Stories by Omodele Adigun
As MMM recently jolted its Nigerian participants with the sudden introduction of bitcoins and other virtual currencies (VCs), experts are unanimous in their views that navigating such uncharted waters is like putting one’s eggs in one basket.
For instance, they agreed that though VCs might have become very popular, many people are still in the dark on how they work.
Bitcoin and its ilks like swisscoin, and onecoin are cryptocurrencies or digital currencies created and controlled using cryptography.
Warning the unsuspecting public to be wary of the third party who says it understands it, Mr. Ade Sonubi, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), says: “I am not aware that there is anybody, whether an entity or a person that has been licensed or registered by the CBN to either issue, trade or exchange digital currency in any form.
“You cannot set up Bureau de Change (BDC) where you have dollars and pounds being exchanged without being registered by the central bank. Digital currency is not different. It is just a means of exchange. At some point, you will change it to naira. And I am not aware whether CBN has come up with a framework for anybody. The reason they came out loud and clear (last week) was when MMM was about to go bust. They were now offering higher rate to people who would go digital because once you buy cryptocurrency, you cannot trace where it is going. It is a means to take money out in case CBN starts looking inwards about who collected the naira. They are offering them almost 100 per cent. So people shift from naira to cryptocurrency, and you cannot find the guys (behind it). You cannot trace them.”
Naij.com, a digital news platform, recently came up with reasons why Nigerians should not invest in bitcoin, onecoin or swisscoin as MMM Nigeria announced that its new mode of payment for those participating in the scheme will be in bitcoin.
We are in the era of digital currencies and one of the most famous is bitcoin. A lot of other digital currencies have also been popping up here and there such as swisscoin and onecoin.
Here are the dangers of investing in cryptocurrencies.
One, it is not recognised by any regulatory agency in Nigeria. Recall that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently stated that none of the persons, companies or entities promoting cryptocurrencies had been recognised or authorised by any regulatory agencies to receive deposits from the public or to provide any investment or other financial services in or from Nigeria.
“Given that these instruments and the persons, companies or entities that promote them have neither been authorised nor any guidelines/regulations developed for them by any of the regulatory authorities in Nigeria, there is no protection available to users or investors in these virtual currencies from financial losses if the virtual currencies fail or the companies promoting them go out of business,” the commission had said.
Just last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also came out with its own warnings. The apex bank, in a circular to all banks on Tuesday, by its Director of Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Kelvin Amugo, stated that the move was necessitated by money laundering and terrorism financing risks inherent in operations of virtual currencies.
Amugo added: “The emergence of VCs has attracted investments in payments infrastructure that provide new methods of transmitting value over the internet. Transactions in VCs are largely untraceable and anonymous making them susceptible to abuse by criminals, especially in money laundering and financing of terrorism. VCs are traded in exchange platforms that are unregulated, all over the world. Consumers may, therefore, lose their money without any legal redress in the event these exchanges collapse or close business.
“The development of VCs Payment Products and Services (VCPPS) and their interactions with other New Payment Products and Services (NPPS), give rise to the need for guidance to protect the integrity of the Nigerian financial system. There is, therefore, the need to address the Money Laundering/Terrorism Financing risks associated with VC exchanges and any other type of institutions that act as nodes, where convertible VC activities intersect with the regulated fiat currency financial system.
“The attention of banks and other reporting financial institutions is hereby drawn to the above risks and you are required to take the following actions pending substantive regulation or decision by the CBN.”
CBN, therefore, advised banks to ensure that they do not use, hold, and transact in virtual currencies. The apex bank also warned banks to ensure that existing customers that are virtual currency exchangers have effective AML/CFT controls that enable them to comply with customer identification, verification and transaction monitoring requirements.
“Where banks or other financial institutions are not satisfied with the controls put in place by the virtual currency exchangers/customers, the relationship should be discontinued immediately; and any suspicious transactions by these customers should immediately be reported to the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU),” the CBN said.
The apex bank stressed that virtual currencies such as bitcoin, ripples, monero, litecoin, dogecion, onecoin and similar products are not legal tenders in Nigeria, thus any bank or institution that transacts in such business does so at its own risk.
It is risky
Life is all about risks but some risks certainly don’t pay off. If you decide to invest in bitcoin, swisscoin or onecoin, you should know that you stand the risk of losing your money. Bitcoin exchanges are entirely digital and are at risk from hackers, malware and operational glitches. There is no protection available to users or investors in these virtual currencies from financial losses.
It is volatile
Bitcoin values can be unpredictable. It can increase or decrease over a short period of time. If you decide to invest, you should never invest money that you cannot afford to lose with bitcoin or swisscoin or onecoin. These cryptocurrencies should be seen like a high risk asset.
It is still experimental
Bitcoin and others are all experiments of a new currency that is in active development. With each improvement comes new challenges, so if you decide to invest, be prepared for problems.
Government clampdown
Some governments have expressed concern about the use of digital money. Some are already seeking to regulate, restrict or ban the use and sale of bitcoins. However, some have explicitly allowed its use.
Fidelity rewards 4th promo winners
Fidelity Bank Plc has rewarded winners that emerged in the first edition of its Get Alert in Million Promo draws for 2017 held in various regions of the country.
The winners emerged from a randomisation process, which was vetted by the bank’s control team and witnessed by officials from Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and other regulators.
