Ever since the Central Bank of Nigeria issued directives for deposit money banks and other financial institutions in the country to desist from transacting in/and with entities dealing in cryptocurrencies, Nigerians turned to cryptocurrency exchanges to continue trading Bitcoin and other crypto tokens. One such crypto exchanges many Nigerian crypto traders use to circumvent CBN’s restriction is Binance. With Binance, crypto traders easily buy and sell cryptocurrency tokens using the peer-to-peer feature. Are you considering delving into crypto trading and wondering if Binance is legal in Nigeria? Read on to find out.
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Is Binance Legal in Nigeria?
There is currently no law that prohibits, criminalizes, or bans the use of cryptocurrency exchanges in Nigeria. More so, there exists no punishment in any written law for using cryptocurrency exchanges in Nigeria. Given this, Binance is legal in Nigeria.
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What is the Position of the Law of Nigeria?
As we stated earlier, Binance is legal in Nigeria. We base our stance on the provisions of Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which states:
Subject as otherwise provided by this Constitution a person shall not be convicted of a criminal offense unless that offense is defined and the penalty, therefore, is prescribed by a written law; and in this subsection, a written law refers to an Act of the National Assembly or a Law of a State, and subsidiary legislation or instrument under the provisions of the law.”
Based on the above quote, Binance is legal as there exists no written law that criminalizes cryptocurrency exchanges, nor is there a punishment in any written law for using cryptocurrency exchanges in Nigeria.
However, cryptocurrency exchanges aren’t subject to licensing in Nigeria as there are no regulatory authorities charged with oversight functions over these crypto exchanges. The fact that Binance has no operational license from a government regulatory agency does not mean Nigerian crypto traders will have problems working with this crypto exchange.
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Brief Summary of the Binance Exchange
Now we’ve been able to establish that Binance can be used to trade cryptocurrencies in Nigeria, let’s briefly discuss what the Binance Exchange is all about. At the moment, Binance ranks among the topmost cryptocurrency exchanges on earth. Based on findings by the CoinMarket cryptocurrency portal, Binance is atop every other cryptocurrency exchange, in terms of daily turnover, the number of users on the platform, liquidity, and web traffic.
Binance also owns its own “native asset” which crypto traders can use as the “basis gas” (i.e. payment internal unit) on the platform. Since this cryptocurrency exchange is used by millions all over the world, there are several types of currencies, including USD, EUR, NGN, etc that could be used to buy and sell crypto tokens.
Binance also permits mobile trading through the Binance App that can be downloaded from Google Play or App Store, depending on the smartphone. Crypto traders who use Binance also get to enjoy its proprietary cold wallet that guarantees the security of their crypto assets. With these features we discussed above and some others we skipped, Binance can certainly be recommended for crypto traders from Nigeria.
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How to Buy Cryptocurrency Tokens in Nigeria Using P2P on the Binance App
Binance makes buying and selling cryptocurrency tokens very easy thanks to the peer-to-peer (P2P) feature of the Binance app. Several crypto tokens can be traded on Binance, but for the sake of explaining this subheading, we’d choose Bitcoin as the crypto token we want to buy using the P2P.
Before we proceed, we assume that you’ve already created a Binance account and logged into the account. Also, before starting your trade, ensure you add at least one payment method. That being said, let’s walk you through the step-by-step process to buy Bitcoin in Nigeria using Binance P2P:
- Log into your Binance account
- Click on ”P2P” on the Binance homepage. If you do not see the “P2P” icon on the home page, click on “More”, then select ”P2P” in the “Trade” section
- Next, set your currency to Naira by selecting “NGN”
- Go to the BTC section
- Click on “Filter” to set the parameters of your transaction
- Next, provide the amount of Bitcoin you want to buy (in NGN)
- Then, choose the preferred payment option you want to use
- You can choose sellers from a particular region/country. If you want Nigerian sellers, choose Nigeria
- Then, swipe back to the main P2P page
- A list of sellers will appear on your screen based on the filters you chose. From the list, pick any seller you want by clicking “Buy”
- Next, you’ll see the seller’s page. Ensure you go through the terms of the seller carefully to make sure you’re ok with the seller’s terms before going any further. If you aren’t ok with the terms of the seller you hit the “Buy” button for, simply go back to the main page and select another seller
- Upon acceptance of the seller’s terms, input the amount of Bitcoin you want to buy (in NGN)
- Once the system automatically provides the quantity of the BTC equivalent to the amount you provided, click on “Buy with 0 fee” to proceed
- You’ll then see the details of your order. Click “Make a Payment” to obtain the seller’s payment details. You could contact the seller via the “Chat” button if you want
- Once you’ve got the payment details of the seller, depending on the payment method you chose, make payment (ensure you don’t make any remarks that contain BTC, crypto, or any other crypto-related term on the “Remarks” when making the payment)
- After a successful payment, click “Transferred, notify seller”
- The seller will be informed about the payment you made. The seller would release your BTC after confirmation of the payment
- After the seller releases your BTC, you’d find it in your “Funding” wallet.
- To access your newly-obtained BTC, you’d need to go to the Funding tab of your Binance wallet
We should point out that the cryptocurrency market is very volatile. Do not trade with money you cannot afford to lose. Alternatively, you could use stablecoins like Tether (USDT) to hedge against the inherent volatility of your crypto assets.