Featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday, the presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, opined that if not stopped, cryptocurrency trading website Binance 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,” displeased Onanuga said.
If we don’t clamp down on Binance, Binance will destroy the economy of this country. They just fix the rate.
– Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information & Strategy#PoliticsToday#ChannelsTVNews pic.twitter.com/FTzuOyvbl9
— Channels Television (@channelstv) February 28, 2024
BrandSpur Nigeria recalls that that two employees of Binance were detained by the Nigerian Security Forces in Abuja on Monday night as part of an investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange’s operations in Nigeria.
However speaking during an interview, Onanuga said “We have saboteurs. Look at what Binance is doing to our economy. That is why the government moved against Binance. Some people sit down using the cyberspace to dictate even our exchange rate, hijacking the role of the CBN.
“They just sit down and fix anything they like. It’s a sabotage and we are trying to prevent that from happening henceforth,” he stated.
Forex Crisis
Nigeria has been facing a forex crisis that has seen the naira depreciate to a record low. This and the removal of subsidy by the government have pushed up the prices of goods and services and caused hardship in the country.
The value of the naira was about N700/$1 last May but it currently hovers around N1600/$1.
The authorities have been clamping down on cryptocurrency exchanges and Bureaux de Change.
On Tuesday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Olayemi Cardoso, said $26 billion passed through Binance Nigeria from unknown sources and users in one year.
BrandSpur Nigeria reported that he stated this in Abuja at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the apex bank, the first since he assumed office in September 2023.
Cardoso said the government was “concerned that certain practices go on that indicate illicit flows going through a number of these entities, and suspicious flows at best”.
He continued, “In the case of Binance, in the last one year alone, $26 billion has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify.
“There is a lot that is going on now as a result of collaboration between the different agencies which include the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission), the police and of course the office of the NSA (National Security Adviser) and in due course as we progress and have more information to share, we will certainly share and suffice to say we are determined to do everything it takes to ensure that we take charge of our market or put differently, do not allow others to manipulate our market in a way that ends up distortionary and sub-optimizes for all Nigerians.
“We will not accept it and we will do everything possible to prevent any of these kinds of infractions from taking place.”
