Topic: Cashless Policy & Redesigned of Banknotes Make Citizens to Use BTC in Nigeria (Read 295 times)

In my opinion, this is another proof that cash will exist for a long time until a certain standard of living of the population is reached in each country and all the necessary technical and other conditions for the smooth circulation of non-cash money are provided. But even in such cases, there will always be separate categories of people who, for various reasons, will not be able to use non-cash forms of payment.
The Nigerian government should have foreseen the difficulties with the limited ability to use the new banknote design and in any case not combine this with the simultaneous massive introduction of cashless payments.

The cashless policy is not bad but the timing is not favourable with the current situation of Nigeria. The system is not yet ripe for such but the CBN is bent on forcing her citizens into cashless transaction, frustrating the citizens of Nigeria. The people have gone through unto hardship for these while if the cashless policy implementation. I strongly believe the banks have hands in this because of the transaction charges involved. This just made them super profit, raking in billions of naira everyday as a result of the transaction fee charges for the cashless transaction being done every day. I the government and CBN are just not prepared for what they are about going into but causing hardship for the citizens.

I still don't understand you because you heading illustrate that citizens were force to use Bitcoin because of the scarcity of fiat banknote. Your post would be been very interesting if you have also illustrated how the citizens were able to use Bitcoin to trade duee to the scarcity of bank note. I was expecting to see some signs of people transacting business with the use of Bitcoin and moreover to see am example from you too. Bitcoin is a digital currency and the use of Bitcoin is still going to be rampard from what we are seeing currently. Recession are coming and making people would be force to use Bitcoin whether they like it or not.

Though I have not experienced any cancelled transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, as a learner, I don't always believe in 100% accuracy no matter what that may be. 

It's always the difference in how people see some news.
Some analyze what is happening, some are predicting what's going to happen and some are wishing something to happen because of this.
The Bitcoin adoption triggered by this mess is in the 3rd category and with small chances of changing to the second, as it lacks a lot of things.

Unfortunately, it's obvious is not happening right now, if any kind of migration would have happened since January from cash to BTC it would have been easily seen in the blockchain, there is no pick-up in transactions pace and the only increases happened exactly when the price was going up.
We have 200 000 000 people, assuming only half are getting some kind of payment and assuming again only 1 in a thousand would use BTC instead of $ you would still have 100k extra transactions in the chain or a lot of increase in LN funding, that ain't happening either.

Way to early to claim victory over traditional systems, when people area already familiar with digital payments the plan can be ste in motion but with them craving that much for cash I doubt they would want to embrace anything that is digital, be it CC or BTC


Pure curiosity, why 80% and why not 90% or 70%?
Also, if my clients would come each with a 80% chance of paying me I would probably close shop and think of a different career.

This is hard to believe, swap to BTC to safe stress? If people are looking for something without stress, I do not think BTC is their best option to convert their fiat to, especially in Nigeria where in the current situation people are searching ways to preserve the value of the money they have amidst the large increase in expense due to the scarcity of the naira and petrol. Imagine people converting all to BTC to avoid stress and just as they are about to relax from stress the value of BTC drops...


I have had issues with many vendors who did not want to accept internet transfer but wanted physical fiat knowing how difficult it is to get, I doubt there will be many vendors who will be accepting BTC within this time.

No doubt with Banking hall drama about cashless withdrawing our money, I don't unacceptable with your country Bank policy about limit withdrawing trough ATM and very small fund. How possibility with our money saving in the Bank and we can't withdraw all when having urgency needed.

Better if possibility later withdrawing huge fund don't trust any more with your Bank country, stop give benefit for them with our money saving and they used for another thing until get small withdrawing limit in daily day. I hope your country situation will back recovery actually with Bank cashless policy and give huge fund withdrawing in daily day.

