🌋 Nigeria Tightens the Noose
posted 1 Mar 2024
Nigeria's government has levied a $10 billion fine against Binance, citing illegal transactions and efforts to manipulate the local currency's value. This move was outlined in a BBC interview with Bayo Onanuga, the President's Information and Strategy advisor.
Onanuga highlights that Binance's unregistered operations in Nigeria have led to its use by locals for speculative Naira to USD conversions, causing detrimental effects on the Naira's value.
The economy of this country is at risk if we don't take measures against Binance,emphasized the president's spokesperson during an interview.
Adding to the controversy, two Binance employees were arrested on February 28th in Abuja, shortly after their arrival for discussions with the government regarding accusations of financial manipulations, but they resisted compliance and sought embassy intervention.
The Nigerian authorities demanded detailed transaction records from Binance involving the Naira for the past seven years and the deletion of specific Nigeria-related data from the platform. According to official orders, the Binance representatives could be detained for up to 12 days.
Despite Binance's efforts to cooperate and share pertinent information with Nigerian authorities, the government has decided to extract a hefty fine from the platform. In response, Binance halted all operations with the Nigerian Naira.
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