Nigeria to regulate stablecoins and ICOs 

Nigeria highlights its plans for regulating stablecoins, initial coin offerings (ICOs), and the possibility of creating foreign direct investment through cryptocurrencies. 

The document titled “Nigeria’s payments system vision 2025” complements the country’s previous efforts to regulate the largest crypto market in Africa. 

In 2021, the country’s central bank prohibited local financial institutions from facilitating all crypto-related transactions. But the regulatory directive has not had any major effects on the fortunes of crypto in Nigeria. According to CoinGecko, by August 2022, Nigeria ranked the highest in the list of African countries with the most crypto interest and investments. 

In its recently unveiled document, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stated that it would be open to creating a regulatory framework for possible stablecoin deployments, as this type of coin is a viable payment mechanism. 

The document also detailed how to regulate initial coin offerings (ICOs) to attract foreign direct investments to the country.

The newly released document specifies the central bank and the Nigerian SEC (NSEC) as the two government bodies jointly responsible for regulating the crypto space. According to the document, the NSEC would need to offer a regulatory framework because the tokens would be a new asset class, while the central bank would play a role in the payment element.