Tinubu Government has slammed a $10 billion fine on Binance Nigeria.
Newsone Nigeria reports that the Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Bola Tinubu has slammed a $10 billion fine on crypto trading platform, Binance, over allegations of influencing the country’s forex crisis.
This online news platform understands that the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this Friday morning, March 1, 2024, in an interview with the BBC.
According to Onanuga, Binance profited substantially from its “illegal transactions” in Nigeria while the nation suffered huge losses.
The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy noted that Binance is not registered in Nigeria and has no presence in the country.
Onanuga alleged that people used the platform to arbitrarily fix dollar-naira rates; a practice he said negatively impacted the value of the local currency.
The Presidential Media Aide explained further that the Binance team was already cooperating with the Nigerian government by providing useful information, and had already suspended naira-related transactions on the platform.
Onanuga said: “The platform fixes the exchange rate in Nigeria, which is illegal. The Central Bank of Nigeria is the only authority that can fix the exchange rate for Nigeria.
“Binance harbours a lot of people who fix exchange rates which impacted the country badly at a time when the government is trying to stabilize the economy.”
The Presidential Spokesman added that Binance influenced the increase in foreign exchange rates through currency speculations which made the Naira value to fall by almost 70% in recent months.
Meanwhile, News-One reports that the $10 billion fine on Binance Nigeria is coming two days after the Nigerian government arrested two Binance Executives in Nigeria.
According to Financial Times (FT), a UK-based business news outlet, the unnamed Binance executives were arrested by Nuhu Ribadu, the national security adviser on Friday, and their international passports were confiscated.
FT gathered that the executives flew to Nigeria following the country’s decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites last week.