The long queue infront of the ATM reminds me of the year 2016 when the Indian government announced demonetisation without any prior arrangements. People suffered much and many lost their lives standing in queue for long hours due to the temperature. Whenever something to be executed, first the government needs to educate the people and then go for it. Same looks to be the scenario with Nigeria government. It takes more time as people needs to understand as everything looks to be completely new for them.

Though, presently the Naria swap brought so much drama to the country and made many people inaccessible to their funds because Nigerians depend more on fiat currency for their daily spending. I also had little difficulties to get enough cash to spend. What I did was this,I got little Fiat currency which I only use to buy stuffs in stores that don't accept transfer. The bank network is very poor this period and you will not receive alert on any transaction made,to be on the safe side, I use my palm pay account to make any online transactions. I saved my btc because it is hard to get your cash out there,if you trade, how will you cash out.

It could have saved me, unless the person doesn't trust Bitcoin transactions. If I see a transaction being sent out successfully and it's waiting for confirmation, I can easily let go of the sender because I'm 80% certain that the transaction will reach my wallet. But in the case of a Nigerian bank transfer, if the receiver doesn't see the money yet, he or she can't let you go because of the fear of the money being reversed.

Still, I can't understand what the monetary policy of the Nigerian government in the field of non-cash payments actually has to do with the restriction on the issuance of cash to the fact that citizens will start using bitcoin en masse. Firstly, favorable conditions for the use of bitcoin should be created in the country for this, of course, now citizens will have less cash and this will allow for more frequent p2p exchanges, but at the same time, Nigerian citizens will not become richer enough to actively buy bitcoin.

To me, the Nigerian government are just clueless. Personally I've not seen the difference between the E-Naira and the bank apps If that's what they're trying to promote. Trying to promote cashless economy should be a gradual process.
Though the OP is not correct with claims that bitcoin is being accepted in Nigeria. Its only a few set of persons that are actually conversant with p2p btc transactions. Moreover, cash shortage in the country
 shouldn't be a yardstick to say the country is having a shift towards Cryptocurrency.

What goes on right now in Nigeria if proven true is very catastrophic. You don't fforcibly make your people adjust to a drastic change. You give them enough leniency to understand the ropes. Poor governance on Nigeria's part. As much as I love seeing people resorting to bitcoin for everyday transaction, being a hopeful fan of the cryptocurrency as well, if it's at the expense of millions of people suffering because their country forbade using cash for everyday use then that's just not it for me. I hope things get better in that country bro. A lot of young genius minds in there that would be jeopardized once again due to poor decisions

I don't see this reason here to make people resort to using Bitcoin for transaction when they can pay for good and services using their ATM cards or use a mobile transfer. But where I can agree with you is in the aspect that base on the recent development, that some people are now finding it difficult to even do transfers including me, due to network congestion. Now I think there's a need for people that are into crypto could resort to using Bitcoin base on this issues or maybe fear of uncertainty that Banks maybe seize their money in the bank, hence they may decide or prefer to store their money in Bitcoin than in the banks.

I am sorry that Nigerians are suffering because of ill-planned policies of the authorities. It's ridiculous to limit people in their abilities to pay because that produces an obstacle to the essence of economy, which is an exchange of goods and services for money, which in turn finances more goods and services. However, it's a positive unforeseen circumstance that this policy may push people toward using Bitcoin more. I don't fully get how it works and why Bitcoin is more desirable than debit payments, toward which the authorities were probably pushing people, but as long as it does, great.

If the statement made by the country's Central Bank about the disbursing of enough funds is true then the main cause of the limited fiat currency and the online mobile banking application not working are the institutional banks.
I first blame the Central bank for the limited fiat because they are in charge in redesign currency distribution and if the government of the country wants to settle this issue all the CEO of the institutional banks should be charged.

