Topic: Nigeria unbans cryptocurrency (Read 514 times)

You need to cite your sources OP because most of the replies are clearly in disagreement and are correcting your OP. That would also help clear up the confusion because that would mean that others can read the article that you've shared and they can clarify it if they see that you're wrong. It seems that there's still some restrictions in cryptocurrency use in Nigeria, I do hope though that this will not be for too long because Nigeria is a big cryptocurrency community and it wouldn't be fair to those people that they're discriminated or ostracized in their own country just because they use something that would help them elevate financially.

Nigeria to Ban Person-to-Person Crypto Trade in Dented Naira

SEC planning to release crypto regulations in ‘coming days’
Move is latest step to shield the currency from speculators

Nigeria vowed to ban person-to-person cryptocurrency trading in the naira, taking its latest step to corral an industry which the West African nation blames for harming the battered local currency.

Securities and Exchange Commission Director General Emomotimi Agama also told a meeting with fintech professionals on Monday that new rules would be rolled out “in the coming days” covering crypto exchanges, digital asset custodians and other corners of the sector.

https://www.algorand.foundation/news/plateau-state-government-and-algorand-foundation-explore-blockchain-programs-in-nigeria
"The Government of Plateau State of Nigeria is launching a collaboration with Algorand Foundation, the organization focused on growing the ecosystem for the world's most advanced, secure and reliable layer-1 blockchain, to develop pilot programs using blockchain technology. The Government of Plateau State plays a crucial role in the governance and administration of state services, and oversees daily operations in sectors ranging from judicial and legislative services to procurement and health care."

Yes I could remember vividly how it's started in Nigeria and the government seems to fight it off the surface but legalized but it's has come to my knowledge that not all. Nigerians has the access to it cause their has to end some applications they do make use of and some of applications was banned unless Bianace that is up and running.

But it's will be helpful and also use if the government makes it legalized all over the world then it will be an access free to purchase most stuff without stress

18% is a good profit, but you must take into account that this activity is not entirely legal and they also have risks.

I agree with you that trust is the main basis in this business. But Telegram saves logs and I have heard of cases where Telegram employees passed on important information to others. And there is always a risk that data on all transactions will be declassified.

The Russian way of transaction is more public almost as legalization but yet with laws. If an exchange gives description of a store to pick up cash sold or exchanged from cryptocurrency, it is just as public as it is no longer secretive using bitcoin in the country. Also with the Nigerian unrestricted conditions with the banks probably some stores will also open up for people who are cool in using crypto without fear any more. Apart from exchanges, there are P2P agents and arbitrage traders that have been existing for long and they have leveraged the crypto market without any negative effect of the earlier restrictions with the banks.

They are making a good amount as the exchange rate for USD on Indian exchanges is very good. I am quoting an example here the rate generally varies from INR 89 to INR 90 to 1 USD. However, when I checked the link they were offering INR 73 for 1 USD. So, the difference is INR 16 to INR 17 which is quite good money if the volumes are high. Since they are based in some major metropolitan cities in India and are still working, I assume they are getting good profits.

Yes, it is true, so here we use Telegram for exchange, but we do not use Telegram bots because they are not reliable. There is a Telegram account for more than one broker that is reliable by experience.

The exchange takes place manually, as the seller sends the amount to be transferred to the broker’s wallet. Then the broker contacts the buyer and asks him to send a “money or bank transfer” to the seller’s address equivalent to the value of the amount in local currency. When the seller receives the money transfer, he informs the broker who transfers the amount to the Buyer’s wallet (with a 1-2% commission discount from the seller and buyer).

Therefore, everything is done manually and depends primarily on trust in the broker.

And the safest option is not to conduct activities publicly. If we take the Russian experience and do not use couriers or caches, then in Russia there are many telegram bots that allow you to make P2P exchanges. I have said many times that such services are also used by scammers and the user has a chance to get the card blocked and an invitation to the police.
If P2P transfers work, then this alleviates the problem with the exchange.

I wish we had such services here, but unfortunately all of these things are not available and there is only an intermediary option.

Although there are still no explicit laws prohibiting the use of Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in my country, on the other hand, there are no laws that allow them to be used, so people here are very cautious and fear that if they deal openly they will be arrested by the authorities, so the option of working secretly through an intermediary is the easiest and the safest option yet.

