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20260806 003000 UTC
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[00:00:04] in in
[00:00:10] At tversa news, wherever the big news stories happening,
[00:00:14] we're get up to break it, tvc news first
[00:00:18] with breaking
[00:00:19] news.
[00:00:31] of
[00:00:41] this is Business
[00:00:42] of Nigeria, Tuesday's edition, now these are the stories we're tracking for
[00:00:46] you right about now, National Economic Council approves
[00:00:50] refinancing of 3.3 billion
[00:00:53] of dollar projects gazel, now Nigeria gains or the Nira,
[00:00:57] beg your pardon gains 3ira 38 cober. other fx
[00:01:00] market trades at $1,365 to
[00:01:04] dollar, AFDB approves $35 billion dollars to
[00:01:08] boost Senegal's public finance management. Well,
[00:01:12] let's quickly go into our commodities space this
[00:01:15] afternoon and see what the market uh is trading
[00:01:18] at. Let's start with gold. Gold is trading at
[00:01:22] $4,124, it's positive
[00:01:25] 33.50
[00:01:27] of and it's 0.82 percentage
[00:01:29] of points. green while for
[00:01:31] of silver 2.45% points in green
[00:01:35] 1.42 positive
[00:01:37] $59.28 for
[00:01:40] of uh an ounce kopari $664 while
[00:01:43] platnum is $1,659 89 cents all for
[00:01:47] an ounce positive 10.60 positive
[00:01:50] 27.46 1.62 percentage points in
[00:01:54] green platinum is 1.68% also in green all
[00:01:58] of the commodities on this first slide. uh coincidentally are standing
[00:02:02] tall in green, well let's see if it's same for the other chart, no
[00:02:06] cotton is dipping 0.82% in red, negative
[00:02:09] 0.68 and it's $81.89. now let's see
[00:02:13] other commodities,
[00:02:14] of coco, i would say is in focus
[00:02:18] today, at $5,939 for metric
[00:02:21] turn, coco seems to be bouncing back to the days of 6,00 and even
[00:02:25] above $6,00 for
[00:02:28] a metric a turn, in look at significant. change 542,
[00:02:31] 10.04% in points we to 0.61% in
[00:02:35] green, trading
[00:02:36] a at $6.55 for metric ton, $473 for
[00:02:40] metric ton of corn and is 0.11% in green.
[00:02:44] Asian markets were choppy
[00:02:46] of today. investors weighed whether strong united states corporate
[00:02:49] earnings would provide fresh momentum for AI related
[00:02:53] stocks across the region. meanwhile,
[00:02:56] MSCI's broadest index of Asian Pacific shares outside
[00:03:00] of Japan down 0.1% as South
[00:03:04] Korea Kospy uh the shares swang between gains and
[00:03:08] losses Japan's
[00:03:09] of Nickel nudged 0.2% at that seta cosi
[00:03:13] of 1.2 and Japan's Nickel
[00:03:16] of and now you see that uh it's in green
[00:03:19] 0.2% that's uh moving to uh
[00:03:23] of emany features were 0.3% higher markets
[00:03:26] took confidence
[00:03:28] of from showing that United States manifest. facturing activities that increased
[00:03:32] to the highest level in more than four years
[00:03:34] in in July, sending the Dow
[00:03:36] of Jones industrial average to
[00:03:38] a record close against the yearn, the dollar was up
[00:03:43] of 0.3%. hm, at 157.62 year rebuilding strength
[00:03:47] after coordinated intervention by the United States and Japanese
[00:03:50] authorities to pop up the
[00:03:53] of yearn last
[00:03:54] in week. now crude oil prices rebounded
[00:03:58] 1% recovering from the previous declines concerns
[00:04:01] remain that the middle east supply could be jecky as a
[00:04:05] diplomatic resolution to the US Iran war still seems
[00:04:09] tough. Now United States West Texas intermediate crude
[00:04:13] rose to $80.75. It's in green
[00:04:16] 0.51% points an optic. Brand Crude
[00:04:20] Features sells for $84.96 with an
[00:04:24] upward price margin also of 1.42 percentage points.
