ABCON to FG: Stop Binance’s operations in Nigeria to strengthen naira

The Association of Bureaux De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) says Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange company, must be stopped from operating in the country.

In an interview with NAN in Lagos on Tuesday, Aminu Gwadabe, president of ABCON, said Binance is one of the many factors putting pressure on the naira.

In June 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria said Binance Nigeria was not registered, making its operations in Nigeria illegal.

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

“So, we have to do something that can stop Binance. It’s a competition; we need to ban Binance and the only way to do so is if we have liquidity.

“As I speak, Binance is the most liquid market. They do about 1.2 million transactions per second. So it’s a very liquid market but that is not a scary status, we can break it through our local content and peculiarities.”

The ABCON president said “optimism is giving way to pessimism in the present foreign exchange market situation”, leading to the loss of confidence among the citizens.

“So we are seeing a scenario where optimism is giving way to pessimism, investors are not coming, Nigerians don’t have confidence in the market and we have to look for external finances that are coming in as a quick fix, ”  Gwadabe said.

“There is a lot of pressure on the naira from foreign exchange hoarding by the banks and oil companies.

“Is it Nigerians that want to pay school fees, roundtripping, speculations, among others? All these galvanised, to put pressure on the naira.

“Spike and volatility did not start now, it’s something the present government inherited and has gone a long way in checking illegal behaviours around the foreign exchange market and that is the objective of the unification.”

On the removal of the petrol subsidy, Gwadabe said the move would allow the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to see remittances from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPCL) Limited.

He said the development would also allow the apex bank to have liquidity and inflows that would come in for them to be able to defend the naira.

“So, for us to succeed, there must be liquidity. Countries that adopt floating exchange are countries that have a heavy reserve and balance of payment to fall back on,” he said.

‘REVOCATION LIST NOT CORRECT’

On July 20, 2023, the CBN reportedly reduced the number of BDC dealers from 5,689 previously approved in 2022 to 2,991.

This means that 2,698 BDCs had their licenses revoked.

Commenting on the matter, Gwadabe discredited the report saying “that list was not correct and still not confirmed”.

“The CBN has yet to come out with their comprehensive list. Yes, CBN is reviewing the BDC register with a view to reducing the number but as of now, there is no official list that proscribes or says these are the licensed or unlicensed,” he said

“So the status quo remains the same.”

Gwadabe also said the association had engaged with the CBN and had been advised to sensitise its members to know the conditions guiding their operations and their obligations which were to render returns to CBN.