LAGOS Reuters - Nigeria's markets regulators has published a set of regulations for digital assets, signalling Africa's most populous country is trying to find a middle ground between a ban on digital assets and their unregulated use.
Banks and financial institutions were stopped from dealing in or facilitating transactions in digital currency last year by Nigeria's central bank.
The country's young tech-savvy population has eagerly adopted cryptocurrencies, for example, using peer-to- peer trading offered by the exchanges to avoid the financial sector ban.
Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission SEC published the New Rules on Issuance, Offering Platforms and Custody of Digital Assets on its website.
The 54-sided document lists the registration requirements for digital assets offerings and custodians, and classifies the assets as securities regulated by the SEC.
A central bank spokeswoman didn't answer calls to his mobile phone.
The SEC said that no digital assets exchange would be allowed to facilitate trading of assets unless it received a no objection from the commission.
A digital assets exchange will be required to pay 30 million naira $72,289 as a registration fee, among other fees.
Digital currencies, unlike cryptocurrencies, are backed and controlled by the central bank.