Nigeria’s House of Representatives, particularly its Financial Crimes Committee, is on the warpath, calling out Richard Teng, the big boss at Binance. They’ve given him a week to make his way to them by March 4, 2024, no ifs or buts. The reason? They’re eyeballing Binance with suspicion, thinking it might be messing around with money laundering and even funding terrorism.
So, here’s the deal: Ginger Onwusibe, the head honcho of this committee, laid down the law last Friday. He’s pretty miffed that Binance seems to be giving Nigerian laws the cold shoulder, especially when it’s about how businesses and financial dealings should go down in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Central Bank has been throwing some serious side-eye at Binance, hinting that they’re not just trading cryptocurrencies but might be laundering money too. Onwusibe’s not having any of it. He’s like, if Binance doesn’t show, they’re ready to pull out the big guns and use their power to make them regret it.
They’ve been trying to get Teng to come over for a chat since December 12, 2023, but he’s been playing hard to get. Onwusibe’s message is clear: Nigeria’s not going to let foreign companies come in and play fast and loose with the rules, especially not when the country’s trying to keep its head above economic waters.
Onwusibe’s pretty vocal about needing every tax dollar and stopping any flow of cash to bad actors. And he’s all about protecting Nigerian investors from companies that might want to take advantage of them. He’s calling out Binance for not doing their part, like paying taxes and having a place where Nigerians can go if they’ve got beef with Binance’s services.
Binance, on the other hand, is like, “What fines?” They said they chatted with Nigeria about sorting things out but didn’t get any memo about coughing up $10 billion. They’re not keen on paying fines, especially when they think they’ve done nothing wrong. They want to patch things up with Nigeria but are drawing the line at paying through the nose for it.
Mr. Onanuga, who’s got the president’s ear, said the media got it twisted. He said fines are on the table, but nothing’s set in stone. He’s accusing Binance of messing with Nigeria’s economy by letting people mess with the exchange rate on their platform, which he says is a big no-no since only the Central Bank of Nigeria should be doing that.
This whole mess with Binance isn’t new. Nigeria’s had its share of drama, like when they thought they’d sorted out travel restrictions with the UAE, only to find out they were wrong. And then there’s the bit where Nigerian officials nabbed a couple of Binance folks, hoping to get some dirt on Nigerians using the platform. According to Onanuga, those Binance employees were cooperative.
The Nigerian government’s been cracking down on crypto platforms, raiding currency exchange spots all over to try and prop up the naira. The Central Bank’s governor said a truckload of money’s been moving through Binance, and just last week, Binance was like, “Okay, we’ll stop the dollar-naira trades.”
But then, they went ahead and disabled the peer-to-peer trading for Nigerians, which basically cuts off a way for Nigerians to trade using Binance. So, here we are, with Nigeria laying down the law and Binance in the hot seat, trying to figure out their next move.
