Not Every Youth With Laptop Computer, Crypto Wallet Is A Fraudster – Reps

The chairman, House of Representatives Ad-Hoc Committee on the Economic, Regulatory, and Security Implications of Cryptocurrency Adoption and Point-of-Sale (PoS) Operations, Hon. Olufemi Bamisile, has declared that “not every young Nigerian with a laptop and a crypto wallet is a fraudster.”

Bamisile made this declaration during the committee’s meeting with cryptocurrency operators and digital asset innovators at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja on Monday.

The high-level meeting brought together a wide range of industry stakeholders from licensed exchanges and blockchain associations to financial technology experts and regulatory representatives, to deliberate on the challenges, opportunities, and future of Nigeria’s fast-evolving digital finance ecosystem.

The lawmaker reaffirmed the House of Representatives’ commitment to providing the clear regulatory direction and legal certainty the cryptocurrency sector urgently needed.

“Our goal is to create a framework that supports innovation without compromising security or financial integrity. Nigeria cannot afford to lag behind in the digital economy, but our progress must be anchored on transparency, coordination, and accountability,” he said.

Bamisile further urged security agencies, particularly the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to build technical expertise in blockchain and cryptocurrency operations.

He said, “not every young Nigerian with a laptop and a crypto wallet is a fraudster,” emphasising the need for informed enforcement and training to distinguish between innovation and financial crime.

The committee’s members, including Hon. Kama Nkemkama and Hon. Akinosi, echoed the chairman’s position, pledging to ensure that the final legislative outcome would be fair, inclusive, and aligned with global best practices.

Stakeholders at the meeting said, the engagement was “historic,” noting how, for the first time, the National Assembly had successfully gathered verifiable industry players under one roof to listen, debate and contribute intelligently toward a unified national policy on digital assets.

They appealed to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) now Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS) to proceed carefully with any proposed crypto tax framework to avoid pushing the largely informal and “uncultured” market deeper underground.

Mawahin Adams, the co-founder of the Nigeria Women Bitcoiners noted that any national policy on digital assets must include women’s perspectives not as an afterthought, but as a critical part of building an inclusive and sustainable digital economy.

In his comments, Abdulrasheed Mohammed, Head of Fintech Innovations at the SEC, explained that the commission’s accelerated regulatory incubation framework was carefully curated to prevent unsupervised operations.

He stressed that SEC maintains strict oversight on what activities are permissible within its sandbox and will not allow any arrangement that complicates its monitoring capacity.