Bitcoin Forum

Why it is that Bitcoin is not accepted in our country (Nigeria)?

What is the situation there, exactly? Is it made illegal to accept it by the government authorities? Or is it simply the case that few businesses accept/pay in Bitcoins?

Accepted how? I am not sure I understand what you mean because there's plenty of Nigerians that buy bitcoins. If by accepted, you mean retailers. Then that is all up to anyone who runs a business to start accepting bitcoin. As far as I am aware, there is no law in Nigeria that says bitcoin should not be accepted in Nigeria....

PS: I am not from Nigeria, I could be wrong. Please correct me if I am.

Do not own your own country I think that is the common situation of many countries. They do not accept btc simply because they want the banking system and the currency they are issuing to be the only way they can easily control and benefit from it.

WHat do you mean by not accepted? Is it not accepted by the merchants or has been blocked by the government? If it is about the merchants, then chill! That is not available in most of the countries so the people are using it as an investment asset instead of purchasing currency. However, if it is by the government, then you have to understand that your government don't want their people to stand financially.

Even in my country, the legal status of bitcoin is not clear. The government never issued any notice to the users nor legalized it. So I am mainly using it as a trading tool and as an investment asset. Whatever I cash out through out the years, I always include it in to my tax filing just to be safe.

IF YOU CAN OPEN THIS WEBSITE, THAN BITCOIN IS ACCEPTED IN YOUR COUNTRY.
You can get bitcoins from a lot of exchanges and you can get a credit card linked with your bitcoin, usable in any ATM or Shop that accepts VISA or You get your bitcoins and keep them to store value and gain profit as the price goes up. This is more than acceptance, it is usage value.

Don't take it that it comes from me but we all know there are thousands of scams coming from your country. I receive emails from prince and prince scams of Nigeria some are also becoming very creative that its almost very believable. I would approve not accepting bitcoin in your country. :)

But I'm sure you can earn bitcoin. Whatever you do with it and how you can encash it, its up to you.

Probably that countries still haven't got real information about cryptocurrencies and how government can benefit from using blockchain technology. Because, countries with developed economics find out something interesting in that technology and accepting new banks on cryptocurrencies.

Ginvolobbybit your country do not accept bitcoin could be good considering the fragile nature of Nigeria's economy and it's exposure to scam. Bitcoin involvement might even worsen your case.

Economies are ruled by monetary policies. Bitcoin creates alternative road for common people. It is so unexpected that some countries completely ban bitcoin cause they cannot really measure how its gonna affect their policies and general economy.

In Nigeria it hasn't have legalized acceptance for bitcoin. Same time there is not much opposition. Recently it's been stated that African countries are getting into bitcoin use and soon it helps with the growth of the country's economy. Also one of the transaction service provider mpesa was overcome by bitcoin due to the low transaction fee of bitcoin.

if bitcoin is not illegal in your country (which I don't think it is based on a google search) then it is like anywhere else, because people aren't really familiar with bitcoin. you may see bitcoin becoming popular these days but still there are so many countries that are behind this adoption curve.
and besides You can be the first to accept bitcoin in your country, for example if you have a business, shop or something like that, start accepting bitcoin payments. put up the sign and everything and begin spreading the word. that may even help your business.

Is it accepted or the problem is most of country people don't know about it? I am at Mozambique, and by their rules and regulations I don't see anything that makes bitcoin illegal. A different story is how many people around here actually knows what's a bitcoin or a blockchain, and these aren't much. if it is the same issue, it is not discouraging, it's lack of information about this topic maybe.

Nigeria is not an exception to the rule. Most countries in the world do not recognize bitcoin. Some of them allow you to use bitcoin for a limited number of operations. But you do not worry. All users use their bitcoins through exchanges. If you have coins you will find a use for them.

So what there are still many countries which doesn't accept bitcoin this isn't discouragement some countries are still under development and implementing bitcoin really help them in any situation. However as of now I'm sure nigeria hasn't banned bitcoin so you can still purchase it and hold if you want it is not complusory that the country needs to regulate for you to purchase

As far as I know bitcoin is accepted in whole Africa. But in your case that might be related to technological advancement that we need to discuss. I mean Nigeria is not having big infrastructure of IT park as well as the internet is not wide spread. This I know from the friend of mine who studies with me in university and comes from Nigeria. I believe that's the reason government as well as merchants might not be accepting bitcoin yet. Let me know if I'm true.

that's same case with my country,, i m just waiting for that will be legal in my country, but the goverment usually can put the taxes from income,,

Well the answer that works for mostly all the country's is that it's not a legal currency, and very few countries have accepted it, and many countries do not really like it. Now why they don't like it, cause you can't track the owner of Bitcoins, there is no reverse payment, one can technically disappear with his coins and no one will even know where he went. No offence to your country but major scams are reported from Nigeria, and if it were to be allowed it could increase as it leaves no paper trail. So that's the simple reason why it's not keen,according to me that's the scene.

Im sorry about that mate. You country just banned Bitcoin recently (January 2017). I don't know why. Maybe just they see Bitcoin is a threat to your country's banking system. But there's still hope mate. I heard that government is working on possibility of adopting the technology. They already submitted the report and it's still on going. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_bitcoin_by_country_or_territory. So cheer up.

90% of the nations does not encourage the usage of crypto-currency, because they feel that coins such as BTC could be used for criminal activity such as payment of ransom and tax evasion. It is our responsibility to prove that Bitcoin is not linked to these criminal activities.

