Federal Government of Nigeria has been urged to consider the possibility of tapping into cryptocurrency to raise funds to executive some projects in the country.
This call was made by renowned US-based Nigerian lawyer and internet business consultant, Ope Banwo.
Speaking few weeks ago during an interview with some elite Nigerian bloggers, Ope Banwo said rather than condemn digital currency, the government of Nigeria can actually look into raising money it needs to provide basic infrastructural facilities to its citizens.
Ope Banwo said government can take a cue from the Venezuelan government, which recently issued digital currency to raise funds.
“I will advise government to key into the digital currency because it is another avenue to raise funds to carry out projects in the country.
“The refineries are not working properly in Nigeria, but government can issue cryptocurrency like Venezuela did to raise money to fix them (the refineries).
“Instead of crying to ban the use of digital currency, I believe government can actually key into it,” he said during the online interview, which Aproko247 was also involved in.
Ope Banwo further said digital currency has come to stay, but said he understands why governments are making efforts to kill it.
“If you check the history and evolution of money in the world, government was never part of the introduction. They only later regulated the different forms of currencies.
“Government did not introduce the commodity money also known as barter and when it later moved to the use of cowries and metals like gold, copper and others, government never introduced them, but traders did.
“When we transited to the use of paper money, government did not introduce it, but only later regulated it.
“Also, when there was a transition to the use of credit money like cheques and other forms, this was not done by government and when the use of plastic money came, it was not introduced by government; they only regulated the use of such forms of money like the credit and debit cards being used today.
“It is the same way these forms of money came that the digital currency or money has come and it was not brought in by government.
“I am not surprised at all that government is sceptical and getting agitated about the introduction of digital money,” he said.
Ope Banwo is the promoter of Nollycoin, a blockchain powered peer-to-peer content sharing platform that allows movie producers and their creative works collaborators to license their content as a “coded contract” directly to a decentralized database.
These contracts automate the collection and distribution of royalty payments and remain in the control of the movie producers and creative artists themselves.
