Bitcoin ‘Can’t Be Stopped’: Nigerians Look to P2P Exchanges After Crypto Ban

“There’s no stopping crypto, [it’s] the future and we won’t let some old fools take our future from us,” one Nigerian bitcoin user who wished to remain anonymous told CoinDesk. “We’re Nigerians. Using the crypto is a way out of poverty for the youth.”

Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ordered banks to close down accounts associated with cryptocurrencies. But this will not be enough to shut down Nigeria’s cryptocurrency market.

CBN clarified on Sunday that this is not a new order, but a reminder of a directive published in 2017. However, whether old or new, it’s having an impact. In response, banks quickly cut ties with cryptocurrency companies, such as the Binanceexchange and social payments app Bundle, which in turn stopped accepting deposits.

Nigeria has become a hot spot for cryptocurrency as an alternative to the naira, a national currency prone to depreciation. Nigerians have found various use cases for decentralized digital currencies, from trading bitcoin to make a living to using it to dodge trade restrictions with China. During protests against police corruption in the country last October the Feminist Coalition was one activist non-profit accepting donations going toward the protests. When the group’s bank accounts were frozen and it couldn’t accept funds, it switched to bitcoin donations because the payment method could not be frozen.

Some Nigerian cryptocurrency users aren’t happy about the directive and have said they plan to continue using cryptocurrencies by using methods that are harder to detect and stop.
 

Moving to ‘peer-to-peer’

Some users think they can get around them by not using centralized exchanges.

“Bitcoin is peer-to-peer, meaning that it can be transacted without intermediaries. Your bank may be able to shut down your account but no one can shut down your bitcoin wallet. This development, while concerning, will not be the end of bitcoin in Nigeria,” said Nigerian Bitcoin Core contributor Tim Akinbo on Twitter.

Exchanges such as Binance have been affected because payment partners that store the naira are no longer willing to deal with them due to the directive, putting an indefinite pause on naira deposits to exchanges.

But there’s an alternative: peer-to-peer transactions, where two users connect directly to each other to trade cryptocurrency. In return for bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, a user might make a bank transfer directly to the other user, or pay that person with cash. Platforms such as Paxful and a Binance’s peer-to-peer platform help connect users to other users so they can coordinate these transactions.

“As we all know, [peer-to-peer] can’t be stopped,” one trader in Nigeria, Lucky, told CoinDesk.

Despite CBN’s directive, several sources in Nigeria told CoinDesk they plan to continue trading bitcoin via peer-to-peer exchanges, and more aired similar conclusions on social media.

“Most people will return to [peer-to-peer] transactions, some will leverage several alternatives that connect crypto to legacy financial systems, like reloadable Visa or Mastercard. Most will simply use crypto as a choice reserve asset. […] A lot of activities will also go clandestine, or underground,” said developer and cryptocurrency educator Chimezie Chuta.

He added he plans to use “alternative channels” to remain a part of the cryptocurrency community.

Crypto exchange Bundle made a similar comment in a statement to its customers about moving to “alternative channels” to ensure they can still buy and sell cryptocurrency. The email stated the exchange will provide more information about how this will work in the coming days.

CBN did not respond to an inquiry from CoinDesk by press time about whether these alternatives are lawful.
 

A mistake?

The CBN order for banks to close accounts associated with cryptocurrency is supposed to curb criminal activity and risky investments. In its clarification, it also listed several reasons why it considers cryptocurrencies dangerous and noted that other central banks and international financial institutions have warned against their use.

“They have all made similar pronouncements based of the significant risks that transacting in cryptocurrencies portend – risk of loss of investments, money laundering, terrorism financing, illicit fund flows and criminal activities,” the letter reads.

Sources in Nigeria disagree, arguing the regulations are a mistake.

“The fact that the CBN sent out this controversial memo to banks and other financial institutions without giving the industry participants and stakeholders an opportunity of dialogue shows how little they know about the Nigeria blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem,” Chuta said.

He argued that Nigerians should have a choice over what assets they invest in, especially because the value of the naira depreciates over time and users might want to use bitcoin as a hedge against this continuous inflation. He said many Nigerians are using crypto trading to put themselves through school, thousands of new businesses and jobs are being created by crypto innovation.

“The fact is that this directive was ill-advised, archaic, retrogressive, insensitive, and [smacks] of primitive superstition,” he added.

Some users are waiting to see if CBN issues any more rules or clarifications.

“Decentralized systems are hard to ban. But as for me, I’m waiting for more directives and then I can pick my positions,” crypto enthusiast Bayo Adebayo told CoinDesk, adding: “But putting a ban in the first place is very bad. I don’t like Nigeria. If it is to be banned totally, I will find a way to leave this Nigeria.”

By Alyssa Hertig

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Gunmen raid villages in northwest Nigeria, killing 19

At least 19 people were killed when armed men raided two villages in northwest Nigeria’s Kaduna state, the government said.

Late on Saturday, bandits riding on motorcycles killed 14 people and injured others when they invaded Kutemeshi where they looted shops, Internal Affairs Commissioner Samuel Aruwan said in a statement.

On the same day, motorbike-riding gunmen also stormed Kujeni where they killed five people and burned “several” houses, warehouses and a church, according to the statement.

Gunmen from kidnapping and cattle-rustling gangs – called bandits by locals – often raid villages in northwest Nigeria, stealing cattle, kidnapping for ransom and burning homes after looting them.

