This is just as the federal government has detained two senior officials of the organisation who visited the country recently, amid allegations by the government that the platform was being used for forex speculations. The passports of the detained officials were also reportedly confiscated.
Known as the P2P market, with over 170 million users worldwide lets users, buyers, and sellers transact without the intervention of a third party. Binance gained popularity among Nigerians in 2021 after former president Buhari’s administration outlawed the country’s Crypto industry.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Association of Bureau de Change (BDC) operators and others have called for the ban of Binance, accusing it of setting an informal value for the naira.
CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso recently disclosed that $26 billion came through Binance Nigeria from “unidentified sources” last year.
“In the case of Binance, $26 billion has passed through Binance Nigeria in the last year alone from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify.”
The head of CBN also suggested that the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Police, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) work together to combat such illegal financial activities.
Meanwhile, following the disabling of its platform, two senior Binance officials come into the country but were reportedly arrested on the orders of the National Security Adviser.
The federal government is said to have demanded that the officials provide information on any transactions made on the Binance platform using Nigerian Naira during the last seven years and the removal of some other Nigerian-related data from the Binance site.
The government got a court warrant to hold the officials for a minimum of twelve days.