[00:04:27] Indian basket experienced a decline. of
[00:04:32] of of of 5.78% trading at $88.12 for a
[00:04:35] of barrel for the OPEC basket dealers are offering
[00:04:38] $79.50 for a barrel, it has a
[00:04:42] downward price margin of
[00:04:44] $10.04%.
[00:04:49] now the insurance industry in Nigeria is entering
[00:04:53] uh into uh uh face as the National Insurance
[00:04:57] Commission
[00:04:58] a Nicom announces successful completion
[00:05:01] of the country's insurance sector recapitalization
[00:05:04] exercise. The regulator says the milestone macks the
[00:05:08] beginning of a stronger and more
[00:05:11] a resilient insurance industry. better positioned to support
[00:05:14] economic growth, now the 12 month exercise carried out
[00:05:18] under the Najan Insurance Industry Reform Act, 2025,
[00:05:22] so 43 insurance and reinsurance companies meet the
[00:05:26] minimum, new minimum capital requirements after rigorous
[00:05:30] review and verification process. Nicom says
[00:05:34] another eight operators are undergoing final regulatory
[00:05:37] checks with decisions expected within the next two
[00:05:40] weeks. According to the... mission, the recapitalization
[00:05:44] as strengthening the financial capacity of insurance
[00:05:47] companies, attracted fresh local and foreign
[00:05:50] investment and boosted investor confidence in the
[00:05:54] sector. it adds that the stronger capital base
[00:05:58] will enable insurers to underwrite larger risk, settle
[00:06:02] claims more efficiently and support critical
[00:06:05] infrastructure and economic development. now Nicom
[00:06:08] says the exercise lays the foundation for a more trans
[00:06:12] transparent, innovative and globally competitive insurance
[00:06:16] market while reinforcing consumer protection and financial
[00:06:20] inclusion. the commission also reassured policy holders
[00:06:24] that the reforms are aimed at building greater public confidence
[00:06:28] and ensuring insurance delivers more value to
[00:06:31] Nigerians. our guest today live from our Buja studios
[00:06:35] is deputy commissioner for insurance, finance and administration
[00:06:39] at the National Insurance Commission, Mr. Ecurity.
[00:06:42] olagaamikon, it joins me live from Abuja, like I said earlier. Good
[00:06:46] afternoon, thank you so much for joining us on Business
[00:07:00] completion of insurance sector recapitalization exercise.
[00:07:04] I'm excited, I must say after the banking, now we moved to insurance
[00:07:07] space. Well, what does this milestone mean for the
[00:07:11] Nijan insurance? industry and what key objectives has the
[00:07:15] commission achieved through the
[00:07:16] exercise?
[00:07:20] okay, thank you very much toulu and I'm
[00:07:24] happy that we have this opportunity to share
[00:07:27] um what this means to us as industry and
[00:07:31] what this means
[00:07:32] to to Nigeria, so let me just put it simply, it means
[00:07:36] for for for the insurance industry, it means
[00:07:39] respect, it means opportunity.
[00:07:43] and it also means renewed vision,
[00:07:47] indeed, as you were reading the the the message from
[00:07:51] the National Insurance Commission, it's just for me to
[00:07:55] restate that what this has done for the
[00:07:58] commission, the objectives that are achieved is essentially to
[00:08:02] strengthen public confidence and
[00:08:05] also enable greater access to
[00:08:08] insurance and of course foster innovation
[00:08:12] and and collaboration um where we have been and
[00:08:16] where we are now, the difference essentially is that um the
[00:08:19] process has enabled us to see lot more people showing interest in
[00:08:23] insurance and we are happy as an administration the national insurance commission
[00:08:27] that all the work that we have been doing has gotten to this point where we
[00:08:31] can say indeed we are ready for the next phase that the insurance
[00:08:35] industry will will take, a good start,
[00:08:39] must say, now one the major goals of
[00:08:42] capitalization is to strengthen the financial capacity of
[00:08:46] insurance companies, how would this translate
[00:08:49] into better protection now for policy holders and
[00:08:53] improve claim settlements and greater public confidence in the
[00:08:56] industry? okay, so
[00:09:00] so essentially I just need to take us back a bit and and and remind us
[00:09:04] Nigerians that when we came as an administration, shortly after
[00:09:08] we came in, we said to the insurance operators,
[00:09:12] that will have zero tolerance to
[00:09:16] claims um delay and uh
[00:09:19] claims uh being being not settled and
[00:09:22] so that's environment we had created and in the course of
[00:09:26] this journey through the process of recapitulation it had been emphasized
[00:09:30] um at some point we had to uh circulate
[00:09:33] another uh directive to all operators that if
[00:09:37] they do not settle um outstanding claims
[00:09:40] you know they will not scale to to and this
[00:09:44] was something that we took very seriously and ensure that all the 43
[00:09:48] uh 41 insurance companies that you have seen, indeed the 43 insurance
[00:09:52] companies including the reinsurance companies have all had their claim settled up
[00:09:56] to June of of this year and when I say claims I
[00:10:00] mean claims that have been discharged
[00:10:02] you know just for clarity uh that's one that's one side to it and then
[00:10:06] it also means that the insurance companies you know
[00:10:10] will not only be using their money to settle claims but would also be able to
[00:10:13] invest, don't forget insurance premiums are invested
[00:10:17] in the economy and so that provides lot more money
[00:10:20] for for for for the economy in terms of um investible funds.
