Topic: Will Nigerians Marketers Accept Bitcoin if Legalized (Read 507 times)

One thing you should understand is that no matter how you try, you can’t beat the government, they will always have the final say and the masses must follow suit if not so, it will make life more harder for them to live than it was before. If Nigeria government should legalise bitcoin today, all marketers must accept it and get use to it in the short possible time. Now, what the marketers will do next is what and how they will stand to get more from this new payment innovations that the government have accepted. This will always come in two ways, which is profiting from it through the legal way or the illegal way. This is the only thing I presume can happen, any other asides this and the thought of marketers not applying it is not realistic at all.

You're absolutely right man, its all about education and enlightenment, Even the banking system met with friction and rejection before it was finally accepted and adopted by the masses after enlightenment campaigns were launched from the media houses and on the streets.  In strongly believe that if the bank on cryptocurrency is lifted and the property sensitization programmers introduced in favor of Bitcoin, it will be met with friction and fear as it is with every good venture, but after some time, people will continue to gradually adapt to it until it penetrates their minds fully. These people will welcome anything that sets the free from government stronghold and Bitcoin can do just that. My only fear is that the monetary agencies will fight back as the proper introduction of bitcoin will see them loose their financial strength by great measures and they will put in every stunt to limit the way people pull cash out of their hold. They may even go as far as lobbying government to their own favor and hinder the rapid acceptance of bitcoin by the masses.

Wetin me get to talk for here and on this matter be say, if and when government legalize Bitcoin for we country, that one no mean say the government dey force market people and business owners to begin dey accept bitcoin just like that, you yourself and I myself still have the right to decide whether we won accept bitcoin payments fr our customers or not.
Take El Salvador as an example, even though the government for the country Don sign bitcoin into law as a legal tender for the whole country, no be all the citizens of El Salvador dey accept bitcoin payment for their business, na some dey accept, and those wey feel say them no dey fit enough for the stress that comes with Bitcoin payments, still dey accept only fiat currencies dey go jeje.

So, to accept bitcoin payments no be a do or die affair, regardless of whether government later legalize am or not.

Normally I believe my country say, e no get watin we nor go fit to survive, and as e don dey reach exmas period you go observe say bank network go come start to dey fail, and times like this you go see say na for there those wey nor accept Bitcoin for transfer go suffer well well, and wen once some thing dey trend for naija we all no say na every where e dey reach both the old and young dey feel the impact.

 Just like the example wey Mr Hewlet talk that period plenty marketer been dey do strong head say dem no go accept but by the time wey their perishable goods com start to dey spoil na there their mind dey, dem con start to accept transfer for market. So i believe say if the government remove the restriction e no go hard for our marketers to accept, the only disadvantage I dey consider wey go really affect this dream na be say, Bitcoin dey volatile and that one fit make marketers loss for business if the coin go down wen dey go to buy new goods, this na very big issue wey dey ground like this.

One good thing you should understand about our country people is that we are very good at adapting to change. During every phase when we experience challenges that brought about some new ways of doing things in the country, it doesn't take time before everyone adapt to the new system within some months the old system gradually fades away.

During the time of scarcity of money in circulation, so many shops that  on a normal day will never allow you to buy stuff from them using mobile transfer changed all of a sudden and you can see now that most small shops have started accepting transfer when you are buying from them.

This goes to shoe that if Bitcoin is legalized and the proper awareness is given to the majority of people, it will only take small time after which it will become a generally accepted stuff in our country.

This is where the challenge of mass adoption of bitcoin by the local marketers will be hailing from, the fear of being scammed, for it's in the area of the use of technology that these market women/men are with no effort scammed by those fraudsters, so the adoption wouldn't be that rapid and a lot of orientation and programmes would been needing to put on ground to allay their fears and  embolden their interest towards the adoption.

Another thing I'll say can be challenging to bitcoin adoption from how you're making of it is that if you do your analysis very well you will find out that most of these marketers about 85% are people selling in small shops, shades, kiosks and open spaces along the streets not mainly departmental stores and supermarkets that sells goods/products of high denomination amount. These marketers we are talking of here are pretty traders so how would they sell for example; a grocery of $1 and receive that $1 in bitcoin , who's going to pay for the transaction fees, will the customer agree to incur the fees, this is where I view the adoption by these petty traders to be challenging, except for those marketers selling goods like electrical appliances which demands high amount to purchase which is where bitcoin would be happily adopted in after the scam fears has been allayed.

