By Adedapo Adesanya
Crypto exchange firm, Yellow Card Financial Incorporated, has disclosed that it would apply for a license in Nigeria after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) lifted a two-year ban on cryptocurrency trading.
According to Mr Ogochukwu Umeokafor, the director of product management at Yellow Card, “You’ve waited for something and it has come true and we’ll jump on it immediately.”
“We want a regulated environment because it’ll help the business move; it will help people have more confidence in doing business with us,” according to Bloomberg.
Yellow Card operates in Nigeria and at least 15 other countries on the continent and had previously initiated discussions with Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to operate a crypto exchange after the agency invited applications for licenses for issuers and custodians of digital assets and exchanges.
However, it needed a bank account to apply for a Virtual Asset Service Provider license which was not possible before now.
According to the circular on Friday, the lender has directed banks to open accounts for crypto firms, a development that reverses a ban the central bank introduced in 2021 by the governorship of Mr Godwin Emefiele under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.
In February 2021, the central bank ordered deposit-taking financial institutions to immediately close accounts transacting in or operating cryptocurrency exchanges.
The apex bank asked all Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Other Financial Institutions (OFIs) and Non-Banks Financial Institutions (NBFIs) to with immediate effect shut down the accounts operated by entities which facilitate the trading of digital currencies.
The policy affected a lot of cryptocurrency trading companies in the country popular among them are Luno, Quidax, Binance, NairaEx, as well as some others. As a result, most of these businesses had to remodel their offerings.
Despite the ban, Nigerians continued to trade cryptocurrency with the latest data showing that despite an active restriction on trading cryptocurrencies, the country saw a substantial 47 per cent engagement rate in 2023, which signifies a pervasive enthusiasm, potentially fueled by factors such as increased financial inclusion, economic uncertainty, and a rising interest in decentralized finance.
Citizens of the country found safety in the currency amid worries about the foreign exchange rate.