[00:10:25] for the economy and and uh besides that it also puts
[00:10:29] us a position where we are able to also participate in other
[00:10:32] developmental uh projects in the economy by way of
[00:10:36] um supporting
[00:10:38] you know SMEs in terms of um funding and um
[00:10:41] also support government in terms of uh debts that can be
[00:10:45] borrowed for for purposes of infrastructure
[00:10:47] development again the
[00:10:50] recapitalization exercise as prompted mergers
[00:10:54] and accusations and fresh capital injection across
[00:10:58] the industry, let ask how has Nicom
[00:11:01] ensured that the process promotes a stronger and more
[00:11:05] competitive insurance market without compromising consumer
[00:11:09] interests. Okay,
[00:11:13] great, um, you, you, you might recall that,
[00:11:16] we did say in the course of this journey that no insurance
[00:11:20] company would be allowed to to to fail, and and and
[00:11:24] that was... why we took deliberate steps to ensure that we
[00:11:28] had what we call the recapitalization help desk at the
[00:11:31] commission to help companies that were uh
[00:11:35] financially weak to go through the process, we had
[00:11:38] those conversations with those companies and encouraged
[00:11:42] discussions around um combining their businesses,
[00:11:46] and so we we've had companies that were doing
[00:11:49] life and non-life businesses, some them have had to drop one
[00:11:53] one one side the business. to go forward and um other companies
[00:11:57] have had to pick up those those opportunities that they've dropped or those
[00:12:01] portfolios that they've dropped and um we have
[00:12:05] had lot more of fresh capital coming in, must
[00:12:09] say um while we haven't seen as much majors as
[00:12:12] as an acquisitions that we had expected to
[00:12:16] see and uh we have viewed it as
[00:12:20] probably the capital level was not as high as
[00:12:24] to ' force people to actually go into the kind of measures we wanted
[00:12:28] to see, but we are happy with what we have seen. lot of fresh
[00:12:31] capital has come in into into the sector and we are looking forward
[00:12:35] to uh indeed even making greater results before the end the
[00:12:39] year. don't forget our growth rate, mean year
[00:12:43] on year for for premium is at about
[00:12:46] 65%, considering what we did in
[00:12:49] 2025 uh, between 2024 and
[00:12:52] 2025, in 2024. the industry made
[00:12:56] 1.5 trillion and in 2025 the industry made 2.3
[00:13:00] trillion, so it begins to look like uh, we might be hitting
[00:13:03] the the 10 trillion mark earlier than we we expected, but it's
[00:13:07] looking good, very good. well, I would definitely
[00:13:11] ask you that despite the growth uh seen in the
[00:13:15] insurance industry uh, penetration
[00:13:18] remains relatively low in
[00:13:21] Nigeria uh, with recapitalization now complete,
[00:13:25] "I want to ask you practically that what strategies will
[00:13:28] Naken pursue to expand insurance
[00:13:32] coverage, deeping inclusion and increase
[00:13:35] awareness of products. That is something that is key to me.
