LAGOS, NIGERIA (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The Nigerian government is demanding at least $10 billion as retribution from Binance amid a crackdown on the crypto exchange platform in desperate moves to salvage the value of the nation’s local currency.
Special adviser on information and strategy to President Bola Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga made this known Friday morning in an interview with the BBC.
Binance profited substantially from its “illegal transactions” in Nigeria while the nation suffered huge losses, Mr Onanuga said during the interview.
Earlier on Friday, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) confirmed that the crypto exchange platform is being investigated by the Nigerian authorities.
In its first official confirmation of the clampdown efforts on the activities of Binance and other crypto platforms, a top official of the ONSA confirmed that the security adviser’s office is coordinating an interagency investigation into the operations of Binance.
READ ALSO:FG Detains Binance Executives in Cyptocurrency Crackdown
“I am confirming that the office of the national security adviser, as part of ongoing operations in the foreign exchange market with the CBN and other law enforcement and security agencies, is coordinating an interagency investigation into the operations of Binance,” Zakari Mijinyawa, head of Strategic Communication at the Office of the National Security Adviser, told newsmen on Thursday.
However, Mr Mijinyawa did not provide any other details about the investigations as of press time Thursday night.
On Wednesday, the Nigerian government detained two executives of the crypto exchange platform.
On Friday, Mr Onanuga claimed that Binance is not registered in Nigeria and has no presence in the country. He alleged that people used the platform to arbitrarily fix dollar-naira rates; a practice he said negatively impacted the value of the local currency.
He explained further that the Binance team was already cooperating with the Nigerian government by providing useful information, and had already suspended naira-related transactions on the platform.
Nigeria nevertheless wants Binance to pay at least $10 billion in retribution, Mr Onanuga said.
Earlier in the week, Mr Onanuga had alleged that if not stopped, the cryptocurrency trading platform would destroy the Nigerian economy by arbitrarily fixing foreign exchange rates.
“If we don’t clamp down on Binance, Binance will destroy the economy of this country. They just fix the rate,” the presidential spokesman said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday.