Ban upon ban on cryptocurrency
I was among the few online enthusiasts and money hunters in Nigeria over the last 10 years who ventured into the crypto world very late. My journey started with all sorts of airdrops until I stumbled upon blogging that pays in crypto, which seemed too weird to me because I had no idea about anything crypto-related. At that time, all I aimed for was to earn and convert my money to fiat. However, as soon as I learned it, the federal government banned cryptocurrency.
What!
It was so painful because it took me time to learn the simple method of withdrawing my money by myself and venturing into another classroom to learn what people were calling Peer-to-Peer (P2P), which, according to them, was full of risks was a big thing to me and was not something I was ready to adapt to.
Why did the federal government ban crypto?
A lot of discussions emerged regarding the reasons behind the federal government's decision to halt anything crypto-related in Nigeria, but the primary reason given was that Nigeria was rapidly turning into a haven for core fraudsters. It was so serious that they enacted a law prohibiting anyone from being found with anything crypto-related; otherwise, one would be prosecuted.
Not child's play, as the police at checkpoints took it very personally to check passengers' phones instead of luggage. Once a crypto-related app such as Binance, Trustwallet, and others was found, they would label the person a fraudster.
Because these police knew how to enforce the law to themselves only, they demanded a very high amount of money to bail oneself out.
At first, I thought it was a joke and concluded that those videos and reports I saw on social media were all lies until a friend of mine was caught, and he had to bail himself out with $300 after much negotiation.
During those times, I made sure I uninstalled all crypto apps on my phone whenever I was traveling.
Banks also took it very personally to block any account involved in crypto transactions. We were very careful on transaction especially when it comes with writing transaction reasons, it's better to type in full because any abbreviation would appear to the bankers as crypto terms🥹
The question I kept asking myself was, why does the Nigerian government hate progress?*
Undoubtedly, fighting fraudulent acts in the system is a commendable step, but why ban crypto? This is the same crypto that was making waves in other countries while their young ones were easily catching up with life.
Although the Peer-to-Peer method got us going and we totally forgot that crypto was banned, a lot of people lost interest, which is one of the reasons why Nigeria is still lagging behind with crypto.
Do you know that...?
Okay, just recently, the federal government, in an effort to combat the rampant devaluation of our currency, decided to shut down our fiat trading in Binance.
There was never a day when the first ban was lifted, so how come they're banning what they've already banned?
Just laugh!🤣
The brains in the governing house of my country are always funny when you examine them critically.
Has this policy affected the crypto market?
The truth is that the recent action of the federal government to delist Naira in Binance has made the Naira gain some value against the dollar, but how far can that go? The government only battled with Binance, which is the biggest of them all, but currently, alternatives, I mean many more alternatives, have popped up which will surely push it back to the same in a very short time because Nigerian citizens are already crypto enthusiasts, and no matter what happens, even if they shut down the network completely, alternatives will still come.
The most funny thing? These people toiling with the laws are very much in possession of cryptocurrencies.
Thank you for reading.
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Bro it’s literally hard to deal on cryptocurrency here in our country!!
In your country too?
Why are there government like this in existence?😭😭😭