- Nigerian cryptocurrency traders are defying the recent central bank crackdown
- The Central Bank of Nigeria warned against crypto trading, but this hasn’t stopped traders from wanting to learn how to do it
- Many Nigerian cryptocurrency traders see it as a way of lifting themselves out of poverty
Nigerian cryptocurrency traders are defying the recent crackdown by the country’s central bank and continuing to operate using peer-to-peer transactions. The Central Bank of Nigeria banned banks from dealing with cryptocurrency entities at the start of the month, but traders have found a way to get around the ban and continue learning how to trade in an attempt to improve their often desperate financial situation.
Nigerian Cryptocurrency Traders Keeps on Trading
The ban by the central bank, which followed guidance first issued in 2017, led to widespread consternation within the Nigerian cryptocurrency community. The reasons for the ban echoed those of central banks around the world, who warned about the volatility of the markets and the unsuitability of leverage trading platforms to novice users.
The Nigerian cryptocurrency community have not accepted this however and have continued teaching themselves how to trade in an attempt to elevate themselves out of the poverty that affects some 40% of the country.
The Financial Times reports that the central bank’s message has “had the opposite effect” it intended according to Ibukun Akinnawo, host of a crypto investment hub on Clubhouse, who says that young people with an interest in the digital currency ecosystem are being forced away from it by a government that doesn’t understand or want to understand it. Idayat Hassan, head of the Centre for Democracy and Development, echoes these thoughts, saying that cryptocurrency trading “gives the young people hope and represents opportunities” that they otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to.
Individuals Left to Educate Themselves
These central bank edicts are correct in the sense that leverage platforms are unsuitable for novices, which is why those wanting to use them should learn about them first. There is nothing to stop anyone with an internet connection from learning how to trade cryptocurrencies safely and responsibly, but this message is not promoted by governments and banks. This leaves individuals to do what these Nigerian cryptocurrency traders are doing and find their own ways of teaching themselves and engaging in a market that can, with the right education and when treated with the correct level of respect, change their lives.
