Nigerians React As FG Slams $10bn Fine On Binance

The Federal Government of Nigeria has slammed at least $10 billion as retribution from Binance amid a crackdown on the crypto exchange platform in desperate moves to salvage the value of the nation’s local currency.

This was revealed by Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to President Bola Tinubu, during an interview with the BBC on Friday morning.

Onanuga said that Binance profited substantially from its “illegal transactions” in Nigeria while the nation suffered huge losses.

Mr Onanuga claimed that Binance is not registered in Nigeria and has no presence in the country. He alleged that people used the platform to arbitrarily fix dollar-naira rates; a practice he said negatively impacted the value of the local currency.

He explained further that the Binance team were already cooperating with the Nigerian government by providing useful information, and had already suspended naira related transactions on the platform.

Nigeria nevertheless wants Binance to pay at least $10 billion in retribution, Mr Onanuga said.

Recall that Onanuga had alleged that if not stopped, the cryptocurrency trading platform will destroy the Nigerian economy by arbitrarily fixing foreign exchange rate.

“If we don’t clamp down on Binance, Binance will destroy the economy of this country. They just fix the rate,” the presidential spokesman said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.

Nigerians React

Reacting to all of these issues, Nigerians said the federal government has failed to make the country a manufacturing economy which has plunged the citizens into current hardship.

Here are some of the reactions on X;

@FinPlanKaluAja1 posted, “Forget the market size and numbers, it’s the optics this ban sends to investor that is important. 

“A few months ago, CBN unbanned banks from dealing with crypto. Today the government of the largest economy in Africa is blocking crypto firms.

“This is the same way Aboki FX was blamed for the FX issues back then.

“We are looking for scapegoats, the real and ONLY issue is that Nigerian oil output which brings in the bulk of revenues has fallen from 2.2mbpd in 2005 to 1.55mbpd in 2023.

“You are sending the wrong signals to investors.

“But you will argue.”

According to @firstladyship, “Emefiele said it was Abokifx. Yemi Cardoso said it’s Binance. Today, Abokifx is free, but Meffy visits the courts for checkups. I wonder why Coinbase has not crashed the Dollar & the US economy. If Cardoso insists that Binance is the problem, LOL Goodluck to the Fatherless Naira.

In another post, @firstladyship wrote, “1. Binance is not the problem. 2. Abokifx was not the problem. 3. COVID-19 was not the problem. 4. Russia-Ukraine was not the problem. 5. Nigerians on Twitter are not the problem. APC has always been the problem.”

“If you like, arrest all Binance executives in Africa. Ban Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Ban all BDC operators in Nigeria. Ban AbokiFx again. Track P2P activities on Telegram and more, if you are not manufacturing and exporting, your country will continue to be BROKE!” @BOTAD01 said.

“You can’t use propaganda and fraud to dig yourself out of the hole of FX crisis your party created in the first place,”@MrOdanz reacted. “Clamp down on AbokiFx, cut down trees at Zone 4, fight BDC operators, ban Crypto. It won’t save you from the mess you created until you tackle the real issues.”

@iSlimfit stated, “Binance and other cryptocurrency platforms have been made the sacrificial lamb same way Aboki FX was. It’s sad they keep making decisions that make lives harder for the youthful Nigerian population who earn money legitimately trading cryptocurrencies.”