Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega
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In what has come as completely left field, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has asked banks and other financial institutions to close the accounts of cryptocurrency exchanges. Details of the new regulation are contained in a CBN circular (PDF) which is now making the rounds.
The new regulations mean that you will not be able to use a card from a Nigerian bank or any other financial institution in the country to process any transactions on a crypto exchange. In a nutshell, while virtual currencies remain legal, trading them through an exchange in Nigeria is near impossible.
Introduction
CBN ) issued series of circulars in
furtherance of its new policy on diaspora remittances.
1 The
older circulars and the CBN policy have been discussed in our
earlier article on this subject and can be read here.
Subsequently, on 22
nd January 2021, the CBN issued
another circular ( the new circular ), setting out the
modalities for the payout of diaspora remittances
3. The new circular
was issued owing to the disregard of the CBN directives by
International Money Transfer Operators ( IMTOs ) and
other unlicensed companies operating within the system.
In this article, we discuss the potential effect of the new
circular in respect of the CBN policy on diaspora remittances.
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Naira weakened against the U.S. dollar at the Investors & Exporters (I&E) window of the foreign exchange market on Wednesday, according to data on the
Naira closed at N394.25 at the Wednesday trading session, representing N0.25 or 0.06 per cent decrease from N394.00, the rate at which it closed at the previous session.
The depreciation set in as turnover contracted by 52.46 per cent, with $51.51 million recorded as against the $108.34 million posted on Tuesday.
The local unit witnessed an intraday high of N385.00 and a low of N396.00 before closing at N394.25.
Meanwhile, the domestic currency (naira) closed at N478 to a dollar at the parallel market, data from
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In normal times, it would take Amaka less than five minutes to receive money from her brother in the U.S, but it was December 2020 and the new Central Bank of Nigeria’s International Transfer policy had just been announced, so she wasn’t able to receive the money through Sendwave, the channel her brother normally used. And like many Nigerians, She hadn’t paid enough attention to the policy announcement enough to realise how much it would affect her.
“I was doubtful when I first heard about the policy. I was like, how is this possible? It just seemed very impossible that we would no longer be able to receive money directly in Naira. Plus, I was so certain that it wouldn’t affect the app my people abroad would usually use to send me money, so I wasn’t really afraid until I actually had to receive money,” the 26-year-old entrepreneur tells us.
CBN’s hammer dangles on IMTOs still paying remittances in naira CBN’s hammer dangles on IMTOs still paying remittances in naira
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THE Central Bank of Nigeria has vowed it will ‘hammer’ via sanctions, International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) that are still, despite its directive, paying remittances in the local currency, naira.
The bank had in December 2020 directed that IMTOs and commercial banks in the country to pay beneficiaries of diaspora remittances in foreign currencies, in a bid to deepen the foreign exchange market and create transparency in the administration of diaspora remittances into Nigeria.
It later warned the operators and banks still paying remittances in naira despite the directive and threatened “stiff consequences” against those caught doing so.