I am very sure that Nigerians will be the first to accept Bitcoin once is been legalized, looking at Nigerian you will understand that we like learning new ideas, is just that our Government has faced a major setback faced by Nigerian regarding crypto, the citizens of this country will embrace this digital enlightenment with happiness, financial institutions acted on the instruct men of the government, the government don't like anything that they can't control, they want to know how Bitcoin work and control it, if possible, so the idea of legalizing Bitcoin might not be possible but exchanging it to fiat safe exchanges has been achievable in nigeria to an extent so far.

It's so justifiable why the government would say a thing and the citizen would do otherwise, and this is so clear all around us, our government are acting like anti-people, and even anti-democracy, so what you do expect?

But what I would not agree with is to believe that for the government not to legalize Bitcoin as a legal tender is bad. This is why I would want us to establish a point briefly. The Nigerian government never banned Bitcoin, it's the CBN that restricted banks and financial institutions. However, this restriction is partial as you can see around you, it has never been total. I said this so that we know what we say about the legality you are talking about, which made me believe you are referring to being legal tender in Nigeria. Many of you guys are just a layman without a grand understanding of national economy and security. Do you think a thing that is decentralized and somewhat anonymous would be agreed to as legal tender by the Nigerian government? Then you should think twice.

However, exchanges and businesses that deal with cryptocurrencies should be registered and regulated. This would help further avoid fraud and earn taxes for the governmenet.

Point of correction, Bitcoin has never contributed to our technology but has helped people to earn from its investment, an investment that didn't add to the economy because there are no proper transactional records for it, and P2P in most cases. Also, you can't underestimate the market people, only a few would not understand Bitcoin if you teach them. I hardly used cash during the cash crunch crisis you mentioned here in the south, this made me know that the market people are not as illiterate as people think.

I beg to disagree with this, all is about educating them and building trust, and once a section of them starts, others will follow. And even in the north with the highest level of illiterate in the country, I could remember when one useless shitcoin (I can't remember the name) was introduced, a friend in the north told me that market people were eager and ready to participate before the CBN ban. What these people need is trust, they will follow suit once they have a browsing phone.

Let me assume that you call the sellers in the market the marketers which is not the appropriate word. Besides, those people are smarter than you think, most of them have their bank accounts against what you claimed, but Northerners could be an exception to this.

Above all, just forget it, the Nigerian government will never legalize Bitcoin in the country, the risk is not worth it. But they should look for ways to welcome the business around it like those of exchanges and others. Exchanges should be registered in the country by now, it's a way to generate more income for the country and for the government to also know the level of people that are engaging in cryptocurrency and can even tax crypto-Nigerians and make more money in this regard instead of missing out entirely with their actions and inactions.

This is why more education and warnings are needed. One must be certainly sure of the address they are sending the coin to, and if it's sent to the wrong account, this can't be anybody's fault but the fault of the sender.

Like seriously the way we Nigerians dey adapt to new things quickly is legendary and need to be studied by other countries. I was teaching my students one topic like that in social studies which "adaptation to a changing environment" and I use these two as an example and how we manage the situation and scale through. If Nigerian government finally approve the usage of bitcoin, I believe with the help of national orientation agencies everything will go well because they can create awareness and how to succeed in the new era. The only problem I think we'll have is the network issues. Most of our rural areas lack effective and stable network and even in urban areas some times network dey disappear for 30min to 1hr or even more some time and it will hinder the success of Bitcoin transactions. But I still believe we go scale through if the time comes.


Even someone with goods worth 30k na still petty trader. The things is that, no be compulsory say government don approve bitcoin for use and the traditional currency (Naira) go become useless. We go continue dey use Naira still and if the marketers prefer bitcoin you go use bitcoin as the case may be. I believe even the countries wey dey use bitcoin as legal tender no dey use am for such small amount of money. E go even dey waste time to think of making payment for something wey no pass 200 naira or less.

Well! Bitcoin was never an illegal in the country rather it is on suspension whereby the federal sectors are prohibited from its acceptance leaving the rest of the individuals on the trade risks at its own.