If you study the whole thing very well you would know that bitcoin adoption isn’t close by talk less of it been accept for payments. The whole saga is because people are scared to accept bank transfers because some still think they could be defrauded by it. Other problems like the lack of knowledge on even common USSD codes for transactions could tell you that bitcoin isn’t get that adoption OP is talking about. Personally I think if people can’t go through this cashless period then bitcoin transaction will not be easy because bitcoin knowledge seeems harder than normal bank transactions


Personally I feel that’s is the area the apex bank has failed but also shouldn’t we be pointing fingers at the commercial banks who have mobile apps that can’t withstand this mass usage. The apex bank doesn’t control or have knowledge of individual bank app. More also the CBN had in numerous reports said that enough money was disbursed to each bank branch and that can be confirmed with the excess new notes been spread by our politicians. We can’t throw all the blame on the Apex bank alone.

Yeah, seen even bigger que in India when demonetization was done. Moreover, considering the population in India this was 100 fold drama here and sometimes there were riots for getting the cash because ATM's were not able to fulfil the daily requirements. Whether it is private sector bank or government, everything was raided with negative impact.

So I can feel the same in Nigeria. However, back then Bitcoin was not much popular in India, but in Nigeria the timings are perfect and we can easily see the adoption on its peak. It is now bitcoins grand entry in Nigeria and we can already see many nigerian based posts around the forum which is telling the story.

I would have agreed with the op if the whole drama as seen in the image posted by the op is caused by the cashless policy in Nigeria, you can explain better than this simply by pointing out the reason why that drama took place maybe because the country changed some of her currency note and a lot of people find it difficult to get the new notes in the bank that is very simple but coming up here to talk about the cashless policy as the reason behind this is not true. For a country that is yet to accept bitcoin as a means of payment, how will citizens of that same country choose p2p transactions knowing that they can't get all they want without them local fiat currency? In promoting bitcoin we shouldn't forget that even though bitcoin is generally accepted in the world, fiat will still be needed because not everyone is going to know how to do the transactions.

Exactly what I had in mind, after my recent experience with a local trader the hope that Bitcoin will be used as a payment method because of this scarcity of cash just dropped drastically. I don't know how someone who doesn't even know how to operate their bank account will be able to comprehend how Bitcoin works.
Even the normal bank transfer most traders don't even allow it in their businesses and you want them to accept Bitcoin that's just unthinkable.

If the government doesn't find a way to solve this problem more quickly it's going to result in a more devastating case.

it has already resulted into massive problems in my region because lots of people are causing riots and chaos in the bank, imagine you going all around the city looking for where to get cash for your transactions and now you can find any because of the scarcity of the naira. Our politicians and government are always fund of causing problems for the masses because of the lack of strategies in their planning. Although a cashless policy isnt a bad idea but the first approach to implementing this is very poor.

This is a big problem when you implement the cashless transaction without any study of the possible problem, you can’t just force people to adopt right away and that’s a big problem if you have a incompetent government. Now people are rushing on many establishments, and I read also a thread here about paying the hospital bills thru Bitcoin because they are having problem with their fiat money. This is a poor system that can result into a big panic.

From what I know, if institutional banking wants to work with the E-naira as payment and the use of the E-naira has to be executed through the bank's online banking activities, isn't it? If the bank's mobile application and online banking activities not working as supposed how is it possible that the concept of what is happening is just to promote the country CBDC?
I believe the cause of this is just mismanagement done by the country's Central Bank and the institutional bank in the mobile application area.

I agree with you, the most challenging aspect right now, is the inability of the internet banking systems to meat up to the demands of customers as there have been massive outcry of bad bank network over the last few days, and since the beginning of this new month of February when the cashless policy received its most attention due to the inability of Nigerians to make financial transactions due to lack of banknotes in circulation and bad internet banking networks it now look as if the bank is in collaboration with some individuals and corrupt citizens to sabotage government efforts by holding the banknote and selling it to Nigerians, this has led to the hard conditions for many Nigerians but I believe, as time goes on everyone will get used to the new system and the panic withdrawals will be normalized for us to see the real effect of this new policy.

