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Buying Crypto In Nigeria Cost Extra 35% +

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tykee
@tykee
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I saw news from one of the Nigeria news websites on how Nigerians are losing millions of dollars every day to buy bitcoin. The Central bank of Nigeria(CBN) restricted crypto users in Nigeria and they go as much as freezing bank account that has related crypto memo.

The CBN has been successfully making naira strengthen against the dollar between the last few weeks, however, the trading cost of Cryptos on P2P has differed from the bank dollar rate. Most of the Marchant on the Binance exchange trade within the range of 560 to 570/$ while the country official rate is 420/$. This makes Bitcoin to be more expensive to buy on P2P compared to the traditional rate. Also, buying cryptos with a bank card now would have been cheaper than P2P.

Some Effect on Bitcoin trading in Nigeria

Well, while this seems like buying Bitcoin at a high rate is at a loss, selling Bitcoin on P2P is also high and this makes sense because it seems there is a BTC/$ rate in Nigeria and the rate differs from the normal Naira to Dollar rate. Nigeria used to be among the top countries that trade Bitcoin, but the effect of this has dropped Nigeria from the rank behind countries like El Salvador. This is much expected and more will still likely happen. Local trading companies like Patricia have moved to Estonia because the Government is freezing funds. Nigeria creates their E-naira but no one cared to invest in the centralized coin, and this is one reason they have issues with bitcoin traders.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has not criminalized trading Bitcoin yet, but some police officers see trading bitcoin as a crime. The big traders in the country are also very careful and limit their trading per session. My company was working with a company to convert a huge amount of naira to bitcoin, and the company send naira to my bank account. They send batch by batch. After the third trade, the bank invited the sender to the bank for interrogation and was asking if they were converting to Bitcoin. This is the shit people face with their hard-earned money because they want to invest in bitcoin.

The CBN might go the extra mile if they find out that a huge amount of money still goes in Bitcoin daily. They just want to create a system that keeps everyone in a circle they can watch. I think that is the general issue with many countries.

Well, we are watching and careful while we join this evolution. The current administration will drop power by 2023. They have, like, 14 months to rule. I just hope the next people in power will make trading pretty easy again.

My name is @tykee (Balogun Michael), a software engineer/content writer and the founder of Meshboc Limited. I use my content to share my opinions on tech, lifestyle, and finance.

Contacts Twitter Instagram Discord: tykee#8770

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