Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission is considering permitting asset-backed token offerings on licensed digital exchanges, Bloomberg reported on May 1.

Abdulkadir Abbas, head of securities and investment services at the Abuja-based commission, told Bloomberg that the tokens would be backed by assets including equity, debt and property, and would not include crypto. SEC is now processing applications for digital exchanges on a trial basis, the report said.

The token backed by the financial assets are often called security token, and Japan and Singapore are among the nations that have adopted it and attempted to expand the market of it over the past five years.

The report said the SEC’s move may attract digitally-savvy people in Nigeria of more than 200 million population to local assets like equities.

-Photo: A crowd waiting at a bank ATM in Lagos / NODO News