When the drafters of the Nigerian Criminal Code Act formulated Section 419 of the Act, I am sure that they never intended that the number of the section
Spread the loveBy Marcel Okeke In the latest of efforts at strengthening the functioning of Nigeria’s capital market and protect investors, the National Assembly on 29 March…
Monday, February 22, 2021
Ponzis and bitcoin as a response to a bad economy: the case of Nigeria
Usually when I think about gambling and speculative excess, I ve always associated it with giddy prosperity. When an economy is doing well, productivity is improving, new technology is being introduced, and unemployment is low, people have extra income that they can throw away at the casino. Or they put it into their brokerage account and, with the help of margin, generate speculative bubbles.
But lately I ve been rethinking this view. Speculative bubbles and over-gambling are just as likely to be driven by sick and decaying economies as they are by prosperous ones. And Nigeria is a prime example of this.
Transactions can take place much quicker, easier and cheaper. The technology is not limited to virtual currencies but can work for almost every type of transaction between parties.
Bitcoin trading gained much fame in 2016 during the recession in Nigeria just as Ponzi schemes developed like MMM, Get Help World Wide, Twinkas and others.
However, due to the technicalities involved in learning the process, many Nigerians stuck to the Ponzi schemes until recently when knowledge of the blockchain technology began to expand in the country.
In 2017, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a circular precisely on January 12, warning that the regulator does not guarantee any risk involved in such commercial banks which it regulated.