Image courtesy of h24tv.com/The State Minister of Finance, Uganda, Hon David Bahati, has told the Ugandan Parliament that the government continues to advise the public to stay away from cryptocurrencies.
The statement follows recent ponzi schemes associated with cryptocurrencies in the country that have seen the public lose millions of dollars in such investments..
While speaking to the sitting Parliament, Bahati said:
“We have continued to advise the public to desist from investing in cryptocurrencies since they are yet to be supervised and regulated in Uganda. We have, therefore, strongly encouraged the members of the public to do their business transactions with only licensed financial institutions.”
Speaking on a possible coming regulation on digital assets, the minister said:
“The Second Schedule of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2013 is also being amended to include virtual assets providers on the list of accountable persons. This will bring virtual assets service providers including providers of cryptocurrencies to be brought under the purview of the Financial Intelligence Authority and will be required to adhere to reporting requirements under the Act.”
A number of parliament members aired their views and opinions on cryptocurrencies, most of them calling for an outright ban on digital assets and cryptocurrencies.
“We need to encourage our children to value hard work because some university students have also been duped. You do not put money into a computer and think you will earn too much.” ~ Hon. Jovah Kamateeka
According to Business Focus Uganda, CryptoSavannah, was among the companies wrongly mentioned as running a fraudulent ponzi scheme.
Speaking on the misconception and misunderstanding on ponzis and cryptocurrencies, Kwame Ruganda, CEO, CryptoSavannah, said:
“The MPs have wrong information, I do not run a pyramid scheme, but rather I run a technology business that develops blockchain solutions. There is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding in the public domain about cryptocurrencies and ponzi schemes, and the claims by our MPs unfortunately represent this misinformation.”
He added:
“I am familiar with cryptocurrencies because they are developed using a technology called blockchain, which I work with. Many of the applications developed through blockchain technology take on the “crypto” prefix because blockchain uses strong cryptography to secure its transactions. Based on this “crypto” prefix, these applications are referred to as crypto-assets, and some of these include crypto-currencies, crypto-kitties, crypto-wallets, crypto-funds, crypto-tokens, etc.
Our company is part of the Blockchain Association of Uganda, which is the umbrella body of different blockchain and crypto businesses in Uganda.”
NB: The blockchain associations of East Africa recently put out a joint press statement addressing the recent crypto scams and ponzi schemes affecting the East African region. The statement is accessible here.
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