- Bayo Onanuga, an adviser to Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, advocates for a ban on cryptocurrency trading platforms like Binance, KuCoin, and others within the country.
- Onanuga believes these platforms manipulate Nigeria’s fiat currency, the Naira, contributing to its decline in the forex market.
- Binance, already facing regulatory scrutiny in various countries, denies influencing Naira value on its platform.
Bayo Onanuga, an adviser to Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu on information and technology, has initiated a contentious debate by calling for a ban on cryptocurrency trading platforms including Binance, KuCoin, and others within the country.
According to Onanuga, the ban originates from the belief that the platforms have been manipulating Nigeria’s fiat currency, the Naira, contributing to its current decline in the forex market. This comes amid speculations that the government is already considering a crypto ban.
In a post titled “The Naira-Dollar Manipulators,” the presidential adviser accused Nigerians of being unpatriotic when trading on the Binance platform. Onanuga called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to halt the operations of cryptocurrency exchanges in the country quickly.
He said:
The EFCC and the CBN should move against these platforms trying to manipulate our national currency to Ground Zero. Crypto should be banned in our country, or else this bleeding of our currency will continue unabated.
Binance Already Facing Regulatory Scrutiny
Onanuga mentioned that Binance is already under regulatory scrutiny in several countries, and should not have any power to determine the value of the Naira on its crypto exchange platform.
Binance has distanced itself from the forex crisis in Nigeria, saying that the platform is market-driven and not intended to be a proxy for currency pricing in Nigeria.
Crypto users in Nigeria have reported difficulty accessing different crypto exchange websites, including Binance, OctaFX, and others. This development arose on the evening of Feb. 21, with speculation of a possible government ban on crypto platforms.
However, Binance was able to respond in an email to its users, saying that it is aware of the situation, clarifying that the issues only affected the online platform and that the Binance app was still functional.
The exchange assured users that it is actively engaging with regulators to foster an open, transparent dialogue about managing the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency in the country.
Nigeria is currently the biggest P2P market in the world, which came about after the CBN banned institutions from buying and selling crypto in 2021.
