January 18 2017
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Tuesday, banned banks from all transactions in bitcoin and other virtual currencies. A circular signed by the apex bank’s director, financial policy and regulation department, Kelvin Amugo, stated that the move was necessitated by money laundering and terrorism financing risks inherent in operations of virtual currencies.
“The emergence of Virtual Currencies (VCs) has attracted investments in payments infrastructure that provides new methods of transmitting value over the internet. “Transactions in VCs are largely untraceable and anonymous making them susceptible to abuse by criminals, especially in money laundering and financing of terrorism.