There are businesses that do not have POS machine in their shops talk less of accepting bitcoin as payment. The new policy would have been easier if the bank apps were working, for about 3 days and counting, bank transfers have been unsuccessful and customers have been complaining online bitterly about their experience. The photos speak for themselves, the system is failing. I think this is just a piece of a larger plan to promote the E-naira.

Bitcoin in Nigeria is only taken as an investment and for trading anything outside that is just fallacy of words just to make up stories, bitcoin usage is not rampant in Nigeria and Bitcoin is not really used as an alternative to bank in Nigeira because we don't have merchants accepting Bitcoin any where in Nigeria.
So bringing in Bitcoin into this current crisis in the financial sector will be a misplaced analysis and how the system works.

I dont think crypto would have saved you on the 32minutes stress you inquired that day, why? Because even the btc transactions can sometimes take up to that amount of time mentioned especially when the number of blocks required for your transaction to be successful Has not been reached. I remember a day when I sold some of my coins but its took more than 30minute for the coins to arrive

This is not entirely true. You still need cash. Not everyone can accept Bitcoin. Infact, 98% of merchants don't accept Bitcoin, not even the eNaira. That's how bad it is. To go further, even the cashless transactions is not for everyone. The unbanked road side traders won't accept cash transfer they insist on receiving the physical cash. So over here, cash is still king.

It seems ridiculous. How might someone go completely cashless without a strategy? Cashless transactions ought to be optional, not required. Still, I haven't experienced a history of a poorer nation. In any case, requiring cashless transactions does not indicate that the nation has developed. The government ought to prepare its people for such a choice. However, I don't believe it will benefit Bitcoin. Because the Bitcoin transaction is also cashless. Anyone who has access to the Bitcoin then they can use internet or mobile banking. Not much has changed, then.

This doesn't make sense!
Somebody who can't shop with a debit card or isn't able to implement a debit card payment for his shop will definitely not be able to pay or receive bitcoins either, common, it's not like it gets any easier than using a debit card nowadays. If one can't master that bitcoin is on a completely new level!
It's like telling a person who can't remember his pin number how to enroll his card in Gpay and use his phone at a terminal, what do you think the rate of success is? Besides, if there are enough merchants tech savvy to allow people to convert their cash or their debit funds to cryptocurrencies through portable PoS, why aren't merchants implementing card payments directly? I agree that some will explore alternatives to avoid wasting time there but I don't think the conversion rates from fiat to BTC would be anything spectacular.


Nobody reads the manual on anything, it's not a Nigerian thing. I'm not reading the manual of any device unless it takes me an hour and I'm still not able to open the lid on some multicooker or wafflemaker I just brought.
But the danger with Bitcoin is a bit different, I don't see somebody who is unable to figure out how to make a simple online transfer being at the same time savvy enough to keep his coins secure and not getting scammed or hacked.

In my opinion, the first step that the Nigerian government must take is to be able to improve the banking system first, because very many Nigerian people use ATM machines to withdraw money.
if people are directly transferred to bitcoin or crypto assets, how do they transfer their money, while they want to withdraw the money, of course for their daily needs.

because what I know and I have learned, if you invest in an economy that is experiencing a decline, it will be difficult to develop, why?
because the money invested will definitely be withdrawn for their daily needs.

my advice, if the economic situation is weakening, it is better for the government to immediately find the weak point and continue to fix it all.

As a matter of fact, Nigerians have already been involved in this era of cashless policies since the introduction of bitcoin began, the citizens have always been on a look for an alternative to their financial freedom asude banks/fiat, this makes the bitcoin adoption rate boom in Nigeria as most of its teeming youth soughted out for this unique decentralized opportunity with, bitcoin, currently the newly introduced fiat notes are scarce and banks been unable to help through the availability and most of their networks as well went shut down and those already into bitcoin see this as best decisions for them to enjoy what a decentralized network offers and engage more in using bitcoin in performing their transactions than fiat.

