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By Chinenye Anuforo and Chinwendu Obienyi
Binance,a cryptocurrency trading platform, has announced plans to quit Nigeria and discontinue all naira services by March 8, 2024.
This is coming on the heels of the recent clampdown on its operations and officials by Nigerian regulators.
The Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, recently, urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to take action against companies that attempt to manipulate the value of the naira using cryptocurrency exchange platforms.
Onanuga recommended that cryptocurrency channels be outlawed because, in his words, “This bleeding of our currency will continue unabated”, he posted on his X handle.
However, in a message to its users on Tuesday, the cryptocurrency company said it would stop supporting naira deposits starting from March 5, 2024.
The exchange encouraged users to withdraw their naira funds, trade their naira assets or convert them to crypto before the discontinuation of these NGN services.
The statement read, “From March 8, any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to the tether stablecoin.
“Please note that the conversion rate is calculated based on the average closing price of the USDT/NGN trading pair on Binance Spot in the last seven days,” Binance added.
The company also said it would immediately suspend naira deposits, as such, transactions will not be supported after 2:00 pm UTC on Tuesday, March 5 2024.
According to the company, all trading pairs involving naira are set to be removed from its platform on March 7, 2024.
The organisation said its payment service, ‘Binance Pay’ will also remove naira from the list of supported payment options on March 6, 2024, adding that its peer-to-peer platform delisted all NGN trading pairs in late February.
Binance is currently facing significant scrutiny by the Nigerian authorities over allegations of infractions in the country’s foreign exchange (FX) regulations.
Also on February 27, 2024, Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the CBN, said $26 billion passed through Binance Nigeria from unidentified sources in one year.
Cardoso said the apex bank is collaborating with the SEC to ensure there is no manipulation in the FX market.
He said the CBN was also collaborating with different agencies including the EFCC, the police, and the office of the NSA to sanitise the FX market.
On March 1, 2024, the federal government reportedly demanded at least $10 billion as retribution from Binance for profiting from “its illegal transactions” in Nigeria days after two top executive of the company were reportedly detained by the government.