[00:13:39] How do we, how is Nicom going to drive this moving
[00:13:41] forward? Okay, so one
[00:13:45] word that is going to come through as we go forward uh
[00:13:49] beyond recapitation would be that of um
[00:13:53] enforcement and another. that will come to be that of
[00:13:56] collaboration um because we we on our
[00:14:00] own we can do we can do little uh as you may have
[00:14:04] seen in in in the past couple of years we've done
[00:14:08] a lot of collaboration with the with the Nigerian police force we've done a lot of collaboration
[00:14:12] with the federal road safety and we are not just doing
[00:14:15] that uh I mean on the back of that for
[00:14:19] example is the accidents um victims compensation
[00:14:23] fund which gives
[00:14:25] some some access to the police in terms of funding and the federal road safety to
[00:14:29] be able to support this whole process of ensuring that um
[00:14:33] people that put their vehicles on the road have insurance and then
[00:14:37] people that are injured on the road you know are also
[00:14:40] compensated because sometimes you have uninsured vehicles um on the
[00:14:44] road and accidents happen and it becomes a real bad
[00:14:48] situation for for Nigerians that's what the fund is is meant for
[00:14:52] and to also deepen in the area of building and all of that all
[00:14:55] the properties across the country, we've got the fire maintenance
[00:14:59] uh uh fund which which is um coming from the premium
[00:15:03] that insurance companies uh generate, percentage of that premium is set
[00:15:07] aside for for to fund that process and it's also meant
[00:15:11] to ensure that um training is done, is also meant to
[00:15:15] ensure that equipments are are gotten across the country
[00:15:19] to to restore
[00:15:20] you know businesses uh when they face such uh situations and don't
[00:15:24] forget also that part of what this capital will do
[00:15:27] in in growing the business is that when premium is generated, the insurance companies are able
[00:15:31] to also fund and another important angle to it, which is
[00:15:35] the policy holders protection f. which is put there to indeed
[00:15:39] ensure that a very practical way policy holders are not left
[00:15:42] stranded and that is already in place and is beginning to
[00:15:46] get funded by insurance companies from the premium they generate so these
[00:15:50] are these are the ways that we will be able to to to do this
[00:15:54] enforcement collaboration and then be able to ensure that
[00:15:58] compensation happens at every level all right
[00:16:02] interesting stuff there but i would one more question before
[00:16:05] i i i know aware the
[00:16:09] third party insurance thing and what he used to be before now
[00:16:13] in local palance where we say police let me pass people will say
[00:16:16] that but i see that there was that new energy from
[00:16:19] ncom uh you know trying to say that no it's more than this and you
[00:16:23] know your drive towards addressing fake documents and all
[00:16:27] of that in Abuja and lagos followed some the raids that you went
[00:16:31] for and all of it but i want to ask how well uh this
[00:16:35] is playing out talking about third party insurance thing
[00:16:39] uh, what are the positives after all of this moves, your partnership with the
[00:16:42] FRSC, the Nijan police force, okay, how well have we are we
[00:16:46] doing with regards to that? okay, okay,
[00:16:50] so so we're doing very well with that, um, we
[00:16:53] uh, one, we are the verge of um, actually taking
[00:16:57] some people through the process of prosecution, because they
[00:17:01] were, they were, they were caught in the act when the raid was done, so that
[00:17:05] process is ongoing with the with the FCT police command um
[00:17:09] and um recently also we have had to do
[00:17:12] uh a training session for the FCT uh police command which we are also
[00:17:16] going to restain to other parts the country to really bring the education
[00:17:20] of um the third party how it works the the meaning of it
[00:17:24] and how we can verify when you actually stop people
[00:17:28] how we can be verified the platform is available for that verification
[00:17:31] and so they are shown how that happens to be able to enlighten them and train
[00:17:35] them and we are we are. making progress from where we were the last time in that
[00:17:39] in
[00:17:40] that in that regard, the other thing also is that um we are able
[00:17:43] to uh insight you know
[00:17:47] people, i use that word deliberately because sometimes is more than
[00:17:50] education you know to to see that look you can't continue to rely
