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Following the Central Bank of Nigeria directive to banks and other financial institutions on Friday ordering the closure of all accounts operating cryptocurrency exchanges, some experts in cryptocurrency trading have raised the alarm over its economic impact.
The Blockchain Solutions Architect, Sterling Bank, Mr Charles OkaforMbah, in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, noted that crypto trading is divided into formal and informal exchanges.
There are the formal exchanges, like Binance, which is the most popular; and Patricia. We have some other players, like BuyCoins and Bundle Africa. If we put (together) the figures from these traders, we could be seeing a huge amount on a weekly basis.
There are informal markets too. We call them over-the-counter traders. This is where the peer-to-peer traders are and most of these people make use of private chatrooms such as WhatsApp, and Telegram or any other favourable platform. The volumes there are not calculated yet, so if you add those volumes that people are doing in trading rooms, then the figures tend to go up as well.
With such a policy, it is killing a lot of businesses by pushing them out. If the government is trying to stop people from trading crypto by blocking the accounts of these exchanges that people are paying money to and then withdrawing their money from those accounts, it is cutting off a lot of players from participating in the crypto space.”
OkaforMbah, while speaking on job creation occasioned by crypto trading, said, “My mum is going on 65 years old and she trades in crypto, so it is not just the youth that would be affected. It is also affecting the older generation.”
He noted that crypto exchanges employed blockchain developers – some of the highest paid programmers saying – “As of 2020, blockchain developers are highly sought after around the world.”
Blockchain is a type of diary or spreadsheet containing information about transactions, while blockchain developers enable secure digital transactions by creating systems to record and store blockchain data in a way that prevents changes or hacks.
OkaforMbah explained that local exchanges also employed smart contract staff, marketers and customer service staff, and rented office spaces. He added that, though the CBN policy created a ripple effect, he was optimistic that trading would bounce back.
The crypto expert said, “Most users are now getting emails from exchanges that withdrawals and deposits are no longer happening. But definitely, there will be a way out but it will take some time for people to adapt and that is where the P2P trading comes in. That is how crypto trading started
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