ABCON encourages the FG to halt binance operations in order to support the naira

The Federal Government has been urged to take all necessary measures to prevent Binance from operating in the nation by the Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON).

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos, Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, President of ABCON, offered the guidance.

Online exchange Binance allows customers to trade cryptocurrency, according to NAN. Numerous popular cryptocurrencies are supported, numbering in the hundreds.

He claims that among the various things driving pressure on the naira are Binance.

According to NAN, Binance Nigeria’s operations in Nigeria are illegal since it is not registered with or subject to the regulation of the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which made this clear in a statement it released in June 2023.

“If you know about Binance, you will know that Binance trading is becoming the anchorage of both the investors’ window and the exporters window, which is unfortunate,” said Gwadabe.

Therefore, we must take action to thwart Binance. We need to outlaw Binance, and the only way to accomplish that is if you have liquidity.

“As of right now, Binance has the highest volume of transactions—1.2 million per second. Due to our local content and uniqueness, we may still succeed despite the market’s high level of liquidity.

In the current state of the foreign currency market, the ABCON president observed that optimism was giving way to pessimism.

When pessimism overrides market psychology, according to Gwadabe, it will result in a loss of citizen confidence, which is crucial for every currency in every country.

“As a result, we are witnessing a situation in which optimism is giving way to pessimism; investors are not arriving, Nigerians lack faith in the market, and we must look for external financing that is coming in as a short fix.

“Banks and oil corporations are hoarding foreign currency, which is putting a lot of pressure on the naira.

Is it Nigerians who want to pay for things like round-trip travel and speculation? They all worked together to exert pressure on the naira.

“Spike and volatility did not start now; it was a problem that the current government inherited, and it has made significant progress in containing illegal behaviour around the foreign exchange market, which is the goal of the unification,” he said.

Gwadabe expressed optimism that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will be able to see remittances from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) after the elimination of petrol subsidies, noting that before the introduction of subsidies, remittances from NNPC to CBN were zero.

This, he claimed, would also enable the central bank to have the liquidity and inflows necessary for them to defend the naira.

More investors would want to enter the market, he claimed, if we had a welcoming, competitive, and transparent structure.

“Liquidity is therefore necessary for us to succeed. Developing nations with large reserves and a strong balance of payments are those who embrace flexible exchange rates, the expert claimed.

The ABCON president urged the National Assembly to write legislation that would safeguard market investors.

Therefore, now that the market is divided into tiers, we need legislation so that everyone will abide by the law, understand his obligations, and be protected by the law. You are good to depart after you fulfil your commitment, he replied.

Gwadabe dismissed the story on CBN revoking the licence of 2,698 BDCs, adding, “As far as I’m concerned, that list was not correct and still hasn’t been confirmed.

“The CBN has not yet published their whole list. There is currently no official list that forbids or declares that they are the licenced or unlicensed, however CBN is examining the BDC registry in an effort to reduce the number.

Therefore, he said, “the statuesque stays the same.””

The president of ABCON stated that the organisation had spoken with CBN and had received advice to educate its members of the rules governing their operations and their duties, which included providing returns to CBN.

We have a different department inside CBN that oversees us, and we must update our records with them regarding returns, address changes, director changes, and other matters affecting technicality in order to provide returns.

So, these are the issues that we have raised with CBN. Many of our members have stopped their businesses due to the lack of activity and low business, but this is not an excuse.

Despite this, he stated, “the CBN has heard about our struggles and has given us a few months to work on these and enhance our returns.”

The CBN had decreased the number of BDC dealers from the 5,689 that had previously been permitted for 2022 to 2,991 as of July.

2,698 BDCs had their licences withdrawn, according to the document labelled “Approved BDCs.”