Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has recommended that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) creates more policies to accommodate the advent of web 3 in the industry.
Osinbajo stated this at the 3rd edition of the Nigeria digital economy summit (NDES) held in Abuja on Monday.
The Vice President who spoke on the topic ‘web 3.0, blockchain and DeFi: impact of Africa’s digital economy, acknowledged the need for the adoption of Blockchain Technology, especially by Central Banks.
According to him, the previous banking licenses available in the country do not adequately cover such innovations.
By modifying the policies, more players will be allowed to participate in the sector, Osinbajo said.
“In the past, there was only one type of banking license that cost N25 billion in the past few years. These are excellent policy changes that took place with a lot of pressure from young men and women in the tech and entertainment space,” he added.
“The CBN has modified and there are different types of banking licenses which is why we have fintechs, the unicorns because they are using different cadres of CBN licensee that do not require N25 billion share capital.
“So, for example, Kuda and several others have a different type of licensee. Flutterwave and Paystack are in some form of banking or other.
“With the new iteration, with web 3, we have to rethink and create other types of licenses that are much cheaper so that more participants can come into that space.”
The Vice President also stated that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should be working towards adopting Blockchain Technology into its system, to avoid disruption to its system.
“From a policy perspective here in Nigeria, we may need to again expand the range of banking licenses available to enable more players in the financial mediation value chain,
“Even central banks all over the world will have to rethink their roles since blockchain will challenge the centralization of monetary authority with its clear imperfections.
“Who knows? We might be in the last days of the central banking system as we know it.
“It is either the central banking systems all over the world will adopt blockchain technology, or they will be taken over by blockchain technology.
“We are certainly, in my view, the last of the central banking system; which means the space is open for all sorts of innovation in the central banking space.”
Osinbajo further said that clear rules must be set to support crypto markets and trading in other digital assets.
He added that Nigeria has the potential to become a global leader in the digital technology landscape, given its human resource potential.
