Governmental restriction of crypto exchange and its possible effect on the masses.

In order to create a safe and conducive environment, different countries and nations come up with rules and regulations to prevent any form of threat to their country welfare. when it comes to this laws are created for specific purpose. there are a lot at stake and it goes beyond the welfarism of the country. there are a lot of political influence that forms the basis of the creation and foundation of such policies.

Nigeria being a sovereign state has its share of insecurities, in order to make sure to curb the rate of insecurity in the financial sector or restrict the rate at which terrorist organisations are funded and decrease the rate at which some business tycoons launder money through the use of crypto currency, some kind of Ban was placed on trading of crypto currency in Nigeria. Though the governor of central bank of Nigeria made it clear in an announcement in 2021 that there was no such thing as crypto currency ban because the usage and activities of crypto currency is outside the boundaries of his authority, not part of the banking sector of the country.

But there was a funny clause in his statement when he mentioned that, the ban is only applicable to usage of commercial banks for crypto currency trading. which makes the trading of crypto currency looks legal in Nigeria but in the background it is not due to the restrictions and sanctions placed on the commercial banks as crypto currency is not recognised as legal tender . in the last quarter of 2021, different commercial banks made an announcement broadcasted to their users through emails about the usage of their services in crypto trading which might attract some complications.

As time passes by, the ban loses its grip and signicance, due to this some banks abandoned these policies and become listed again on crypto currency trading sites and Apps but most banks are yet to do the same which means in one way or the other the ban might still be there since the removal was not officially announced neither did the government publicly claim the existence of the ban. We all kind of just get on with our lives and forgot such policies involving the restriction of crypto exchange ever existed. I mean even if most commercial banks are not operating openly when it comes trading of crypto we still have virtual banks that can be used for such trade.

For few years things were kind of normal again though we knew that the government opinion regarding crypto exchange has not changed, not that we care anyways since crypto currency exchange has now become one of the major source of income for most youths in Nigeria. Ever since the last quarter of last year Dollar-Naira exchange rate has increased drastically and the whole country is currently feeling the heat, the cost of goods and commodities has risen to an abnormal level. the hardest part is we have run out of who to blame since we all feel helpless in this present situation we find ourselves.

The governing bodies in Nigeria in their approach to curb the further decline of Naira released an article few weeks ago. they urged telecommunications companies to restrict Nigerians access to binance and Coinbase. though I wouldn't say we weren't expecting such policies to be implemented, it has been on ground for years but implementing such policies at a time when the only way for most people to earn something significant to support themselves is through crypto exchange. the last time telecommunications companies placed a ban on something was during twitter ban and we all knew how that went.

surprisingly, to an extent I believe the restriction is yet to take effect because I Still made use of binance a couple of days ago and everything was fine. eventually if the ban is implemented as long as it only involves the usage of binance and Coinbase the effect of the ban on my trading activities on the blockchain will be minimal since I have other exchange apps I make use of in trading though not compared to the rates offered by binance. I believe regardless of the ban Nigerians will always find other ways to trade on the blockchain since our survival depends on it.

The sad truth is when it comes to implementation and formulation of such policies in Nigeria the government only looks at few advantages of the policies but never take time to evaluate the devastating consequences of such policies on the masses. we barely have a say in matters concerning these policies but I would only advice my fellow Nigerians to be prepared for it. ensure you don't have too much crypto currency and fiat you can't afford to lose in either binance or Coinbase and also try to explore other crypto exchange apps before the ban is implemented. though the implementation of this policy might not happen but if I have learnt something from the ban of twitter (X) years ago, it is that the condition of implementation of such policies is unpredictable.

_{This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Crypto news" in hive learners community.}

_{Cover image - 𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺
Image 1 - Source}