Economic Prospect of Cryptocurrency: Nigeria as a Case Study

Abstract

The emergence of blockchain technologies has experienced rapid growth and generated lots of activities around the globe, where people use cryptocurrencies for transactions and as investments. Nigeria's cryptocurrency market is surging due to the devaluation of the naira and has caused local currency to depreciate. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies are part of a broader wave of technologies that facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) commerce, and personalisation of market products. The technology create money without central banks and facilitate payments without financial institutions. This study investigates the economic prospect of cryptocurrency with a focus on Nigeria as a case study. The study employed the use of qualitative data gathered using a structured online questionnaire. The result revealed that 69% of the participants were male, and 48.6% were between the ages of 25-34. Furthermore, 46.8% of the respondent are in support of cryptocurrency regulation by the Nigerian government, rather than the total ban placed on the technology. A large proportion (73%) of the respondents are not in support of Nigerian government prohibiting commercial banks from dealing with cryptocurrency. In addition, the majority (91%) of the participants had knowledge of cryptocurrency. The study concluded that the apex banks should deliberately adopt cryptocurrency and create a department that rolls out policies to control its value.