This is a service for Russians who do not know India and local crypto exchanges. I am sure that these services use the right exchanges in India and make good money on the difference between the prices on the exchanges and their prices. But they help transfer money from Russia and other countries to India without registration and other problems.

Great! I was not aware of it and I assumed none were dealing in cryptocurrencies in India. I did check your link and found multiple options available to get paid in India without the interference of anyone. What I did not understand is why the local currency exchange rates are so low as there are other resources available that give a good exchange rate of local currency. By other resources, I meant those international exchanges that run their P2P service and those that did not get shadow banned by the government like Hodl Hodl and others. 

In Russia it is not prohibited to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, but if you do not want to do this in one place, then you send the cryptocurrency to a trusted exchanger and they tell you the address of a regular store where you pick up cash using the code word or a courier brings you cash.



When a Russian comes to another country, the first thing he does is look for partners where he can exchange cryptocurrency. Several Russian exchangers operate in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata
https://www.bestchange.ru/tether-trc20-to-dollar-cash-in-dlh.html
There are thousands of reviews on bestchange.

We do have many exchanges in India and all of them are being regulated by the government. That is why every transaction we make on the Indian exchange costs as 1% tax deduction at source and every profit we make through trading is taxed 30% at the end of the financial assessment year. That is why Indian traders shifted to international exchanges like Binance, Mexc, Kucoin, and others to avoid tax deductions at source and for conversion crypto to local fiat, they use local exchange or international P2P.

To avoid these taxes the Indian community shifted to international exchanges and used it for both trading and conversion of crypto to local currency through P2P. Seeing this and suffering a good revenue loss the Indian government has not placed a shadow ban on international exchanges. They first blocked their apps on the Apple Store and Google Play Store and now they have banned their URLs. As we are still living in a third world country with high population density some have now started using illegal ways to access these websites.

More than the US, I feel my country is trying its level best to control Bitcoin and altcoins using such tactics. The problem is that this government is trying to control a sector in an orthodox manner which does not make any sense. They do not have the manpower, not many resources to control the internet and what is operating using it.

Yes, it is a major crime in the eyes of the government. There is no legal dealing in cryptocurrencies here, so all transactions are carried out in secret exclusively through an intermediary.

In addition to the government ban, my country (Syria) is also banned from all payment services around the world. There is no service that provides exchange services that accept Syria. My country is always on the ban list, so we only have this method, even if it costs more fees.

Despite all these difficulties, work in crypto is widely spread here due to the poor economic situation and the difficulty of obtaining profitable work.

When there is a large exchange, for several thousand dollars or more, then the commission of 1 dollar does not matter. In Tron, you can stake Tron to get Bandwidth and Energy and have free transactions.
USDT is also very popular in Russia, and exchangers accept these stablecoins in many ecosystems.


If you exchange cryptocurrency on an exchange, then before using the p2p service you can sell your cryptocurrency, and if you use shadow exchangers, then they mainly accept USDT and USDC, because it is fast even on Ethereum.

Why are there no exchangers in India where you can exchange cryptocurrencies for cash? Is this a very big crime?

The same question, why are there services in your country that help you exchange cryptocurrencies for fiat? Is this a big crime?

What you say is true, but the broker does not accept Bitcoin now. He only accepts USDT, so he requires a transfer via USDT TRC 20.

It would have been better if the transfer was done via Bitcoin immediately, because the seller will pay the fees for transferring Bitcoin from the wallet to the exchange, and then the fees for switching to USDT, then the fees for sending USDT TRC 20 to the broker’s wallet. These are all additional fees, but the broker wants to spare himself all these fees and keep USDT Only in his wallet, so that he can send it to the buyer at a cheap fee.

We as sellers are forced to submit to the broker's conditions because it is the only method available here in my country.

I am quoting all three of you as I found a way to pay less than $1 as a transaction fee using USDT. In my country which is India, we have to pay a 30 percent tax every year on our profits and then a 1% tax is deducted on source for every cryptocurrency transaction, such as for trading crypto to crypto and crypto to fiat. The 1 percent tax deducted at source only applies to local exchanges and not to international exchanges. To avoid it all crypto communities shifted to international exchanges and whenever they wanted to convert their crypto to fiat they used local exchanges.

To avoid the 30 percent tax the preferred deposit crypto was USDT as it is stablecoin and does not show the government that it is generating any profit. At first, a lot of us were using USDT on the Tron blockchain but the fee was $1. With the introduction of USDT on the Binance smart chain the fee was significantly reduced. I am not from your country but if in your country brokes accept USDT on the Binance smart chain then it would reduce the fee that you guys are paying for every transaction now.

