~ Order Paper
The House of Representatives has mandated its Committees on Banking and Currency, Insurance and Actuarial Matters, Finance, Capital Market and Institutions, Science and Technology and Information Communication Technology to invite relevant agencies and departments of government to brief them on trading in cryptocurrency.
The agencies and departments named are: the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.
This is to allow the House draft appropriate legislation for the regulation of cryptocurrency in order to halt its negative effects in society.
The House also urged the Central Bank to engage technological experts and cryptocurrency enthusiasts to educate the National Assembly on the benefits of blockchain technology to enable it create an appropriate legislation.
The resolution was reached on the floor of the green chamber during plenary on Wednesday through a motion sponsored by Mr Solomon Adaelu (PDP, Abia).
Leading debate on the matter, Adaelu remarked that blockchain technology has the potential to eradicate poverty in many African countries.
He also submitted that blockchain could be digitalized and decentralized through ledger technology, to facilitate transactions without the need for a financial intermediary bank. Additionally, the technology can be a core payment facilitator for financial services industry.
The lawmaker further explained that world economic leaders at the G20 Finance Ministers Meeting had set July 2018 as the deadline for taking the first step towards a unified regulation of cryptocurrency.
He informed that the United States of America was ahead of other countries in providing a legal framework for the regulation of this emerging technology and countries like United Kingdom, Russia, Venezuela and Kenya are not far behind.
Furthermore, he said the recommendations adopted at the extraordinary meeting on blockchain technology by the US Congress required that policy makers and the public become more familiar with digital currency and other uses of blockchain technology, which has a wide range of applications in the future.
“Regulators should continue to coordinate among each other to guarantee coherent policy frameworks, definitions and jurisdictions such as government agencies at all levels should consider and examine new uses for this technology that could make government more efficient in performing its functions,” Adaelu suggested.
The motion was unanimously adopted when Speaker Yakubu Dogara put the question to the House and members agreed to urge the Central Bank of Nigeria to establish desk offices on blockchain technology in the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science and Technology pending a proper legal framework.
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