Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has appointed three Nigerian citizens to the board of the Bitcoin Trust Fund he founded with American rapper, Jay Z last year.
Abubakar Nur Khalil, Obi Owusu, and Ojoma Ochai who were appointed to the board were recognized for their efforts in the promotion of bitcoin development in Africa. A South African, Carla Kirk-Cohen was selected along the Nigerians from a pool of 7,000 applicants.
“They’ll now work towards defining the operating principles as they think about how to best distribute the 500 bitcoin towards development efforts,” Dorsey tweeted.
Read: Kenya Lagging on Regulation Plans as Bigger African Economies Lay Out Frameworks for Cryptocurrency
“I’m so grateful for you all and so inspired,” Dorsey tweeted on Wednesday while announcing the leaders of the Bitcoin trust fund.
Last year, Jack Dorsey and Musician Jay-Z announced a 500 bitcoin pledge (worth about $23.3 million) towards BTrust, an endowment fund aimed at promoting Bitcoin.
Through his Twitter account, Dorsey said that the development will initially focus on Africa and India, but that both he and Jay-Z would give zero direction to the plans.
Read: Kenya Denies Involvement in Arrest, Deportation of Nigerian Separatist Leader Kanu
According to research by Paxful compiling cryptocurrency trade globally, Nigeria ranks highest figures in Africa with Sh63 billion traded in the last five years. The West African country ranks third globally after the US and Russia, according to global market data tracker, Statista.
In February this year, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) banned the trading of cryptorrency.
“Regulated financial institutions that dealing with cryptocurrencies or facilitating payments for cryptocurrency exchanges is prohibited.” the regulator said.
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