Today has been a very frustrating day for the crypto community in Nigeria. Given the fact that Nigeria makes some of the highest crypto transactions among other African countries, the setbacks of today are bound to leave a massive dent in a lot of pockets.
I had initially heard about the ban on USDT/NGN pairs on Binance yesterday but I'm not so informed. I assumed it meant you couldn't trade those pairs and not that P2P couldn't work. I had even used P2P yesterday for a transaction so you could imagine the shock when I tried again today and it was impossible.
Thankfully, the ban isn't on all platforms, however, this puts me in an annoying place where I have to start learning how to use a new crypto app that doesn't even have HIVE listed. Making my regular transactions more tedious and frustrating than they already are.
Because I have to battle terrible internet service situations as well as consistent power outages, this crypto setback makes me extremely sad. I already go through a lot with Binance on a normal day but now I have to include purchasing USDT from a different platform and then sending it to Binance before getting my Hive and moving it onchain. It's all so frustrating.
Furthermore, the rationale behind this ban has to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I knew our new President was daft but I had no idea how daft he and his entire cabinet of supporters are.
The first major setback was the restriction of Dom Accounts from receiving USD from other countries. This made the joint account created by my partner and me completely useless. We would have to incur a lot more charges by receiving our USD in Naira and then converting it back to USD at their fake bank rates.
I don't understand how and why these people believe that restricting our access to USD is the solution to their terrible economic strategies. A country that exports almost nothing and is completely dependent on the importation of nearly everything, with zero room for the growth of industry or business, and a very unconducive environment for investors, I don't understand how they don't see the obvious problems but choose to focus on the wrong thing.
In the past year alone a lot of major investors including big players like Mobile, have stopped their activities in the country, leading to additional unemployment. The government imposes new taxes every day, with no detail of where all the money ends up.
I have no other choice but to adjust to this new reality. I spoke to a friend who trades regularly on Binance and he told me just how much he had lost between yesterday and today. That's just one person out of thousands in the country.
The government isn't on our side so all we can do now is figure out a new way to live and hope they don't come for that too.
Posted Using InLeo Alpha