If by somedays the govt finally lifts the suspension, it doesn't mean an ultimatum or force order is passed to the public to accept the currency (s) BTC as long the coin is not adopted to replace its fiat currency.
But that singularly would provide encouragement campaigns with a wide spread of the masses adhering to the acceptance of the coin BTC.
This also would trigger those who have been in doubt of the digital currency and those who are not knowledgeable about the digital currency to pick personal interests on it

I did not doubt the faith of those traders who formally rejected the new naira note in the first place because the currency was rare to get reach to and on of a sudden someone offers it as a service exchange of course there should be said to be a doubt on it because even the neighbors never got reached to it and not even the banks that was able to issue the currency during withdrawal.
Besides... The currency looks faded by its graphics designs comparing to the old known currency.

The high level of illiteracy in the country would be the most level of challenge that would face the percentage of people not knowledgeable about the coin and the tendency of majority population in the country to accept the currency would be very difficult and challenging because the currency exchange has its manner of education which is a major concern and secondly is the electronics devices that is required for the exchange as a P2P. Other is the internet access whereby, not even all traders who have the time of surfing the internets so there is a high level of challenges amongst the uneducated and the uncivilized citizens.

But to the knowledgeable people with the fitness to be educated about the coin, they would be glad to have learnt about the coin and being amongst its beneficials because of the enrichment potentiality of the coin BTC and not like the fiat that is depreciating its values on savings and on daily basis. But I know the fact of the volatility of the digital currency would be a more considerate to the upcoming traders but going to be a matter of time to clear those doubts.
However, the coin would be said to be an alternative means of payments on the services and exchanges.

OP, as soon as bitcoin is legalized in Nigeria, most people will embrace it. Why do I say so?. Most people are tired of bank excess and government money policies, they can't do otherwise cos it seems that in this part of the world, banks are seen as the only safe place to keep your money. That mindset is brought about by our government's favorable policies to banks which makes them function at the apex of finance.
Believe me, if bitcoin is legalized, people will embrace it wholeheartedly cos it will free them from bank problem. For three weeks now, I've been going with my organization to rectify account and its still futile, imagine if it was bitcoin, Its Just to pass the private keys down to me and the deal is done.
Bitcoin adoption will free a lot of people from the complexities of bank, government and other things.

Now to scam, where I know people might point out, lemme ask a question?. Are bank accounts not hacked?
are there no issues of missing fund's already?. are ATM cards not cloned even at POS shops?. All these are already happening and in my own knowledge., Bitcoin will limit them as your keys are safe with you unless you share it or loose it and there are no scenarios where you are mandated to share it unlike online purchases and payments where there are options to link your cards.
Adoption of bitcoin will bring freedom to the Nigerian grassroot sectors and trust me, boost the economy.

Nigeria marketer's  will be happy and accept it because it will make financial transactions easier and more increase in marketing, because even when ban in February 2021 by the CBN ,Nigeria has continue to adopt Bitcoin transactions,and most investors observed by CBN were not using local account, so it was difficult for their accounts to be checked.
 
   In 2021 a Chainalysis reported that cryptocurency in Nigeria grew by 1200% within a year and Nigeria was the sixth leading country in the world in terms of cryptocurrency adoption despite the CBN's ban on it,that same year,Nigeria traded #316.9bn worth of Bitcoin which has over six million crypto transactions and 16,000 transactions per day on paxful which made Nigeria became top on the p2p platform .

Yes, for sure, our marketers will accept Bitcoin and make it part of their payment methods. As a Nigerian, we have encountered a lot of things in this country, like the cashless economy, flood period, school fees hike, fuel appropriation, end SARS and lot more but still we the citizens are still standing strong to witness the time Bitcoin will be legalize and be used in our local and international markets.

For this country so, we dey always they do excess things and if government accept am or make am legal we self we go also use Bitcoin more than the way we dey even imagine am now.

Why will the people not accept the use of bitcoin if the government should legalized it's use as legal tender officially, even now that the status is not yet approved, people make use of bitcoin for different purpose in the country's economy and make it adoption at their own benefits as well because they are the ones involved in the financial challenges encountered from government and the commercial banks through their financial regulations.

All forms of marketers will have no choice than to accept the use of bitcoin if granted as a legal tender because it's already a legal currency to be used in the country, only that the government and banks were banned from its use while the people still use bitcoin independently.

OP, you should be specific with the kind of marketers that you are referring to, because if it is this petty traders that the total goods in their shop is around 5k-15k, I don't think that it will be wise for them to accept bitcoin because of the stress that they will pass through using it to refill their goods.