But if you want to exchange Bitcoins for USDT TRC 20, then you will pay a commission on the Bitcoin network, which can be very high depending on demand.
I don't understand your benefit in this exchange when it's easier to send bitcoins and receive cash.

The crypto situation in Nigeria is very similar to the situation here in my country, I mean before the crypto ban was unbanned in Nigeria.

Most people in my country prefer Bitcoin and hold it in the long term, but for daily transfers that are made exclusively through an intermediary, the preferred coin is USDT TRC 20 because it is somewhat stable relative to the dollar, its fees are low, and its transactions are fast.

Therefore, when I always want to exchange Bitcoin into a local currency, I convert it to USDT TRC 20 first and then send it to the broker. This process costs a fee of only about $1 and only takes about 5-10 minutes, while transferring via Bitcoin costs more fees and a much longer time.

When I wrote information about Nigeria, I remember that USDT TRC 20 is also very popular there, due to inexpensive commissions.
For many residents, paying fees of several dollars or more is very expensive and they will not be able to use Bitcoin. In Nigeria there are also very small salaries, 50-200 dollars a month. The problem of commissions is very relevant there.

Indeed it was not difficult to exchange Bitcoin even with the restrictions placed on banks but there were still some problems. Before the restrictions were lifted the government promoted campaigns to showcase the crypto space as fraudulent and very risky. People were deceived into believing that if they put their money in crypto there was a high chance that they might be scammed. The public including law enforcement agencies began to see people that use cryptocurrencies as criminals. It was so bad that the police might arrest and interrogate you immediately they saw a crypto wallet in your phone. There was a case where an exchange operator who used a social media platform to advertise his services was tracked by the police and arrested.

The point I am making is that due to the government's negative stance on cryptocurrencies, it was now seen as illegal when it was not prohibited by the law. I share the same position with @Eldestyoung that there is a need to celebrate the lifting of the restrictions. If I am not wrong, many crypto users and service providers were happy about the change because it would open more doors of opportunity in the Nigerian crypto industry.

I always avoid all P2P exchanges on centralized exchanges, because then the exchange will transmit this information to your country's tax office and it will be used against you. Even if you have someone else’s given KYC, then the bank cards there are yours. Of course, you can pay another person to give you his bank card, but these are additional risks.

It was never difficult buying or selling bitcoin through the P2P medium only if you keep to the rules provided by the exchange. Apart from exchange, there are other regulated platforms like telegram or WhatsApp that organized it in such away that they had escrow who received money as middle person for the transaction. So it wasn't really a difficult thing selling or buying bitcoin then and now nothing has changed if not that the government have realised they were only setting themselves and youths backwards for self-centredness and political gains.

That was not an illicit ban but a temporary ban and also was not done by government but by the CBN Governor.

It was no where recorded that P2P transaction was prohibited or being affected by the temporary ban. What happened is that  any transaction you make in bank and include cryptocurrency as discribtion will amount to blocking you bank account. Or withdrawal of crypto directly to your bank card will atract them to look into your information. But the P2P you made mention of was used in binance to transac with people around your visinity. binance was the reason behind why the temporary ban did not affect people do to P2P. So it did not affect P2P.

Just like the eNaira, the cNGN stablecoin will not get the right attention from the public. This is because this coin will not solve the financial issues Nigerians face in the banking sector. Nigerians are embracing cryptocurrency not because they like the blockchain but because they want a currency that will serve as a hedge against inflation and also make them invade some unfriendly policies from the central bank. Using the cNGN stablecoin is like using the online banking service of a commercial bank which is marred by delays and other transaction issues. Since it is still the central bank that will supervise the operations of the Africa Stablecoin Consortium (ASC), Nigerians will still have to face the same draconian policies like withdrawal and deposit limits as well as KYCs. However, this project is still in its pilot stage, but I know that they will not get the best result just like the eNaira.     

Breaking news
https://cointelegraph.com/news/nigeria-cbn-greenlights-stablecoin-launch-february
"Nigeria’s central bank greenlights cNGN stablecoin to launch in February
The Africa Stablecoin Consortium said the cNGN stablecoin complies with the regulatory requirements and standards of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigerian SEC.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved the Africa Stablecoin Consortium (ASC) to pilot the cNGN stablecoin in its regulatory sandbox. The new stablecoin is to be launched on Feb. 27, 2024. "

Not banning Bitcoin does not mean that you can access Bitcoin easily. Unless there are local services that provide P2P or reliable offices that buy and sell cryptocurrencies, the decision to ban or not will not change anything.
Will taxes be imposed on transactions, or is the tax system in Nigeria still limited to indirect taxes and does not include income tax and personal taxes?

