Crypto is advancing – You may not look too far to understand that Nigerians are showing great appetite for cryptocurrency despite the CBN ban of February 5th 2021.
With the rising number of acceptance in this direction one will hardly doubt if Nigeria is actually in crypto adoption on the world map.
At the announcement of the said ban in February, one will expect that an end has come for Bitcoin and other crypto assets in the country, however, things took a dramatic twist to even spur its popularity as more Nigerians began to show overwhelming interest in acquiring Bitcoin.
The instruction according to the apex bank is to desist from facilitating Bitcoin and other crypto assets transactions through the nation’s financial institutions, with which CBN believes will put a halt to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies popularity in Nigeria, reverse was however the case in this instance as crypto is advancing.
A number of factors were responsible for this paradigm shift away from the much expectation of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Why crypto acceptance in Nigeria continued with the upward trend despite ban
P2P became proactive
Here we mean to identify the role “Peer-2-Peer” platforms played as crypto is advancing with Bitcoin trade in the face of hash reality. Being that the CBN intention was to scuffle and fish out accounts that are involved in Bitcoin transactions directly, this approach limited the operations of traditional/centralized exchanges as a common way people buy Bitcoin.
Instead the P2P platforms took over the responsibility of ensuring users exchange cash for bitcoin.
A P2P platform is an arrangement that brings buyers and sellers together for the purpose of exchanging bitcoin for naira/money in this context.
Once a seller shows interest in letting some of his Bitcoin holdings go an interested buyer shows interest on agreed price.
The seller’s naira account gets credited with the equivalent of the USD on agreed rate, while the buyer’s Bitcoin wallet gets credited with Bitcoin value.
You may check out the Koinwa P2P platform just in case you are not trading Bitcoin yet.
With this arrangement Bitcoin adoption in Nigeria gets even more sympathy and adoption.
Inter trade reasons
You will understand that moving money from the shores of Nigeria to other countries like China, the U.S.A, etc for the purpose of cross-border transactions has not been an easy affair, strict FX laws by the CBN has left no possibility in foreign remittance from Nigeria.
Given this, a lot of people embrace Bitcoin for cross-border payments since it’s a decentralized digital currency which the government has no power over its dynamics and regulation, a visible fact why the crypto assets are undergoing strict persecution.
Hedge over inflation
The raising rate of inflation in Nigeria is a call for concern, most Nigerians prefer to store their money in Bitcoin since it’s more of a valuable asset than the naira.
Once inflation continues to hit upward the naira keeps getting devalued, the need to keep naira becomes irrelevant in economic sense. Buying Bitcoin becomes a veritable means of preserving one’s money over inflation since it ends up in a currency with a stable and valuable index.
Conclusion
From the above it can be said that Peer-2-Peer platforms, inter trade/cross-border transactions, hedge over inflation were the principal reasons and actors that define the increasing acceptance of Bitcoin and related crypto assets in Nigeria despite the much threat from the Central Bank of Nigeria to short-live the flagship cryptocurrency, however, crypto is advancing and can only get better.