[00:17:54] on these fake uh certificates that you have all over the place you
[00:17:58] know because these fake certificates are unfortunately sold through
[00:18:01] official channels and what we have done is to is to bring those
[00:18:05] guys out and let them know that and let the public rather know that these guys
[00:18:09] are fake and so if you if you go and buy insurance from
[00:18:13] those platforms don't expect any kind of compensation um so
[00:18:17] we are on going with that and the the enlightenment continues you know is
[00:18:21] something that we intend to take across the country
[00:18:24] you know we've done it in abuja we've done it in legos and legos has been very
[00:18:28] fantastic because in legos in fact the government has thinking upon
[00:18:32] themselves everybody knows now that in lagos in certain areas when you drive
[00:18:35] through you are in trouble when don't have the juniine insurance
[00:18:39] cover, so that's what we expect to see,
[00:18:40] and in the course of time we will have that in the country. why are we doing all of this? is just to
[00:18:44] give the public confidence, people should not go out their homes and be
[00:18:48] involved in some situation that we call accidents that they not plan
[00:18:52] for, and become financially disabled or lose out in their vision
[00:18:56] or dreams just because they couldn't get compensation. that's the whole idea at the
[00:19:00] end the day. so almost finally uh,
[00:19:03] awareness again comes to my mind, uh, in
[00:19:06] you the... know,
[00:19:07] even the news room here we had that conversation that insurance,
[00:19:11] awareness, awareness, awareness, yes, before I came on on set,
[00:19:14] so again I want to ask uh, what is Nakon
[00:19:18] planning as we move, we are in the second half the year already to
[00:19:22] dipen awareness across the board, what more should we be
[00:19:26] expecting, and how also are
[00:19:29] your uh companies that have been able to scale through this
[00:19:33] process, how are they fairing, what's their reaction, I think they should be
[00:19:36] excited by now, just like the banks were when they scaled through uh
[00:19:40] the CBN recapitalization
[00:19:42] exercise so so
[00:19:45] so so let let me start from how how they are fairing i
[00:19:49] should mention that uh shortly before i came i came i came into the
[00:19:53] studio i left left my colleagues in the office
[00:19:57] handing out certificates to the the
[00:20:01] recapitalized insurance companies their new licenses rather wow and it
[00:20:04] was exciting all over the room for for those were there to to get
[00:20:08] their their um new uh licenses
[00:20:12] and um they know because we have
[00:20:16] been on this journey, getting the license is just like
[00:20:20] the icing on the cake, the cake has been has been made and so getting
[00:20:24] to bake new cake is where we are and to do that we need to
[00:20:27] really get our mindsets right and and i
[00:20:31] can tell you that today you no longer have people shouting all
[00:20:35] across the country, i have claim that has not
[00:20:37] been paid. by insurance company, if that is happening, then it means that the person
[00:20:41] probably doesn't know where to go, and that is why even on this program, I'm
[00:20:45] happy to to say categorically that if you have
[00:20:48] claim, that's not. by insurance company, genuine claim, valid
[00:20:52] claim, please come forward and we'll deal with it. we we've had such situation
[00:20:56] and people that never believe that they could get their claim, are getting their claim
[00:20:59] settled, so lot a lot has changed, the insurance companies are happy, we
[00:21:03] are happy, yes there's a lot more to do, absolutely there's a lot more to
[00:21:07] do, because people still believe in the past,
[00:21:11] the people still live in the past in terms of way insurance is, and that's why you have that
[00:21:15] conversation that you're having in the studio, test it tulu, and tell
[00:21:19] you su you you will see the difference, because
[00:21:23] now insurance companies know that they can't toy with not paying
[00:21:27] claims, insurance companies know that they can't to with misinforming or
[00:21:30] misleading members the public on the kind of products that they have,
[00:21:34] if they have a product that that is that is misleading we withdraw it, if
[00:21:38] our product is misleading will not approve it, so those are the ways that we are we are
[00:21:42] taking steps to guide against people getting on
[00:21:46] the wrong side, what is awareness basically, mean people get to be
[00:21:50] but I tell you, I have seen too many Nigerians go the wrong way, even when