Why have there been so many misconceptions in the general atmosphere even the so-called educated and enlightened citizens of Nigeria have no adequate knowledge and understanding of how a policy should work, and what to believe and what not to and the problem with Nigeria is Nigerians who are too lazy to even read the manual of the mobile device talk more of to study and understand complex subjects as regards to financial inclusion and digitialization of the financial sector and this thread have further proven that fact because what I can understand with this whole ops statements.
*Lack of adequate understanding of the concept of bitcoin adoption and financial inclusion,  because of issues in the financial sector such as the bank at this current time I don't see any role Bitcoin will perform to ease your financial condition, since you can't use bitcoin to pay for pepper,  meat and other glossaries.
*note the $43 you mentioned is actually around #31,000+ at an exchange rate of #740 to 1$ so you need to correct the figure you put in the ops unless you are just playing around with figures which are not something that is appropriate in this discussion.,
*We are in a critical time in our financial sector as the reform will bring in a new phase so we shouldn't expect the process to be automatic so we need to be patient enough and work with the system instead of creating more fuds in the already politically intense environment in Nigeria.

I wouldn't doubt you if you said many people are having difficulty making payments for purchased goods because of the scarcity of physical cash. On Tuesday, January 31st, I had a nearly identical experience in which I was unable to use my UBA debit card to pay for my purchases because I had previously used the card to withdraw $10,000, which I believe is the card's daily limit, and I also attempted to use my mobile app, which was also experiencing network downtime. My saving grace that day was that I didn't rely on one bank, which gave me the option of using my KUDA to make a transfer; however, did you know that the party to whom I transferred had to wait about 32 minutes before he could see it? If the crypto payment system was available that day, I could have offered to pay with crypto and saved myself the stress.

I think swapping to cryptocurrency is only common to the young youth, those who are already familiar with cryptocurrency trading. I don't think those market women would go as far starting to transact with bitcoin, either to those who are not into digital currency to have the idea to immediately start using bitcoin as means of payment. As a matter of fact, I don't think it has anything to do with bitcoin transaction because, you and I are still free to send and receive money via local banks, I think the only issues there is having physical cash at hands; However, the system is still functional you can decide to use bitcoin or you can use your ATM cards for shopping and paying any amount of bills you want, besides since the cashless policies I have been using my cards for spending, like buying Fuel, food stuff, and paying my utility bill as well as paying for my movement within the city by ordering BOLT, I don't feel any stress.

Cashless policy is a way of making use of online payment dominating the traditional paper cash fiat means if exchange, people that know about bitcoin are educated enough to know how to use bank apps or making use of web payment. All banks in Nigeria have apps that can be used for online payment. I am not affected because I paid 99% of the goods I am buy using using online transactions, I can not because of that think of bitcoin, we think of bitcoin because it is a means of investing, and in the process of investing, we also use it to make transaction with bitcoin lovers.

It is only for the cryptocurrency friendly citizens and not for all the people in the country. Many people have called me today to have deal with them for the swapping, so I will give them cash but I told them that small cash I have is for my survival to buy little things that I can't use transaction.

Why? Because bitcoin would be used instead of naira to pay in cash? See how untrue this is. If you do not have the knowledge to make online fiat transactions, how can you make bitcoin transactions?

The cashless policy which has been implemented by Nigerian Government is causing a lot calamity in the country. The market women who don't know how to operate phones and other internet devices for transactions are crying seriously that they are dying for hunger. Since the banks are not paying cash and the AMT machines are already configured to pay only $43.45 (#20,000) per account and this also make some bank customers to use multiple accounts ATMs. And because of the long line to withdraw from the ATM, many customers who are already cryptocurrency friendly ones are now swapped to BTC to avoid the stress.
That is, the cashless policy forces many customers to changed their Fiat currency for easy p2p transaction since the Fiat bank cashless transaction is not smooth because of network issue. Nigeria age group is crying for help. Nigeria government did not plan it well before implementing it in the country. But if it continues Nigerians will adapt to it.

Banking hall drama as cashless policy kick off.


ATM queue