Business

SEC to Licence Crypto Exchanges as FIRS Seeks Regulation

Published

2 years ago

August 20, 2024

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The Abuja-based Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to issue its first licenses for digital service and tokenized assets this month, Director-General Emomotimi Agama said.

“Being a crypto enthusiast and fintech enthusiast, I can tell you without doubt that this is going to happen sooner than you think,” Agama said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

“We must support the youths of this country to be able to achieve the benefit that is accruable in fintech.

The market size is huge and it is growing. The figure is just “the tip of the iceberg’ considering many transactions are not reported, Agama said.

He said that the SEC wants “to provide a platform where people can formerly do these things and we can get all of the information that we need.

“What we will not encourage is the use of cryptocurrency to manipulate our currency,” Agama said.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji, said that an Executive Bill which seeks to overhaul revenue administration in Nigeria, including regulation of the cryptocurrency industry, is being put together for transmission to the National Assembly.

Adedeji, during a stakeholders’ engagement with a joint committee of the National Assembly on Finance, said: “We cannot run away from the cryptocurrency ecosystem because it is the in-thing.

But as it stands in Nigeria today, no law regulates cryptocurrency operations. We need a law that regulates that area of our economy.

This is why we are having this engagement with the legislators. We will regulate it in a way that is not injurious to the economic development of Nigeria.

“Bloomberg commented that the start of regulation will align Nigeria with other jurisdictions, including the European Union, South Africa and Botswana, which have taken steps to govern the asset class.

Regulators across the globe are seeking better ways to rein in crypto following a 2022 crash in prices that led to a slew of bankruptcies, scandals and billions in investor losses.

Nigerian authorities banned banks from supporting crypto transactions due to concerns that traders on digital-currency platforms are manipulating the exchange rate for the naira, which has depreciated about 70% against the dollar since June last year.

The government in February blocked access to the world’s biggest crypto exchange operated by Binance Holdings Ltd. and later prosecuted its executives over allegations of illicit flows and speculation on the naira, which it said deprived the nation of tax revenue and weakened the local currency.

The crackdown on Binance hasn’t deterred young, tech-savvy Nigerians, who have moved to the Bitkoin Africa Inc. and Quidax platforms for their Bitcoin transactions, Agama said in June.

The volume of crypto transactions in the country climbed 9% to $56.7 billion in June 2023 from a year earlier, Chainalysis said in a report.

Business

FG Launches Energise Commercialisation Now (ECoN) To Boost Industrial Productivity

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr. Kingsley Tochukwu-Udeh, described ECoN as a national framework designed to bridge the gap between research and the marketplace.

Published

5 minutes ago

April 24, 2026

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• Kano ECoN launch by First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Thursday 23,2026.

The federal government has launched the Energise Commercialisation Now (ECoN) an initiative of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology.

Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, launched the programme in Kano, yesterday, and calling for a shift from ideas to industrial productivity.

The First Lady said that Nigeria must move beyond generating ideas to building industries that create jobs and drive economic growth.

She noted that although innovative concepts continue to emerge from universities, technology hubs and young entrepreneurs, many do not translate into real-world solutions.

“This initiative represents a decisive effort to close that gap by creating an environment where ideas can grow, attract support and scale into real solutions,” she said.

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr. Kingsley Tochukwu-Udeh, described ECoN as a national framework designed to bridge the gap between research and the marketplace.

He said that the initiative aims to transform research outputs into revenue-generating ventures while promoting inclusive economic growth.

Business

Government Can’t Run Business Effectively – Dele Oye

We all know the failed history of government being involved in business. Ajaokuta… they have blown $8 billion and have not produced one steel; they blew $3 billion on refineries rehabilitation… and nothing happened. We are not having any fuel from them

Published

2 days ago

April 22, 2026

OCHEFA

39 Views

Barr Dele Oye, the former president of NACCIMA, at the Vanguard Economic Discourse 2026 edition in Lagos on Wednesday, advised the federal government to limit its role to policy support and facilitation rather than involvement in commercial business activities.

Oye, now the Chairman of Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics (AERE) , cited past failures such as the Ajaokuta Steel Company and refineries rehabilitation projects.

He said: ” We all know the failed history of government being involved in business. Ajaokuta… they have blown $8 billion and have not produced one steel; they blew $3 billion on refineries rehabilitation… and nothing happened. We are not having any fuel from them.”

Oye maintained that government lacks the capacity to run businesses effectively.

” You have no track record in running any business… you cannot be government and also be private sector,” he said.

Business

John Ternus is Apple’s incoming CEO

John Ternus, Apple’s longtime hardware boss, is taking over as CEO, becoming just the second leader since Steve Jobs departed in 2011, less than two months before he died from cancer.

Published

3 days ago

April 21, 2026

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61 Views

• John Ternus / CNBC / Getty Images

Tim Cook’s 15-year tenure as Apple CEO comes to an end on Sept. 1, the company announced on Monday.

John Ternus, Apple’s longtime hardware boss, is taking over as CEO, becoming just the second leader since Steve Jobs departed in 2011, less than two months before he died from cancer.

CNBC reports that as Cook exits, Apple faces numerous challenges, including an intricate supply chain that’s complicated by geopolitical tensions and soaring prices for memory due to unprecedented demand from the AI buildout.

But for Ternus, perhaps the most critical aspect of his new job will be pushing the company deeper into AI, where it’s lagged many of its megacap peers.

It said that so far, Apple’s AI strategy has involved avoiding hefty capital expenditures while Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta commit to hundreds of billions of dollars a year in combined capex to fund new data centers and fill them with pricey AI chips.