BY TAIWO OKUWOBI, LAGOS
The co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Paxful, a peer-to-peer finance platform, Mr. Ray Youssef, has recommended the adoption of cryptocurrency for the federal government of Nigeria as the only best alternative to strengthen the naira against the dollar.
Ray made this suggestion while reacting to a question from journalists on whether through the adoption of crypto currency Nigerians overdependence on the US dollar will be reduced and so strengthen the naira against the US dollar.
He said: “Yes! It is the only thing that has the potential to do that. I want to make it clear to people that we are living in the era of currency worth. Before the bad guys will come and put guns into your head they will first attack your money supply.
“If they really don’t like you they will make your money worthless. They can destroy the value of your currency exchange rate in a single day by buying a huge portion of it and crashing it down by selling all one time. This is the gun that is being held to the head of the leaders of countries and not just Nigeria, but the entire globe.
“That’s how they control the reserve of the world. The question is do we have a shield against that? That’s the trillion dollar question. How do we use Crypto currency to change the game?”
He expressed willingness to engage the government and all stakeholders in the conversation with the view to enlightening them on how it could be used to the benefit of all.
“We want to bring the government and the regulators to the table and discuss the way forward. We don’t intend to go around anything, we want to engage everyone including the regulators.
“We want to sit with them and show them what this is all about. When Nigerians are motivated they can move things very fast so they are wondering what this is all about. Their concern is if it is safe with issues of money laundering and terrorism?
“The regulators of the world both in America are asking the same question. Paxful is everywhere we only need to engage the regulators and assure them that it is safe and it can increase wealth for everyone. We also need to show them how it can make things easier for them to pay their taxes,” he said.
While he emphasized the potentials of Paxful platform in job creation for the teeming young population in Nigeria, he disclosed that Nigeria is its biggest market with an impressive volume which currently stands at $1.5 billion to date with an increase in the number of its Nigerian users to almost 1.5 million.
“Our mission at Paxful is to give everyone equal access to finance no matter who they are or where they are so they can control their own money and build the future they want with financial freedom,” he said.
