The recent circular issued by Securities and Exchange Commission Nigeria introducing sweeping increases in minimum capital requirements for capital market operators, including blockchain and virtual asset service providers, has raised significant concern across Nigeria’s digital asset ecosystem. While SiBAN recognises the SEC’s objective of strengthening market resilience and systemic stability, the scale and pace of the proposed recapitalisation framework imposes an extraordinary capital and liquidity burden on an emerging sector that is still in its formative stages.

Speaking on the development, the President of the Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SIBAN) Mela Claude Ake  noted that “This policy places a huge overwhelming capital and liquidity burden on the blockchain sector. Even traditional capital market operators who have had decades to operate and establish deep global finance networks might still struggle with compliance. 

The blockchain sector is, relatively speaking, a baby sector and should be handled with care. It's not mature enough for these kinds of capitalisation requirements. The SEC should as a matter of urgency, review this policy as it affects blockchain operators. Policies like this will stifle innovation and harm the budding blockchain sector”.

SIBAN therefore calls on the SEC to urgently review the capitalization framework as it applies to blockchain operators, with a view to adopting a phased, risk-based, and innovation-sensitive approach. The Association will actively engage the SEC and relevant government stakeholders to ensure that regulatory objectives are achieved without undermining innovation, job creation, and economic growth. Nigeria’s economy urgently requires policies that balance prudential oversight with sustainable development, and the blockchain sector must be nurtured  not constrained at this critical stage of its evolution.