By Chinenye Anuforo
In a move to stem the free fall of the naira against the dollar, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has directed telecommunication firms to block access to the websites of Binance and other cryptocurrency companies.
An authoritative source in the industry confirmed this to Daily Sun stating that the telcos got a memo from the commission yesterday to that effect. “ I can confirm it to you that we got a directive to that effect from the NCC,” the source said.
Binance had announced its commitment to P2P users in Nigeria, warning that users behaving ‘in a manipulative way’, will be removed from the platform.
The crypto exchange platform said, “As industry leaders, we are working hand in hand with local authorities, lawmakers and regulators to ensure we act on non-compliance. We are setting an upper limit for ads, filtering and removing bad ads, requiring and raising deposits for merchants posting ads as well as processes for actioning against any market manipulators.”
On Tuesday, Binance disabled sell option for its Nigerian users, blocking them from selling fiat currency, USDT, on the platform. It also capped the buy option to $1802 for Nigerian users.
It also disabled purchase of cryptocurrencies via P2P for its Nigerian users, leaving those who might want to sell their crypto assets such as Bitcoin, BB, Ethereum via P2P stuck.
The naira continues to decline even after the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), raided perceived currency speculators at a popular Abuja Bureau De Change hub on Monday.