Nigeria’s
Securities
and
Exchange
Commission
(SEC)
plans
to
license
issuers
of
virtual
assets
including
cryptocurrencies
as
adoption
surges
in
the
West
African
nation,
Bloomberg
reported
on
Tuesday.
The
SEC
wants
to
issue
its
first
licenses
for
digital
service
and
tokenized
assets
as
early
as
this
month,
Director-General
Emomotimi
Agama
told
Bloomberg.
The
Abuja-based
regulator
is
responding
to
the
surge
in
demand
for
crypto,
Agama
said.
“The
market
size
is
huge
and
it
is
growing,”
Agama
said.
Nigeria
is
following
nations
across
the
world
who
have
decided
to
license
crypto
companies.
South
Africa,
the
largest
economy
on
the
continent,
recently
started
a
crypto
licensing
regime.
France
introduced
a
new
regime
earlier
this
month,
and
the
U.K.
has
been
registering
companies
under
its
anti-money
laundering
rules
since
2020
while
it
waits
for
more
specific
rules.
Nigeria
also
plans
to
introduce
a
bill
by
September
that
would
enable
it
to
tax
crypto.
In
the
meantime,
the
country
is
suing
crypto
exchange
Binance
for
tax
evasion
and
money
laundering
and
is
holding
one
of
its
executives
in
prison
on
money
laundering
charges.