Banning Nigerians from participating in cryptocurrency business would hurt the nation’s economy, which needs foreign intervention and collaboration to grow, Daniel Chinagozi, chief executive officer (CEO) of Innovation Growth Hub (IGHUB), observes.
He advised the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to properly regulate internet transactions rather than ban Nigerians from participating in such activities.
Daniel Chinagozi, an information technology (IT) expert, cautioned against depriving Nigerians of business growth opportunities on the internet, through poorly thought-out measures.
The IGHUB founder gave the caution, Wednesday in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, ahead of its planned online Twitter chat event, to mark the 2021 World Safer Internet Day, by his organization.
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He stressed that proper regulation would give Nigerians huge benefits Internet offers, noting that withdrawing Nigeria’s participation from certain international operations on the internet, through poorly thought-out measures, would only hurt the country and its citizens.
“I think the federal government should put a lot of structure around the internet and cryptocurrency space regulate that space and start licensing people dealing on it so that if anybody wants to deal in it, such a person will follow due processes.
“But if you make the transactions in cryptocurrency illegal, or withdraw Nigeria from its transactions, Nigeria will begin to lose the value and benefits it could derive from it, which is not the best for Nigeria’s economy”, he stated.
Chinagozi said there was a need to make the internet safer for all, through everyone’s effort, because the internet was becoming bigger and more useful to all areas of human lives.
He said that the country could make the internet safer, by ensuring the implementation of the Federal Ministry of Education’s Online safety education programme now in the national curriculum.
He also urged the government to erect stronger firewalls and expand online safety education to enable people to know what to do or not do online, types of persons online and types of activities necessary to be safer.
He said a safer internet would ensure cybercriminals would find it difficult to hack into people’s personal information and people would know what to do on the internet to stay safe.
“A lot of things have happened to people on the internet that should not have happened and we are making a call for everyone to rethink the way we use the internet.
“We should also strive to understand that we can make the internet better and safer for all and that this is something we can do as a community to protect our activities and businesses”, he said.
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