Victor Ezeja
Crypto trading platform, Binance, has announced plans to end its financial services in naira as it prepares to exit the Nigerian market.
In a notice published on its website on Tuesday, the fintech platform advised Nigerians trading on its exchange to withdraw all their NGN assets.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe cryptocurrency exchange said it will stop accepting NGN deposits after 14:00 UTC today, however it will automatically convert naira holdings to USDT starting from March 8 at 8:00 a.m. UTC. The support for withdrawals will end on March 8 at 6:00 a.m. UTC.
Binance further said the conversion rate for automatic conversions will be 1 USDT per 1,515.13 naira.
The statement reads: “Fellow Binancians, Binance will discontinue all Nigerian Naira (NGN) services as per the timeline below.
“Users are encouraged to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets or convert NGN into crypto prior to the discontinuation of these NGN services.
“From 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to USDT based on the conversion rate below.
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“Binance will not support deposits of NGN after 2024-03-05 14:00 (UTC).
“Withdrawals of NGN will not be supported after 2024-03-08 06:00 (UTC).
“After 2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), Binance will convert any remaining NGN balances in users’ Spot and Funding wallets into USDT on behalf of users at a ratio of 1 USDT = 1,515.13 NGN.
“Please note that the conversion rate is calculated based on the average closing price of the USDT/NGN trading pair on Binance Spot in the last seven days.
“The conversion may take approximately up to 24 hours or longer. USDT tokens will be credited to users’ Spot wallets thereafter, and users can confirm receipt of the tokens via the Convert History page.
“If users hold less than 0.00000001 USDT worth of NGN in their Spot and Funding wallets, they will each receive 0.00000001 USDT in their Spot wallets after the conversion.”
This latest decision of Binance comes amid an ongoing regulatory clampdown by the Nigerian government through the Central Bank over alleged illicit transactions that affect the value of the naira.
The CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso had last week claimed that not less than $26 billion in suspicious flows passed through Binance in the last year, adding that they were adopting all measures to stop transactions that affect the currency including collaborating with security agencies to clamp down on suspects.
Moreover, the Nigerian government has blocked access to the Binance website weeks ago.
Some of the executives of the company are reportedly being detained in Abuja over allegations that their activities contribute to manipulating the value of the naira leading to its steady fall against other foreign currencies.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
