A few days after the Office of the National Security Adviser arrested two officials of Binance, a cryptocurrency platform, the Nigerian government has beamed its searchlight on executives from other cryptocurrency platforms in the country.
On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that two senior executives of Binance had been detained in Nigeria.
Sources with knowledge of the matter have confirmed that more cryptocurrency operators will be invited to expand their operations in Nigeria.
The crackdown follows an earlier report by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).
According to the source, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, is working on the report and has started implementing the recommendations of the report.
The NFIU report indicated the platform as a tool for terrorism financing and other criminal activities, which are affecting the Naira and national security.
The cryptocurrency operators are being invited to clear some of the illegalities on their platforms, which are aiding corruption in the country.
Just over a week ago, the Federal Government blocked trading on cryptocurrency platforms, asking telcos in the country to block access to their websites. Platforms affected included Binance, OctaFx, and Coinbase.
The Binance executives, an American and a British-Pakistani, who are currently being questioned, flew into Nigeria after the decision to block the platform.
A day before the news of their detention broke, on Tuesday, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Yemi Cardoso, announced that the sum of $26 billion had flowed through Binance Nigeria over the past year from unidentified sources.
“We are concerned that certain practices go on that indicate illicit flows, going through a number of these entities and suspicious flows,” Cardoso told journalists after his first Monetary Policy Committee meeting.
“In the case of Binance, in the last year, $26 billion has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify.”
According to sources familiar with the ongoing crackdown, the NSA wants to use the opportunity to set an example for others not to use their platforms for nefarious activities against the Nigerian financial system.
A task team involving the NSA’s office, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Police Force, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Nigeria Customs Service, and the NFIU is working to arrest currency speculators and address challenges impacting the nation’s economic stability.
