Despite growing fears being expressed about the impropriety of bitcoins in the country by regulatory authorities, some Nigerians claim bitcoin guarantees good returns on investment, reports Mediatrice Nwosu
Bitcoins, otherwise known as cryptocurrency is an innovative payment network and a new kind of money gaining attention worldwide. It is the first decentralised digital currency as the system works without a central bank or single administrator. The network is a peer to peer and transactions take place between users directly, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes through the use of cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called blockchain. Bitcoin was invented by an unknown person or group of people under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and released as open source software.
Regulatory bodies raise red flags against investing in Bitcoin
The Central Bank of Nigeria as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission have since cautioned Nigerians to be wary of investments in cryptocurrencies, stating the virtual currencies were not legal tender in the country. The apex bank said in a statement issued in Abuja that cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ripples, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin, and exchanges such as NairaEx, were not licensed or regulated by it.
In the circular signed by the director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Kelvin Amugo, the CBN had among other issues, noted that virtual currencies were traded on exchange platforms that were unregulated all over the world. It noted that transactions in virtual currencies were largely untraceable and anonymous, thereby making them susceptible to abuse by criminals for money laundering and financing of terrorism.
Success stories
Speaking with a cross-section of Nigerians they confirmed to our reporter that investing in bitcoins is probably one of the best investment decisions they have made in years.
Firing the first salvo, the duo of Mrs. Homto Dokpesi and Mr Ngaka Stanley spoke on their achievements so far.
According to Mrs. Dokpesi, as a serial entrepreneur with background in accountancy and economics, investment in bitcoin is fool-proof.
The digital currency consultant who has clientele with age brackets from toddlers and adults as old as 80 years, disclosed that she belong to an affiliate of Bitclub which allows her to trade on her own.
Mrs. Dokpsei who has been in managing bitcoin investment in the last four years revealed that many of her clients are willingly invests for their little kids as well.
Pressed further on what is her networth in bitcoins, she was rather noncommittal.
On the best time to start, she said: “You can start from somewhere and grow. I have a range of investors, low level investors and high net worth investors, though I work primarily with the high net worth investors. Trust and Integrity has always been my watchword in all my dealings in business.”
While admitting the fact that the SEC and CBN have since placed a caveat emptor on bitcoin investment in the country, she said, it is not something to be afraid about.
“I do not think CBN and SEC are totally against it as they are only trying to be careful which I would say is very professionally normal. I have a few colleagues who have attended meetings put together by CBN to discuss cryptocurrency. The regulated head of the international monetary fund (IMF) Christine Largarde has also declared a call last month, for global cooperation on how to govern the digital tokens.”
As far as she is concerned, the regulatory authorities need to be on top of their game. “Almost every forward thinking country has now put out regulation guiding the cryptocurrency markets and making the income realised from cryptocurrency taxable, which I am sure has boosted their individual economies just as how emails sent us far away from post offices, uber and taxify have become a phenomenon, and bad news bears (BNB) has become a revolution so would cryptocurrency become the next ‘oil and gas’ in the foreseeable future. I truly have no reason to be worried because I trust and believe the Central Bank of Nigeria would eventually come up with a regulatory plan that would benefit and protect the investors and the country as well.’’
She was however quick to add that prospective investors need to be aware another prank coming up with initial coin offerings, warning that people should be wary.
“We must all be careful, if you have not enabled two factor authenticator (2FA) and you keep clicking on every email that comes into your mailbox, you may end losing all your coins to a hacker. Bitcoin is just one of the numerous coins available on the coin market cap. We have Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple to mention a few even Binance that just got on the scene is doing well. I would say investing in cryptocurrency sure has been lucrative.”
On his part, Mr Ngaka Stanley, who is into oil and gas, also belongs to an affiliate of local Bitcoin, which he has been running in the last three years.
Stanley who claimed to have his bitcoin is worth $700m, said his clientele are in different categories. “Peer to peer (people I perfectly understand their lifestyles) Network security (clients who cannot be tricked by powerful hackers) Wallet security (clients that can protect their private key) Maturity (clients who knows when the project started.) Set up time (clients who verifies a large amount of data before sending or receiving BTC.”
Going down memory lane, he recalled that he first investing when the price was below $500 and subsequently purchased more coin when it moved up to $2000. “So I started to do mining and trading of bitcoin. Investing in Bitcoin has proven lucrative currently serves as a source of extra income and has upgraded my financial level.”
What have worked for him thus far are self-efforts, all of which have paid off. “By educating newbies; organising free tutorials, Bitcoin is a software based online payment system, by writing a story about a known brand(informing and educating them concerning impersonating coin desk offering space for advertisements on their site, giving away free quarterly report on bitcoin.”