“Kaduna State Government has received reports from security agencies of the killing of 19 citizens by armed bandits at Kutemeshi village in Birnin Gwari and Kujeni village in Kajuru, where several others were left with bullet wounds,” Aruwan said.

But residents said 19 people were killed just in the raid in Kutemeshi.

“We lost 19 people in the attack. We buried them yesterday [Sunday],” said Kutemeshi resident Ayuba Abdullahi.

Last month, bandits killed 12 people and kidnapped 30 others in attacks on three villages in Birnin Gwari district and neighbouring Katsina state.

The gangs maintain camps in the Rugu forest straddling Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Niger states.

The gangs have no ideological leanings, but there are concerns that they may be gradually infiltrated by armed groups from the northeast.

Violence across the northwest has killed 8,000 people since 2011 and displaced more than 200,000, some into neighbouring Niger, according to a report last year by the International Crisis Group (ICG). 

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Nigerian FM says Nigeria emulating China to grow economy

Nigeria is learning from China on its economic development success and becoming less dependent on imports, said Geoffrey Onyeama, the country’s minister of Foreign Affairs, Sunday.

While reflecting on the 50 years of bilateral relations between both countries, Onyeama told the official News Agency of Nigeria that Nigeria is on the right track as President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration has prioritized all it takes to boost the economy, especially with agriculture.

“We will like to replicate what China has done,” he added.　According to him, one of such preconditions is the ability of a country to be able to feed its population. This, he said, was why President Buhari has prioritized agriculture for food security.

Another precondition identified was that a country needed the financial capital to generate wealth, he noted.

The bilateral relations between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the People’s Republic of China were formally established on Feb. 10, 1971.

CGTN

Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala poised to be first woman and first African Director General of the WTO after U.S. too decides to back her

Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former two-time finance minister and former managing director of the World Bank, is poised to become the next Director General (DG) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The 164 nations comprising the Geneva-based body cleared the last hurdle to arrive at a consensus on its next leader, the first woman and first African in its 26-year history, when the U.S. decided on January 5 to back Okonjo-Iweala. The WTO’s General Council is expected to formalise her position for a four-year term.

Earlier, South Korea’s Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, whose nomination the Donald Trump administration had supported, withdrew from the race, ending the long tussle that had narrowed down to the two women after six other candidates had been eliminated by September. A doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy was backed in October by the 27 European Union (E.U.) states and African and Caribbean nations, but was opposed by the Trump administration.

Okonjo-Iweala, who was until recently chairperson of the board of Gavi, the U.N.-backed public-private alliance to develop vaccines for low-income countries, had faced a stiff contest from within the African region. Besides an Egyptian nominee whom the African Union had initially backed, Kenya’s

former Trade Minister who has served as chair of the WTO’s general council, was also in the running. The global body has been engaged in a search for leadership since the premature departure in August of Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo. The U.S. suggestion for an interim head in Alan wolff, one of the four Deputy Directors General, was vetoed by China.

While Okonjo-Iweala is likely to commence her stint under relatively favourable circumstances in view of Washington’s renewed commitment to multilateral institutions, the organisation is confronted by many unprecedented challenges in its history. Arguably the most urgent priority for the incoming DG would be to fill vacancies to the panel of judges to the appellate body that adjudicates disputes among nations. The process has stalled since 2019 on account of systematic U.S. opposition under Donald Trump to approve fresh nominations on the grounds that most of the rulings handed by the WTO had gone against Washington.

Undoing the damage to global trade flows owing to the U.S-China bilateral disputes from the Trump era is another extremely contentious and delicate area. Washington had reacted strongly to the potential erosion of its global dominance — invoking national security provisions to slap punitive tariffs on steel and aluminium imports — to buttress Donald Trump’s nationalist “America first” agenda. Two decades after the country’s entry into the WTO, China’s quest to be accorded the status of a market economy is a subject of litigation as successive U.S. administrations and the E.U. states dispute a provision in Beijing’s treaty of accession to the world body. The upgrade would allow Chinese exports to be compared to its domestic prices rather than with higher third country rates when anti-dumping cases are brought against Beijing.

Western allies have also alleged that Chinese state-subsidies to domestic manufacturers and stringent terms on technology transfer for western firms seeking market access create unfair competition and distort global commerce. Beijing, which has emerged as the world’s second largest economic power, on the other hand, makes no secret of its quest for global economic, military and technological supremacy.

These sensitive issues could reverberate in multilateral negotiations on reforms to the WTO structure and further expansion of the global trade agenda. Okonjo-Iweala would have to exert her diplomatic skills to enable the principal players — the U.S., China, the E.U. and countries from the global south — to harmonise their positions. While uncertainty lingers over the WTO’s trajectory, it is hard to over-estimate its relevance today to counter economic protectionism around the world, as populism and narrow nationalism hold sway. The complexities of shaping a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change underscore the imperative need for concerted efforts to reshape humanity’s common priorities.

By Garimella Subramaniam

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Nigeria strengthens efforts to ensure school safety

The Nigerian Police has launched the Safer School Initiative campaign to strengthen school safety across the country, a police officer said Thursday.

The campaign is initiated under the nation’s public security framework to build a safe, peaceful and secure society, Ebere Amaraizu, the national coordinator of Police Campaign Against Cultism and Other Vices (POCACOV), told reporters in the southeast Nigerian city of Enugu.

The center has printed information booklets for students nationwide, Amaraizu said, adding that the move will “help them not yield to pressures of manipulation of minds by their peers and any other person.”

Additionally, “POCACOV fan clubs” will be built in all schools nationwide to improve education on school safety, he said.

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