The Special Adviser on Information & Strategy, Bayo Onanuga has disclosed that they were advised to clampdown on the embattled cryptocurrency exchange trading platform, Binance.
The presidential aide said this while speaking to Channels TV on the state of the nation and the recent clampdown on Binance.
At the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja, THE WHISTLER reported that the Governor of the Central Bank, Olayemi Cardoso, accused Binance of carrying out over $26bn suspicious transactions in 2023 alone.
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Onanuga said the parallel market is not the real gauge of the health of the nation’s economy. According to him, the “parallel market is illegal.”
The presidential aide said speculators are profiting from the weakness of the Nigerian economy, and Binance is a prime suspect.
Also, platforms like Forextime, OctaFX, Crypto, FXTM, Coinbase, Kraken, among others, have been blocked by the Nigerian government.
He said, “If you look at the exchange rate, even in the so-called parallel market, the exchange rate is stabilising there, which is what this country needs. Our economy is too dollarised. Importers are looking at the exchange rate and use it to fix prices, some of them arbitrarily.
“When the CBN stabilises the exchange rate, you will find out that a lot of people continue to get relief. Things are not going to get worse. They will get better in the next few weeks.”
Onanuga labelled Binance as one of the saboteurs of the Nigerian economy.
“Look at what Binance is doing to our economy. That is why the government moved against Binance. Some people sit down within cyberspace to dictate even our exchange rate- hijacking the role of the CBN. They just sit down and fix anything they like.
“For instance, we were told that if we don’t clampdown on Binance, Binance will destroy the economy of this country. They just fix rates. It is like a sabotage.”