The winners received a total of N9 million in the first draw of the new year. Customers that were rewarded with cash prizes across the country included Baba Ali Yusuf, a customer of the bank’s Maiduguri branch, who won N1 million; Samuel Benjamin Idoroh in Abuja, who also won N1 million and Bolanle Gbadebo of Ado-Ekiti. Others were Attah Maria Edugwu in Lagos who won N1 million; Frank Chukwudi Sebastine in Port Harcourt who won N2 million and Ifeanyi Victor who won the star prize of N3 million.
Speaking at the presentation ceremony at the bank’s head office in Lagos, its Executive Director, Shared Services and Products, Mrs. Chijioke Ugochukwu, who represented the bank’s Managing Director, Mr. Nnamdi Okonkwo, said the promo was part of efforts in supporting and encouraging culture of savings and financial inclusion among the populace.
She added that the bank still has N64 million on the table, waiting for both account holders and prospective customers to win. “Today, we gave out N9 million to six customers. In addition to this, we also rewarded 12 customers with consolation prices of refrigerators and generators.
Attah Maria Edugwu, in Lagos, who won N1 million expressed her gratitude to God for using the bank to add value to her life.
Why we supported Nigerian service delivery innovation challenge – Sterling Bank
Sterling Bank Plc has hinged its foray into the health sector on the current poor state of the sector in the country and the consequences of this on the citizens, coupled with the need for public-private collaboration for adequate repositioning.
This, according to the bank, necessitated its sponsorship of the 2016 edition of the Nigerian Service Delivery Innovation Challenge organised by the Federal Ministry of Health.
The event, which held recently at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, was attended by prominent personalities in the health and other key sectors of the economy including the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, and Executive Director, Sterling Bank Plc, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, who represented the bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive, Mr. Yemi Adeola, among others.
The sponsorship of the programme came barely two days after the bank was commended by President Muhammadu Buhari for its commitment to supporting the current administration’s initiative to provide qualitative and affordable health services to Nigerians through strategic partnership with the Ministry of Health.
The President gave the commendation in Abuja while inaugurating the Model Primary Health Care Centre for Universal Coverage in Nigeria, located at Kuchigoro, Abuja Municipal Council, also supported by the bank.
The bank in a press statement signed by its Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Henry Bassey, explained that the sponsorship of the innovation challenge was designed to compliment the Federal Government’s drive towards improving healthcare services in the country.
He further emphasised the bank’s interest in a cleaner, healthier environment for Nigerians “as demonstrated in our Sterling Make-Over (STEM) initiative, which continues to reinforce our conviction in a cleaner and more prosperous nation.”
The bank expressed optimism that the challenge would contribute to helping Nigeria make progress in the areas of vaccination coverage among young children; check contraceptive prevalence rate among Nigerians; increase Vitamin A coverage among children of between six months and five years of age, and promote the use of insecticide-treated bed nets by children under five, among others.
While assuring that the bank would continue to support all efforts to reposition the health sector, he stated that, “we are already providing financial and logistics support to operators in the sector across the value chain and would focus on the entire ecosystem of the health sector.”
Ecobank Masterpass QR records high patronage
The Deputy Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Tony Okpanachi, has expressed delight over the level of acceptability and wide patronage of Ecobank MasterPass QR, an innovative global digital payment solution recently introduced into the nation’s financial landscape by the bank. It would be recalled that Ecobank was the first financial institution in the country to introduce Masterpass QR.
According to Okpanachi who was responding to media questions in Lagos, latest checks have revealed that thousands of wholesalers and retailers in the country have adopted the payment technology as their preferred means of receiving payments for goods and services, describing the payment system as a tool for financial inclusion and economic development.
In his words: “We are quite impressed with the level of acceptance and enthusiasm so far shown by all segments of the society. Supper shops, fuel dispensing stations, hotels, food vendors, intra-city transporters, even the popular keke mawa are not left out in adopting Ecobank Masterpass QR for their transactions. This is certainly a big plus for the Nigerian economy.”
Head, SME, Commercial Banking, Ecobank Nigeria, Sunkanmi Olowo, said Ecobank Masterpass QR serves the rapidly expanding needs of individuals and merchants in Nigeria and across Africa who are increasingly turning to mobile for payments.
“It is a well known fact that about 96 per cent of Nigerian businesses are MSMEs. Despite the major part they play in the nation’s economy, about 98 per cent of them still do their transactions using cash. With this payment system, this business segment will be able to contribute their quota to the nation’s economy. This technology allows them to seamlessly leapfrog into the digital age,” he noted.
Ecobank Masterpass QR makes electronic payments safe, simple and smart. It improves customer experience with a clean front-end design and a built-in sophisticated and secure supporting technology. Users of Ecobank’s mobile banking platform will be able to safely pay for online and in-store purchases by scanning a Quick Response (QR) code displayed at checkout on their smartphones or by entering a merchant identifier into their feature phones. Shoppers don’t need to carry cash or their physical bank cards – rather they can make fast, safe and simple digital payments using Ecobank Masterpass QR via their mobile banking app on their mobile device anywhere that Masterpass QR is accepted.
The introduction of the Ecobank Masterpass QR, which is the first in Nigeria, signals one of the largest implementations of a digital payment solution in Africa, resulting in millions of previously excluded people joining the financial ecosystem.