THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that it was the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate cryptocurrency transactions in the country and not its responsibility.
Recall that an executive of Binance, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who was being prosecuted along with a colleague and the company escaped from detention and fled the country.
He has been declared wanted and a manhunt for him activated, with the Interpol alerted.
Speaking on the issue at the apex bank’s 294th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, said collaboration with SEC, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) in the last one month was already yielding positive results.
Speaking in response to a question on CBN’s update on the crypto exchange platform, which has come under the intense federal government clampdown since the last MPC meeting in February, when he said $26billion suspicious flows passed through the company last year alone, Cardoso stated: “We consider ourselves as having the wherewithal to collaborate with other agencies of government, and that is a very important function for us.
“About a month ago, we actually did have collaboration with law enforcement agencies, EFCC, SEC and other regulatory bodies, and what came out of that is a work in progress, but very positive as far as I can say.
“We’ve been sharing information with the NSA. However, in this particular case, the responsibility for regulating cryptocurrency is not our role. It isn’t ours; it is strictly that of the SEC, not our responsibility.”
