announced its intentions to start using the cryptocurrency-related services again.

Reports indicate that the Proprietor of the school, Sabi’u Musa Haruna, will allow students to pay their tuition fees in cryptocurrency.

Speaking to journalists in Kano on Saturday, the proprietor stated that the school management took the decision after consulting parents and guardians.

Also Read: ECOWAS unveils new roadmap for single currency launch

He also took the opportunity to urge the Nigerian government to embrace and regulate cryptocurrency, four months …

In February, Nigeria dominated most tech news outlets following the ban on the trading of cryptocurrencies which triggered anger among Nigerians seeing cryptos as a safe haven in the populous economy.

The West African nation is the world’s second-largest Bitcoin market after the United States and despite this, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is cracking down on the trade of cryptocurrencies. 

Cryptocurrency technology is decentralized and no government, company, or person controls it.

Read: Is Bitcoin poor Africans’ alternative reserve currency?

In the crackdown directive on February 5, CBN ordered commercial banks and other financial institutions to close accounts transacting with cryptocurrency exchanges.  A week later, Bitcoin’s value doubled. 

While the CBN has not clearly stated its reasons for the crackdown, the reality on the ground is that Africa’s giant economy is facing dollar shortages following the sharp decline in …