Binance faces scrutiny as presidential adviser calls for Nigerian ban

An adviser to Nigeria's president has called for a ban on Binance, KuCoin, and other trading platforms in the country.

Bayo Onanuga — President Bola Tinubu adviser's on Information and Strategy —  took to the X social media platform to allege that these platforms manipulate the naira, contributing to the ongoing decline of the Nigerian currency in the forex market. This is coming amid speculations that the government is already considering ban.

The Naira-Dollar manipulators

I chanced on an X post Tuesday night by one Brother Bernard @Mikael C Bernard who railed against what he called the order of the EFCC, NSA on Finance to set a cap on traders selling USD tokens for Naira equivalent.

He disclosed that token sellers… pic.twitter.com/c9YBjawJMz

— Bayo Onanuga (@aonanuga1956) February 21, 2024

In a post titled “The Naira-Dollar Manipulators,” the President’s adviser accused Nigerians of being unpatriotic when trading currency on the Binance platform. Onanuga called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to halt the operations of cryptocurrency exchanges in the country quickly. He said:

“The EFCC and the CBN should move against these platforms trying to manipulate our national currency to Ground Zero. Crypto should be banned in our country, or else this bleeding of our currency will continue unabated,”

Onanuga mentioned that Binance, currently under regulatory scrutiny in a number of countries, should not be granted the authority to determine the value of the Naira on its crypto exchange platform. He said:

“Binance which is blatantly setting exchange rates for Nigeria, hijacking CBN role, is a cryptocurrency trading platform and suffers access limitations from multiple jurisdictions, such as the U.S., Singapore, Canada and the U.K.”

Binance issued a statement on Feb. 22, distancing itself from the forex crisis in Nigeria, saying its platform is “market-driven and not intended to be a proxy for currency pricing in Nigeria.”

Related: Nigeria urged to regulate cryptocurrency to tackle financial crimes

Binance set a limit on the selling price of Tether USDT tokens on its peer-to-peer (P2P) platform, leaving traders unable to sell USDT above a 1,802 naira per USDT cap. However, contrary to speculation by the local crypto community, the exchange explained that the price peg was due to an automatic system pause.

Nigeria is currently the biggest P2P market in the world, which came about after the Central Bank of Nigeria banned institutions from buying and selling crypto in 2021. However, a circular sent to banks in December 2023 lifted the crypto ban on Nigerian banks facilitating cryptocurrency transactions.

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