As Nigerian players in the cryptocurrency industry look towards the full implementation of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s newly launched regulation for the cryptocurrency market in Nigeria, players in the space have been urged to accept the new legislation, in the interest of creating sanity in the system.
In an exclusive interview with Coin News Extra, Babatunde Obrimah, the Chief Operating Officer of Fintech Nigeria Limited, said that GIABA report on Nigeria was not good and Nigeria had until October 2022 to meet all the requirements to avoid being sanctioned and placed on the grey list. One of the challenges regulators had was lack of data and returns from operators. Information revealed that only the big players provided data and available data could have informed the decisions on capital requirement. It is therefore important to take the issue of returns to regulators seriously as it is not a discretionary requirement but a statutory requirement, and players must accept the benefits of the innovation in order to ensure transparency he stated.
He said the regulation’s aims would be met if members complied with it.
The Regulation
A digital asset, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, is a digital token that reflects assets such as a debt or equity claim on the issuer.
Digital asset actors are defined as digital asset offering platforms (DAOPs), digital asset custodians (DACs), virtual asset service providers (VASPs), and digital asset exchanges, according to the legislation (DAX).
The legislation stipulates that applicants wanting to establish a DAOP must pay a filing or application charge of N100,000, a processing fee of N300,000, a registration fee of N30 million, and a sponsored individual fee of N100,000.
The SEC’s new standards may offer the regulatory clarity that a digital asset or security requires.