This is because most of them buy their stuffs from the bush and also from illetrate like them that only believes in fiat. So such marketers will still be collecting fiat, even though bitcoin is legalized. Imagine that you want to buy Maggi or pepper or something of 500 naira and you want to use bitcoin, it is very funny.

On the other hand if you are talking about big traders that has goods from 30k up, which are not petty traders, they will accept bitcoin with time,when they see that bitcoin is gaining ground in the country and people are saying all sorts of benefits in using bitcoin.

Especially those marketers that deal on foreign goods, they will gladly embrace bitcoin because it has save them the stress of using a third party for payment and they can send bitcoin at their own convenience. So it all depends on the kind of marketers that we are talking about.

Marketers will definitely accept Bitcoin if legalised.  It might take time, but they will have no choice than to accept it.  The only challenge will be illiteracy. We are all Nigerians and we know majority of Nigerians like free or cheap things. No Nigerian will hear about doing transactions with Bitcoin and still ignore it. Especially with all the benefits Bitcoin has?

Similar thing happened during the cashless policy, many market women and business men were forced to accept transfers as a means of payment or use pos to do transactions. At that point,  that was their only option if they must make sales. If not, there were  many competitors out there who would accept any means of payment provided they make sales.  If you can't beat them, you join them.

Same will apply to Bitcoin.  Just like almost every shop in Nigeria have a POS device, so shall it be if bitcoin comes to stay. It will only take time for it to gain dominance. All the people will need is to be educated on how it works.

It will take a long time for it to be accepted, and it may never gain full acceptance in every place in the country also because not everyone is exposed, and some people if they choose to accept it will not be able to avoid being scammed because dem nor too sabi the thing. Businesses wey dey need cash, like all this people wey dey go bush go meet farmers to buy produce, those farmera nor go ever dey interested in accepting btc as payment. Na all this king supermarket them, big businesses for city like hotels and bars nai maybe go dey accept btc.

If the government legalizes Bitcoin in Nigeria, it will greatly assist for marketers; however, one thing is certain: not all marketers will accept Bitcoin because most marketers, particularly those who do not attend school, will prefer fiat currency. They will be contemplating wether they want to scam the. Because this our country, not like other's country.

typical purchase If you do it now and claim you're going to make a transfer for them, some will say that they will not collected, and even those that are collecting will keep waiting till they receive the alert. That is the primary issue we are facing in Nigeria, and to be honest, accepting Bitcoin as our tax payment would be great and beneficial for us.

Waiting make Bitcoin to be accepted will be so difficult in Nigeria is because not all people have knowledge about it, and anyone who wishe to owning Bitcoin most have enough knowledge; otherwise, it could result in losing. To be sincere, how will say that out of the 100% that are in business today, only 70% that attend school didn't attend school, or do we think they can owning Bitcoin without having knowledge about it?
 
Furthermore, Bitcoin has to do with smart phones for traders in the market, and some businesspeople lack experience with smart phones, they don't how to operate the smart phones, especially women's; they will openly admit that they prefer Fiat currency.

Na because people don lose trust for Naija government as dem body language na only fake and to embezzle the public funds. If government dey sincere with the people and their policy then the people go follow.

As you dey talk about bitcoin now, shey when you take bitcoin pay and collect like government receipt, school fees for government school, pay for different things for government agencies so why people or traders and marketers no go flow with am? But if na only for paper dem legalize am but no government agency dey accept am, omo we go dey where we dey oo. Na the matter be that and na so e be.

If them cook the food by legalizing am then den go taste the food wey dem cook na. No be wen you cook another person go taste am for you.

He will be very difficult for marketers to accept bitcoin as a means of exchange but if they see the benefits they will try to accept am, but I no naija if the government agreed make we dey do bitcoin transactions, everything will go smoothly poverty will be reduced, and money will not be cast for our country, and many people will enjoy because everyone will try to invest in bitcoin and profit, and even those who don't know anything about it will learn, But our country will find it difficult to accept bitcoin for now because our leaders are corrupt Anything that will bring improvement to our country will be blocked because our leaders are corrupt I am confident that if our government learns about bitcoin, he will accept it because it will help the citizens of our naija, Countries that accept bitcoin as a means of payment you can see how the country is improving every day everything is easy for them.