Nigeria will monitor digital currency risks – NDIC

Nigeria is interested in nurturing the growth of a digital currency and also look into the positive and negative outcomes of it; This is coming from the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC).

Mr. Kabir Katata, the Deputy Director of the Research Department, NDIC revealed this while speaking at the evolution of virtual currency.

“Commercial Banks and agencies owned by the Government are already exploring how blockchain might transform the way they operate.

“Nigerian regulators and players are actively involved in Digital currencies and DTLs, as they want. We ought to continue to watch the improvements in digital currencies so as to resolve any concern on legal, financial and also consumer protection” He said.

Based on what he said, the DCs Nigerians are actively involved with are bitcoin, litecoin, ripple, dogecoin, and peercoin out of the many available.

Mr. Kabir said the block chain is the identity of the bitcoin and other digital currencies which is now a well-known electronic ledger that uses a standard computation system to keep track of exchanges in a well secured and anonymous platform.

He notably acknowledged that the bitcoin is the most popular and also the most valuable crypto currency in use today.

He further explained that the DLT is in form of a group of technologies which uses a distributed group of partakers to uphold a similar and related record, without depending on one in particular or having one single medium of storage.

He said, “ln the financial sector, regulators are a bit worried over the risks that are involved with the use of digital currencies, as it is now a recent introduction in many financial institutions.

“Digital currencies, though a newly introduced system, is becoming more and more popular all around the world the globe but there are still a lot of risks involved. For this reason, regulatory/supervisory authorities in most countries are giving serious attention and concerns regarding DCs.”

In accordance to him, most of the risks related to this have practical influences on banking and insurance practices.

“Digital currency does not arise as a major financial stability risks in the World, but they bring about serious concerns which includes consumer and investor protection, market integrity and money laundering/terrorism financing, to name a few.

“Digital currencies are powered by the block chain technology, and it has economic, political, humanitarian, and legal system benefits and it also possesses the ability to reconfigure all elements of the society and the way they operate” he included.