The Director-General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dr. Emomotimi Agama has emphasised the importance of educating Nigerians on navigating the rapidly evolving digital finance space, describing cryptocurrency as the future of finance.
Dr. Agama said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday.
“The truth about it is knowledge is fundamental. And cryptocurrency and indeed digital space is the future of finance. And that is why it’s important for us as the regulators, the SEC, to go around educating people. The importance of education cannot be overemphasized”, he stated.
He added that the growing involvement of Nigerian youths in cryptocurrency places a responsibility on the SEC and the government to ensure adequate protection for investors.
“It is very heartwarming to see Nigerians, especially the youth, which form over 70% of our population, getting involved in this. And because they’re getting involved, we as the SEC and as government, we have a responsibility to protect them. Protecting them is critical, it’s important, it’s part of the mission of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and that’s why we’re here”, he said.
Speaking on the global adoption of cryptocurrency, Dr. Agama noted that Nigeria is not left behind, attributing this to the country’s youthful and tech-savvy population.
“It’s a global trend, everywhere in the world, and indeed Africa, Nigeria is not, you know, left out in the race. And particularly for us, because exactly because of our demography and you know, the talented nation or nature of Nigerian youth, you find that they’re so exposed they have joined the bandwagon of international finance.”
He emphasised that as digital assets become part of international finance, the SEC must continue to regulate the space to protect investors and support legitimate business transactions.
“And so it is important to note that whatever we do as Nigerians does not reflect only what happens in Nigeria, it’s a global trend. And it is important that being a global trend and being regulators of international repute, we must be part of scrutinizing and then regulating, with the aim of protecting these investors that have decided to use cryptocurrencies and all other digital assets in running finance and making sure business goes on”, he stressed.
Speaking on regulatory efforts, Dr. Agama highlighted that the SEC has been proactive in educating Nigerians about cryptocurrency.
“The SEC has been in the forefront of trying to educate Nigerians. So as far back as the year 2020, September precisely, the SEC, understanding exactly what the future looks like, came out with a statement clarifying what exactly we mean by cryptocurrency.”
On how the SEC is ensuring that traders of cryptocurrency are protected, the DG said “education” is the way.
He further explained that mitigating crashes in the digital asset space relies on applying proper risk management measures.
“You mitigate a crash by providing all of the risk mitigants that those exist within the digital asset space”, he stated.
He also stated that protective measures and regulations are fully enforceable, as the SEC employs specialised tools to monitor transactions.
“They’re very much enforceable because what we do, we do not use our ordinary eyes or ordinary hands, we use tools. They are, you know, synthetic tools that we use to monitor the transactions. That is the reason why the SEC by virtue of the powers conferred on it by the Investment and Securities Act 2025 is asking that people must register with the SEC because the SEC legitimately by law signed by Mr. President in 2025 that we as the SEC should be in charge of the regulation of crypto trading and indeed every other thing that pertains to it”, he urged.
Dismissing comparisons between the Naira and cryptocurrency, Dr. Agama said they operate on entirely different principles,
“The Naira is a currency, is a sovereign currency. That must be known and taken as such. The cryptocurrency is not a sovereign currency. Cryptocurrency came out of decentralization, decentralization to the extent that there is a disruption as to the ownership and the power of currency. And so, clearly they’re two different things entirely. So you do not compare the Naira against crypto, it’s a wrong comparison. It’s like comparing oranges and apples”, he concluded.
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