Digital assetDigital asset – The Executive Commissioner, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr. Dayo Obisan hints that Nigeria is at the forefront of countries regulating digital assets in the continent.

Mr. Dayo made this remark during a webinar on economic outlook tagged “Resetting Nigeria’s economic growth trajectory.”

In his note, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is working to regulate the digital space as well as make it viable for operations while it protects investors.

In his words;

“The reality is that fintechs are here. Months ago, we still released additional rules on crypto/digital asset. Nigeria is leading Africa in terms of making the rules and regulations in the digital asset space.

Worldwide, we are one of those acknowledged to be looking keenly into that space. Recently, the US has just released its own rule for digital assets and this is something we are trying to catch up on, so we can regulate that space as well as make it viable for the operator and project investors that are going there.”

According to Dayo, the SEC is concerned in the digital space when crypto is used as an investment.

“The regulatory space is evolving. Even after we came up with our classification of digital assets. You know there’s this fungibility in the use of the language, digital asset, and cryptocurrency, so it depends on the usage.

When anything is fiat – fiat is money, we use it as a means of exchange that is an exclusive precedence from the Central Bank of Nigeria. But when it is used as an investment tool, then it falls squarely on our lap.”

On how the SEC has been creating a thriving environment for fintechs, he said;

“It was really on the news in December, 2020 and January, 2021 when one of the fintechs that was marketing capital market instrument took the operator to the IST, investment and security tribunal, the business was stopped from doing that.

What we have now done in advance, is to create an avenue such that, if you want to operate, you operate within these rooms.”

Key points to note

• The Securities and Exchange Commission recently released new rules for Digital assets as part of its effort to regulate the digital assets such as Bitcoin and NFTs.
• This rule applies to all platforms that support the trading, exchange, as well as transfer virtual assets, which include international and residential issuers and sponsors and any operator that targets to tap into the Nigerian investors at large,