[00:21:54] they have heard, they still allow people to mislead them, and that's why we are saying
[00:21:58] the website is there, the social media handles are there, go ahead, get
[00:22:02] information,
[00:22:03] you know, and with AI these days you can get the right information before you
[00:22:07] before you actually start that journey, you know, so that's what we expect in terms
[00:22:11] of in terms of going forward, lot of engagement, lot of questions being
[00:22:15] answered, and what we are doing now is something that we intend to do
[00:22:19] lot more, as we go forward even before the end the year,
[00:22:22] great, great stuff. now finally, looking ahead, let's look at,
[00:22:26] you've talked about some of it, but what will be the commission's
[00:22:30] vision for the entire sector, let's say over the next five
[00:22:33] years, what you the investors, insurance operators, policyholders
[00:22:37] expect now, in terms of regulations,
[00:22:40] innovations, digital transformation, and of course
[00:22:44] market growth,
[00:22:47] so so to put all of
[00:22:49] this in, a very simple way that we all understand, yeah, we're trying to say
[00:22:53] that it becomes easier for you to get
[00:22:57] insurance and it becomes easier for you to get your claims paid, it becomes
[00:23:01] easier for you to relate with
[00:23:04] insurance because you will better understand insurance than
[00:23:07] before, and to the issue here is that
[00:23:11] if you don't have insurance policy you can't understand it, there are people that have had
[00:23:15] insurance policies for 10 years and they never had claim and they had claim in one year and
[00:23:19] the are whole
[00:23:21] you know understanding of insurance changed and there are some people who had
[00:23:24] insurance in six months they had claim and it made them
[00:23:28] believe that oh if you don't have insurance then you don't know what you are doing so
[00:23:31] insurance is experience have the experience and when
[00:23:35] we have seen people with bad experience all we have done
[00:23:39] you know since we came in has been trying to give people better experience and that's why we are
[00:23:43] saying that making insurance work in Nigeria is our
[00:23:46] mission that we are looking to accomplish but the the
[00:23:50] vehicle to do that is the recapitalization, however in
[00:23:54] that vehicle that we are now moving to guess what, yeah, after
[00:23:58] recapitalization, there is another level of capitalization that we are talking about, which is the risk based
[00:24:02] capitalization, mean so when that happens even
[00:24:06] the insurance companies that are recapitalized now will know that they haven't even started yet, because what are we
[00:24:10] talking about is basically saying that the risk you you must have capital to
[00:24:14] support the risk that you carry you know and so we are going
[00:24:18] to continue assessing the insurance companies based on the capital
[00:24:22] and ensure that they continuously be a strong position to support the
[00:24:26] customers that they have, what's our work at the commission? our work at the
[00:24:30] commission is to ensure
[00:24:31] that the insurance companies keep the promise that they have made to the public, it's as simple as
[00:24:34] that, and so in whatever shape and form, the color
[00:24:38] uh of innovation and all of that, as is simple, ensure that you
[00:24:42] keep your promise that you made to the customers and that's way we believe that
[00:24:45] nigerians will now have confidence in the insurance
[00:24:48] ecosystem, go ahead and and leave their dreams, do their business, knowing that
[00:24:52] if something goes wrong, we will be you know
[00:24:56] compensated, we will be restored back to the position that we
[00:24:59] were, and and that way, that's how growth can
[00:25:02] happen,
[00:25:03] you know, in that order, thank you very much, well it's a good way to
[00:25:07] live it, Mr. Secur, is the deputy commissioner for
[00:25:11] insurance, finance and administration at Nicom, thank you so much for
[00:25:15] this clarity, making us understand all of this, uh, we
[00:25:18] hope to see you again soon.
[00:25:20] you know doing some monitor and evaluation of all these processes moving forward, thank you for
[00:25:24] your
[00:25:29] all still to come on the program, we would focus on the guidelines
[00:25:33] on virtual assets uh, taxation released by the
[00:25:36] Nigerian revenue service, I mean to the burning economic and
[00:25:40] geopolitical issues, my next guest is a partner,
[00:25:44] tax reporting and strategy, price water house coopers,
[00:25:48] Mr. Kennet erikume. He joins me virtually right
[00:25:51] after this break, don't go
[00:25:53] away.