Yes, that's good news for crypto users in Nigeria, I have seen crypto users especially Bitcoin very enthusiastic in understanding how crypto works in general, whatever the laws that apply in Nigeria, For now I still support the actions of the Central Bank of Nigeria, it is progress for crypto users in general in Nigeria.

In my view, whatever is currently happening in Nigeria, either illegally or legally, it cannot be separated from its role. The youth population in Nigeria is enthusiastic about understanding technology and adopting digital currency/Bitcoin as a whole, I believe Africa can be the best country in the future in terms of crypto, trade, investment, law and so on.

The eNaira is a failed currency and for CBN to claim that there's been over 2 million downloads of the eNaira wallets on Playstore since launching is even ludicrous. According to playstore, there's been only 10k+ downloads of the app and I'm yet to come across a business that's accepting it or an individual that has interacted with it.


When PBAT was the governor of Lagos state, he made a lot of money collecting taxes from Lagos toll gates, now that he's president, I believe he'd want to do same with exchanges. Though, the lifting of the ban is a good news, but let's embrace ourselves for more regulatory scrutinies and taxes.

 

The past administration in Nigeria intended to shift citizens' attention from cryptocurrencies to the Nigerian stablecoin called the eNaira. But this lofty dream didn't materialize because people already knew that the eNaira was nothing but an online Fiat. The Nigerian currency was losing value every day and the people were using Bitcoin and others to shield their Investments from inflation and decline in the value of the Naira.

I think the government has realized that there is nothing it can do to reduce the adoption of cryptocurrency, so they have no other option than to remove the restrictions placed on commercial banks. With the removal of these restrictions, I expect the Nigerian crypto industry to experience development in all spheres.

Good for Nigeria! I hope finally the central bank have understood the power of crypto and also understood that they cannot ban cryptos through a law or a circular. Rather it will force multiple people to hide their crypto transactions and underpay taxes. So it's a two edged sword for both people and government.

Hopefully, other African countries will realise the benefits soon and follow Nigeria here.

I think that once you start using P2P there is almost no going back. At first it was hard but then after a couple of trials I got it right. One of the things that I like about the P2P medium is that the exchange platforms which has this feature has made it almost impossible for customers to get scammed by bad guys. There is a lot of warnings and reminders to sellers to give them a heads up. I have had a couple of encounters on remitano platforms and monies was refunded. In terms of P2P with friends and family, I do not do this mostly for security reasons. It is far better to trade with someone you do not know on a regularized platform than local trading.

A naira stable coin model in eNaira has already been launched easiler this year.

It is still in active now but did not quite take on asbit was expected to when it was launched.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2023/12/27/nigerian-banks-set-to-launch-compliant-naira-stablecoin-in-2024/
"Following the Central Bank of Nigeria's circular, a consortium of Nigerian banks, fintechs, and blockchain companies are developing a Naira stablecoin, cNGN, with sources close to the project stating a planned launch in 2024.

Naira Stablecoins
The concept of a Naira stablecoin has been floating around for several years, with previous attempts in the past. The most recent was NGNT by the Token Mint consortium in 2019, consisting of major Nigerian crypto exchanges and African communities, including Helicarrier and Busha. NGNT is pegged 1:1 with the Naira and is on the Binance Smart Chain and the Ethereum Network, as BEP-20 and ERC-20 tokens, respectively."

You need to edit the title. Nigeria did not ban bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Just as what is in your content, it was the central bank of Nigeria that ban cryptocurrencies and not Nigerian government.

I am still using P2P and I prefer it now. I do not think I will ever use those credit cards anymore. P2P is not bad as long as you know how to avoid scammers.

I need not to pause to say how delightful I'm to hear that  the Central Bank of Nigeria has changed its stance on crypto assets in the country and asked banks to disregard its earlier ban on crypto.

It gives me joy to know that we can now transact in crypto without difficulty. Before now in Nigeria transaction in crypto has always been difficult and stressful especially using P2P.
This calls for a celebration for all crypto lovers in Nigeria.