{"id":317118,"date":"2021-02-18T08:37:57","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T07:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=317118"},"modified":"2021-02-18T08:38:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T07:38:36","slug":"imf-backs-cbn-on-cryptocurrency-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=317118","title":{"rendered":"IMF backs CBN on Cryptocurrency ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief<\/h3>\n

MONEY MARKET<\/h5>\n

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed support for the directive <\/span>of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that banks should close all accounts related to cryptocurrency transactions. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, the IMF cautioned the Federal Government (FG) against increasing the tax rate in a bid to generate more revenue, saying, this is not the right time for such a move. <\/span><\/p>\n

IMF Resident Representative for Nigeria, Mr Ari Aisen, stated this yesterday while speaking at a special virtual press briefing on <\/span>the recently published <\/span>2020 Article IV IMF Staff Report for Nigeria. <\/span>Commenting on the CBN directive on crypto currencies, <\/span>he said that there is global concern for some of the uses of crypto currencies which include <\/span>illegal transactions such as money laundering and drug trafficking. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to him, many central banks in the world have taken similar policy decisions similar to the one taken <\/span>by the CBN.<\/p>\n

Debt\/DGP Ratio<\/p>\n

The Resident Rep said that Nigeria\u2019s Debt\/GDP ratio has not reached a level of overt concern, but added, it is important to ensure that the Debt to Gross Domestic Product (Debt\/GDP) <\/span>is not allowed to reach a level that would make it unsustainable.<\/p>\n

He added that it is important to manage borrowed funds properly for the economic benefits of the nation.<\/p>\n

Aisen said, \u201cWhat is most important to be monitored is the ratio of debt service to revenue,\u2019 noting that the nation\u2019s revenue profile was very low and therefore not enough to meet budgetary expenditure provision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is one policy that has to be a top policy priority it is how to raise revenue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Not time to raise tax rate<\/p>\n

He however said, \u201cthis is not the right time to raise the tax rate. The government should rather strengthen its tax administration by expanding the tax base and block leakages.\u201d<\/p>\n

He <\/span>urged the Federal Government (FG) to take more concerted steps towards the diversification of the economy, and end the dependence on oil exports as the nation\u2019s main foreign exchange earner.<\/p>\n

He said that the volatility of oil price has made the commodity too much of a risk for any country to depend on it for its forex earnings.<\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IMF By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief MONEY MARKET The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed support for the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that banks should close all accounts related to cryptocurrency transactions. However, the IMF cautioned the Federal Government (FG) against increasing the tax rate in a bid to generate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":312096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2197,9024,5997],"class_list":["post-317118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-cbn","tag-crypto-currency","tag-imf"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=317118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/312096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=317118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=317118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=317118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}