[00:26:07] We're glad to have you back now, Nigeria is taking another major
[00:26:11] step in regulating its fast growing digital economy. The Nigerian
[00:26:15] revenue service has released new guidelines that set on how
[00:26:19] cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets will be taxed across the
[00:26:22] country. The new framework provides clear rules for tax payers, virtual
[00:26:26] assets service providers, pair to pair marketplace operators and
[00:26:30] other in others involved in digital. solar assets
[00:26:33] transaction. now it outlines registration requirements, reporting
[00:26:36] standards, record book, record keeping
[00:26:39] obligations and how virtual assets should be valued for
[00:26:43] tax purposes. the revenue service says the guidelines are
[00:26:47] designed to bring greater clarity, consistency and
[00:26:50] transparency to tax administration as more Nigerians embrace
[00:26:54] digital assets. officials also believe the framework
[00:26:58] will encourage voluntary compliance with while strengthening confidence.
[00:27:02] in the country's evolving digital economy. now the move comes
[00:27:06] as the federal government pushes broader tax reforms aim that widening the
[00:27:10] tax net and boosting revenue generation. it also reflects Nigeria's
[00:27:14] shift towards a more structured regulatory approach to virtual assets, giving
[00:27:18] businesses and investors, greater certainty as the sector
[00:27:21] continues to grow. my next guest is a partner, tax reporting and
[00:27:25] strategy, prize water house coopers, Mr.
[00:27:28] Kennet. thank
[00:27:40] And it's, I think it's more of good news. Let me start, you let us know if it's good news
[00:27:44] as the tax authorities has released new guidelines on
[00:27:48] the taxation of virtual assets. Now, you are an expert in this and
[00:27:52] immediately I have to reach out to you to make us understand what this means. Now,
[00:27:56] what do these guardlines seek to achieve? Why is
[00:27:59] this an important development for Nigeriaus? digital
[00:28:02] economy right, thank you very much
[00:28:06] to, I think first of
[00:28:09] all um, there's a bit of background to all of
[00:28:12] this, there are reports that
[00:28:16] Nigeria, as a market
[00:28:20] has significant trade volumes in crypto
[00:28:23] assets, and some published reports
[00:28:27] indicates that transactions a year are in
[00:28:31] the region of 100 b billion dollars per
[00:28:34] annum and and that's significant and
[00:28:38] and I guess the question would be what is driving this
[00:28:42] sort of native adoption because when you look at those numbers
[00:28:45] Nigeria see you
[00:28:47] know is in one the top
[00:28:50] 10 um countries in terms
[00:28:53] of um trading in crypto or digital
[00:28:57] assets and you know
[00:29:01] in my mind what has driven this sort of native
[00:29:03] adoption is because a certain point in
[00:29:07] time there was
[00:29:10] opportunity particularly in the area
[00:29:14] of foreign currency to get some
[00:29:17] arbitrage when you looked at
[00:29:19] the um official exchange rate
[00:29:23] compared to the um the parallel
[00:29:26] market um rate um and during that time
[00:29:30] there were lot of ' you know
[00:29:34] adoption, especially in the peer to peer
[00:29:38] segment the ecosystem, where people
[00:29:42] were taking advantage because they couldn't otherwise
[00:29:45] access foreign currency through the
[00:29:49] official market, so lot of emphasis was placed
[00:29:52] on crypto as a bypass the well
[00:29:56] established exchange control at the time,
[00:30:00] so you would have seen large trans transactions in terms of
[00:30:03] remittances as well as
[00:30:06] you know p2p transactions,
[00:30:09] but once people have adopted it, it has come to stay, and if you
[00:30:13] cast your mind back, when
[00:30:17] the current administration
[00:30:20] harmonized the um exchange
[00:30:24] rate, they identified
[00:30:28] and rightly so transactions in
[00:30:32] the... to space as one the areas um
[00:30:35] that regulation need needed to be strengthened um and
[00:30:39] subsequent to that um there was there was
[00:30:43] one very high profile crypto exchange that was in the
[00:30:47] news um that was being prosecuted for
[00:30:51] certain breaches in the market as well as you know
[00:30:55] much more recently um establishment of huge tax
[00:30:59] bill.