The most populous black country in the world Nigeria has banned Cryptocurrency trading.
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Friday directed all financial institutions in the country to stop accepting crypto transactions and immediately close accounts with previous history of crypto transactions.
I am a Nigerian and I know what this means. It is a huge blow to the youths who have endured years of hardship and using crypto as a way out.
The above picture is of flutterwave mail to me regarding the news. Flutterwave is one of the big payment company in the country.
The Nigerian Naira has been in shambles and getting worse by the day. It is currently trading close to 500 naira per dollar in the black market. No-one wants a currency that inflation will get the better part of it when there is good options in Crypto.
Not quite long, a report by QZ shows Nigeria as the No 2 bitcoin market on paxful after USA. Paxful is the largest p2p market place in the world. This position shows that Nigerian youths have adopted crypto wholeheartedly. No wonder the government is looking for a way to restrict that.
The question now is what next?
The government
The Nigerian led government might want to authorize ISPs to block access to crypto exchanges too. They do this with Nigerian media sites and will definitely try it with Crytpo exchanges.
They deploy law enforcement agencies to start searching users device for crypto related applications. It sounds funny but it was what caused the EndSars protest.
Banks ask for source of funds for huge deposits.
I currently can't think of any other action they will take aside the three I mentioned.
The Crypto traders
Well, this is where the traders have to prove smart.
Ditch exchanges fiat withdrawal for P2P It's very likely they have tagged exchanges account. This is why we need to embrace P2P.
Ensure you don't include any crypto memo when transferring funds.
Use VPN in case of blocked access to Crypto exchange. Ensure you don't use a restricted country (USA) VPN so your account don't get blocked by exchanges.
If it comes to worse, transfer money via another country. You can utilize the crypto Freedom in neighbouring countries like Ghana and Benin.
What other measures do you think Nigerians can employ at this stage?