In February, the central bank told banks and financial institutions that “facilitating payments for cryptocurrency exchanges is prohibited”. The bank moved to introduce the e-naira, which will count as a cryptocurrency and will be pegged to the physical naira, after the country’s vice-president, Yemi Osinbajo argued that cryptocurrencies should be regulated, not banned.
Introducing a digital currency in the context of the ban is “counter-productive”, says Toritse David, an investment banking analyst at Standard Bank in Lagos. She sees expectations of further naira weakness as a motivation for cryptocurrency use.