Nigeria Approves National Blockchain Policy After Decommissioning of Digital Assets

The Federal Government of Nigeria has approved a national blockchain technology policy to promote digitization.

The approval of the policy came on May 3 at the Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja, where the Minister of Federal Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Pantami, presented the policy to the President. Pantami disclosed that the policy was the result of painstaking consultative work involving over 56 institutions in the country.

According to the policy document, Nigeria will promote the secure use of blockchain to streamline government processes in several sectors, including finance, health, education and security. Pantami added that the interest shown by the governments of the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates sparked a sense of urgency for Nigerian authorities to begin their exploration.

“The vision of the policy is to create a blockchain-powered economy that supports secure transactions, data sharing and value exchange between people, businesses and governments, thereby increasing innovation, trust, growth and prosperity for all,” a government statement said. statement.

Pantami justified the move as one that has the potential to create a host of jobs while improving public services through decentralization. The minister cited a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) which predicted that blockchain has the potential to add $1.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

The task of implementing the blockchain policy rests with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) under the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy. Pantami confirmed the creation of a steering committee to navigate the peculiarities of enforcing the new policy.

The country’s central bank, securities regulator, the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have been ordered to establish regulations to aid blockchain adoption in their various sectors.

A rocky start with blockchain

Nigeria’s first brush with blockchain left a bitter taste among enthusiasts when the central bank ordered banks and financial institutions to stop facilitating digital asset transactions for customers. Commercial banks began closing accounts of individuals engaged in digital currency trading, to the dismay of stakeholders.

Despite the initial skepticism of blockchain, the central bank turned to the offering of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) which it launched in 2021. Currently, Nigeria is ranked 11th in Chainalysis’ 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index, with millions of digital currency traders rely on international exchanges such as Binance and Crypto.com.

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