Nathaniel Luz of Flincap highlighted that, following the ban’s removal, institutional exchanges should prepare for the Nigerian market.
In a circular sent to banks on Dec. 22, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stated that it has now lifted restrictions on Nigerian banks facilitating cryptocurrency transactions. However, the crypto community anticipates competition to heat up between the crypto-fiat exchanges and peer-to-peer (P2P) merchants.
The ban by the CBN on Nigerian banks from aiding crypto transactions made P2P merchants dominant in the first place. The ban was supposed to stamp out Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto use in Nigeria. Instead, the crypto community turned to peer-to-peer trades or sending payments directly to each other.
Cointelegraph contacted stakeholders in the local crypto ecosystem to understand how the industry and the community are receiving the new development. Speaking with Cointelegraph, Nathaniel Luz, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Flincap, stated that lifting the ban would be a huge plus for the industry. He opined that the development signals that Nigeria is ready for crypto businesses to be domiciled and operate in it.
