By Eugene Onyeji
After a clampdown in Nigeria that nearly destroyed its business and forced it to relocate to Estonia, Patricia Technologies Ltd, a cryptocurrency exchange seeks to tap investors for the first time.
This comes after the court ruled for it to vacate with immediate effect, and the interim order to freeze two of the firm’s bank accounts that traded in cryptocurrency.
Patricia is an alternative payment solutions company that facilitates the easy use of cryptocurrencies for everyday transactions in Nigeria.
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Founder Hanu Agbodje disclosed to Bloomberg that his company is now planning to raise as much as $50 million to upgrade its technology, hire blockchain engineers and keep up with regulatory requirements. The funds is expected to be raised in the next six months.
“The crypto space is heavily frowned upon by regulators so we need to be 100% compliant as we enter new markets,” Agbodje said.
He futher explained that to help people understand the technology, a lot of the funds he plans to raise will go into marketing.”We need to find ways to break it down and reach as many people as we can,” he stated.
Abodje said also that the Nigerian apex bank may reverse its crackdown on crypto trading, at which time, the country’s crypto industry would just get “larger and greater.”
The Nigerian Central Bank , in a circular dated 5th February 2021 and distributed to regulated financial firms, the apex bank of Africa’s largest economy warned and reminded local financial institutions against having any transactions in crypto or facilitating payments for crypto exchanges.
Nigerians are adopting virtual currencies as a hedge against the country’s capital limitations and to send money, despite the Central Bank’s resistance and a lack of coherent rules guiding cryptocurrency use in the country.
