Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has faulted Nigerian government for prohibiting dealings and transactions in cryptocurrency in the country.
In a statement on Saturday, Atiku also called on government to revisit the ban and rather, “regulate the sub-sector and prevent any abuse that may be damaging to national security.”
According to him, regulating the sector would be a better option, than an outright shutdown.
Atiku argued that Nigeria, now more than ever, needed jobs and openings for the economy in view of the report of the National Bureau of Statistics, which “indicated that foreign capital inflow into Nigeria is at a four year low, having plummeted from $23.9 billion in 2019 to just $9.68 billion in 2020.”
Read the statement below:
The number one challenge facing Nigeria is youth unemployment. In fact, it is not a challenge, it is an emergency. It affects our economy and is exacerbating insecurity in the nation.
What Nigeria needs now, perhaps more than ever, are jobs and an opening up of our economy, especially after yesterday’s report by the National Bureau of Statistics indicated that foreign capital inflow into Nigeria is at a four year low, having plummeted from $23.9 billion in 2019 to just $9.68 billion in 2020.
Already, the nation suffered severe economic losses from the border closure and the effects of the #COVID19 pandemic.
This is definitely the wrong time to introduce policies that will restrict the inflow of capital into Nigeria, and I urge that the policy to prohibit the dealing and transaction of cryptocurrencies be revisited.
It is possible to regulate the sub-sector and prevent any abuse that may be damaging to national security. That may be a better option, than an outright shutdown.
There is already immense economic pressure on our youths. It must be the job of the government, therefore, to reduce that pressure, rather than adding to it.
We must create jobs in Nigeria. We must expand the economy. We must remove every impediment towards investments. We owe the Nigerian people that much.
