CBN warns financial institutions against doing business in Crypto

The Central Bank of Nigeria has notified financial institutions against doing business in Crypto and other digital assets.
The apex bank gave the directive to thr regulated financial firms via a circular dated 5th February 2021 and distributed to regulated financial firms, the apex bank of Africa’s largest economy
It warned and reminded local financial institutions not to have any transactions in crypto or facilitating payments for crypto exchanges.
In addition, the apex bank instructed the financial institutions to immediately close the accounts of such persons or entities transacting in or operating cryptocurrency exchanges.
The Apex bank further warned the Nigerian Financial Stakeholders that any breach of this directive will attract serious regulatory sanctions.
It’s worth saying that such a directive would have a negative hold on the international crypto community, taking into consideration Africa’s largest economy and home to over 200 million people, has the highest interest in Bitcoin globally.
According to a recent report released by Google, Nigeria emerged the first amongst other countries around the world in Bitcoin searches on Google. Nairametrics.