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 decided after consulting parents and guardians.
“We’ve 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.
Mr Haruna added that countries like El-Salvador and Tanzania are already accepting cryptocurrency in their schools.
He, therefore, urged the Federal Government to embrace the system and regularize it quickly.
The move could pave the way for other schools to adopt cryptocurrency payments, shifting from centralized to decentralized payment methods.
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.
Nigeria is not the only country that accepts crypto payments because the El Salvador government made it official weeks ago. El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele announced that he would accept Bitcoin as legal currency. Paraguay also will present a legislation law in July to adopt Bitcoin.
Crypto payments in Nigerian high schools may put the decentralized market in the regulator’s focus. However, many people and institutions in the country approve of the crypto trade. Cryptocurrencies may be viewed differently in Nigeria after this measure that the school has taken.
For the next few weeks, the crypto course in the country may change for the better, or perhaps it will be more strict. Cryptocurrencies are relatively new to citizens in Nigeria, so they are so encouraged to use them.
