New Oxford Science Academy, a private secondary school in Kano State, Nigeria, has announced it will be accepting cryptocurrency as a means of payments for school fees despite the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) banning financial institutions from providing cryptocurrency-related services.
According to a report from Kano Focus, a news outlet in the state, the Proprietor of the school, Sabi’u Musa Haruna, will allow students to pay their tuition fees in cryptocurrency. The Proprietor said this while addressing journalists in Kano, stating that the school management took the decision after consulting parents and guardians. He urged the Nigerian government to embrace and regulate cryptocurrency in the interview.
Sabi’u Musa Haruna stated, “We have decided to accept cryptocurrency as school fees, because the world today is tilting towards the system. We believe one day, digital money will gain more acceptance than paper money.”
He further explained that the decision was aimed at easing the strain of payment of school fees for parents, citing that countries like El Salvador and Tanzania had expanded payment options for cryptocurrency users. He did not give specifics as to which tokens the school will accept for payment, however.
What you need to know
In February, the CBN announced in a circular that it had banned regulated financial institutions in the country from providing cryptocurrency-related services. Though the policy warned of “severe regulatory sanctions” for any bank that failed to comply with the directive from the apex bank, governor Godwin Emefiele clarified in March that the ban was intended to “prohibit transactions on cryptocurrencies in the banking sector” rather than discourage individuals from dealing in digital assets.
In addition, Nigeria’s apex bank promised to roll out its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in 2022 with the bank’s Director of Information Technology Department, Mrs Rakiyat Mohammed, stating, “digital currency will come to life even in Nigeria.”
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In case you missed it
The President of El Salvador in a press conference stated that the country will begin to accept Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender from September 7, 2021, following the passage of the law into legislation.
Tanzania’s central bank also announced on Friday that it had begun working on directives from the government that could eventually overturn the country’s ban on cryptocurrencies.
In Paraguay, there are rumours of a Bitcoin bill that will be brought to the country’s legislatures very soon.
Back here in Nigeria, Bitcoin has witnessed stronger demand than in other countries according to data from Google Trends. The data shows that Nigeria ranks first among searches for Bitcoin, with Austria, Turkey and Switzerland in a close race for second.
