Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, has stated that Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy, will be at the forefront of bitcoin, despite partial ban of cryptocurrency in the country.
Dorsey has been a promoter of the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, and has been open about his support for Nigeria in the crypto community since the EndSARS protest in October last year.
Three months after the protest against Police brutality in Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ordered banks to stop conducting operations with cryptocurrency exchanges.
CBN announced in February 2021 that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not a legal tender within the country and directed that every account linked with digital currency be closed.
While this directive has slowed the growth of crypto among Nigerians, Dorsey believes that the country will still top bitcoin.
“The people of Nigeria will lead bitcoin”, the tech investor simply Tweeted on Sunday.
His comment comes at a time citizens are using peer-to-peer to bypass the restriction placed on bank accounts by the CBN for cryptocurrency transactions.
Shutdown of Twitter by the Nigerian government has also been linked to the Square founder’s support of the EndSARS through bitcoin, which led to the growth in the crypto usage in October 2020.