The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mr. Ola Olukoyede has observed that
cryptocurrency as an innovation and transactional technology in the global
economy requires governing rules to regulate its ecosystem in the country
in order to prevent its fraudulent abuse.
He made the observation in Abuja on Wednesday,
September 3, 2025 when Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of
Nigeria, SIBAN, led by their president, Obinna Iwuno paid him a courtesy visit
at the Commission’s corporate headquarters.
Speaking through his Chief of Staff, Commander of the
EFCC, CE Michael Nzekwe, Olukoyede stated that “Crypto is the new
oil. There's so much money in crypto. The ecosystem is something that
needs to be properly regulated. If that regulation is not done, even the
genuine actors will run into big problems. The truth
is that there's a thin line between the genuine crypto operators and
the fraudsters. What has been happening is that even politically-exposed
persons are now using it as a means for laundering money and
some of the actors in the ecosystem are falling for them. Even some of the
ones you say are genuine, launder money. So , it's important that we're
having this particular meeting,” he said.
While encouraging players in cryptocurrency and
blockchain technology to prioritize enlightenment and training of investors,
Olukoyede noted that SIBAN could contribute to the fight against money
laundering by being whistleblowers.
“I think that one of the things that will be taken out
from here is that we're going to have a better time to sit down and look at all
the issues deeply. I'm glad you are a trainer. Identify some key
factors, one is enlightenment and training also. We want to
ensure that we have a clean economy. We can collaborate to stop money
laundering. You can blow the whistle. You can be a whistleblower,” he
said.
Earlier in his remarks, Iwuno noted that the critical
place of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in the national economy has
motivated SIBAN to draw up a set of regulatory codes.
“We have a code of ethics which we have drafted using
international best practices and standards from other jurisdictions across the
world that have done regulation. It is a code of ethics for practitioners
and operators in Nigeria. That is a show of our commitment and willingness
to be ethical; to be regulated and also to be compliant to the laws of the land
and the requirements of regulation across the world. We have declared our
openness and our needs and requirements for regulation. We have been on
this since 2018, asking to regulate this sector so that we don't
lose out and become victims of capital flight, ” he said.
He called for collaboration with the EFCC, stating
that it would enable SIBAN to make meaningful input in the fight against
investment fraud and money laundering.
“We want to engage with you in the areas of education,
collaboration, awareness creation and anti-scam campaigns across the
country. We want to also work with you on how to identify crypto frauds
and scams. We want to also have that relationship where we will
be able to report bad actors to you and you take action. If we have
this relationship, we would be able to stop these people before they even go
on.
“There are so many things that we can do, but we want
to find a baseline. The EFCC can utilize the blockchain technology
and cryptocurrency to the benefit of the Commission in its
operations. In our first training on crypto investigation and
compliance, one of the things that we did was to tell our operators that
you must implement KYC (Know Your Customer) on your platforms; that
you cannot be offering service to anybody without full KYC and you have
to do KYC in line with the regulatory requirements in Nigeria.
Another thing that we did was that every digital asset platform must have at
least a minimum of two compliance officers working on the platform,” he said.
Speaking further, Iwuno stated that “So as much as we
clamour for regulation, sanity, safety and protection of investors and
consumers and making sure that Nigeria does not become a channel or an avenue
for bad actors and all of these crimes, we want to also make sure that
innovation is not strangulated nor stifled in the process. This is the
reason why we have sought to start engaging with all relevant stakeholders of
which the EFCC is one and the very core pillar of our nation and the
government”
“We have the largest population in Africa, we have the
largest youths. Nigerians are the most active people on this continent,
but we also stand at risk that our ecosystem, growing at this fast pace,
without proper regulations to guide activities on digital assets and blockchain
technology, may open up to risks . Risks in the areas of money
laundering, terrorism financing, threats to our national security, and even
proliferation financing. All of these we take into consideration.”