I found out on google that there are several bitcoin exchanger in Nigeria. These crypto currency exchangers will never be in operation, if there is no approval by Nigerian government. I hope they are still in operation until now. Therefore bitcoin in Nigeria is accepted by government. Maybe it is not accepted in any store as a form of payment.

It is either of this two, maybe because was banned by your Government for some reason, or maybe because bitcoin is not popular in your country. But as long as you know that sites where you could earn bitcoin, means you could earn bitcoin even though bitcoin was banned in your country and so on. But if you mean by not "accepted" is when you are using it on buying things, it is because your Government is not declaring bitcoin as your currency.

As a fellow 3rd world country guy, i feel bad for you. Bitcoin would really help people out of poverty if just given the opportunity to be accessed but i guess your government is to be blamed for that. 

From what I've read, bitcoin is not banned in Nigeria. However, Nigerian banks are not permitted to deal with bitcoins. Now that's a different matter and should not stop you from working with, or earning bitcoins since it is internet driven. All you need is work with exchanges ànd your personal wallet. Cheers.

It is not banned in Nigeria. I don't understand why OP felt so. Government of Nigeria only have banned banks transactions in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency. Which is rare a case for any bank in any country.

Instead the Deputy Director on Banking and Payments System has himself said that Central bank cannot control or regulate bitcoin. Central bank cannot control or regulate blockchain. Just the same way no one is going to control or regulate the Internet. We don’t own it.

Bitcoin is very much legal in Nigeria. There is utility issue as still not many vendors accept Bitcoin. But so is the case with many countries.

Just like my country, Bitcoin is not used to make day to day purchases by the problem is redeemable because you can convert your bitcoins to fiat and use it for your day to day transactions. I have friends in Nigeria and thats how they do it there as well. There aren't any law against bitcoins in Nigeria as far as i know. Its just that people don't know about it.

The countries that have bad policies about bitcoin are inviting people to get their wealth in bitcoin and move it into another country that has more friendlier policies about it. For example if in your country the tax process is nothing but hell when it comes to bitcoin, and you risk getting your bank account frozen forever as soon as you get your coins sold and into your bank account, people will just move their BTC to another country and their country will lose all these potential taxes, so it's on every country's benefit to be friendly to bitcoin users when thy try to sell them, instead of making the process a mess and losing all that revenue.

It seems that the bank of your country is being cautious about of those scams and money laundering scheme which is being exploited by the criminals and terrorists. They are aware that most of the people in your country will be having a great risk of losing their money because of the digital currencies.

But you don't have to be worried because not really the whole country is banning bitcoin, some of the city in your country is still accepting bitcoin and want it to be legalized. I'm sure you will gonna find a way on how to it, to be able to use bitcoin again.  ;)

I'm hearing out that Bitcoin is already gaining popularity on Nigeria knowing that it is also the place on where TBC become famous too and I have heard that they are switching on bitcoin too but I didn't know that government do prohibit or discourage on your place I didn't heard such news as of now. If that's the case then government don't really like to accept or adopt a decentralized thing.

There is a difference between non-involvement vs negative regulation against bitcoin. Think most, if not all, governments take the non-involvement route as they do see value of bitcoin for the country or even their personal wealth. Don't think nigeria is any different, in fact there are fintech start-ups that are doing well in africa.

They have some own views and laws.. They may think that bitcoin will adversely affect their economies. Or cause other bad things.

There are many countries which do not accept the bitcoin as legal entity and that might depend on the Nigerian government. You should consult to CA or accounting authority within your county who will explain you everything in the terms of legality.

People here might just give you reasons, it's because of this, its because of that and some might just speculate the situation but you will not find realistic answer because it is too specific to your county and we don't know the exact situation over there.

You go can to legal people and discus with them whether bitcoin is allowed or not or if yes then why and if no then also why. You should know everything.

Usually, the reason why some countries don't accep bitcoin is the issue of illegal transactions. And of course they prefer the banks because they can regulate it and the issue with the taxes I guess.

There are a lot of reasons why a government of a specific country would not accept or support Bitcoin to be used and transacted by their people especially in their country. First of all, this is because they want to secure their banking system by allowing the people in their country, or even foreigners in their country, to only use the real currency they are using. This is because in basic economics, if the real currency or money circulates in the country, the healthier the economy for the country will be. Hope this explains why but still, it is good also for a country to be open into other investment instrument like Bitcoin.

To the best of my knowledge there hasn't been any country in the world which has made bitcoin illegal by law. I'm not sure what's Nigerian government's take on bitcoin but I assume if it's not positive it's not negative either. As far as the popularity of bitcoin or it's adoption by the public in general or acceptance by the businesses, merchants etc is concerned it's something which though growing but at a slow rate everywhere all over the world and it's natural for bitcoin to grow at this rate because it's still new. We will have to wait a few years more before bitcoin become global and mainstream.

Just continue earning bitcoin and save it because when bitcoin will be accepted in your country I'm sure that you're be a wealthy man on your country or you can also used it outside your county.

Unless a government thinks that a digital currency like bitcoin could be a cause of problems to its citizens or could be used in money laundering activities, they wouldn’t act on making it illegal. The most that they can do is regulate and set rules and policies on how it is supposed to be used, with proper identification from its users and a bitcoins exchangers that have enough funds and transparency to run such a service.

Most country on the world are worry about Bitcoin will help people in their country avoid taxes fee or helping criminals to easily launder money in future, so that is reason they feel hesitating when decided accept Bitcoin or not.

Perhaps they chose to ban it because they saw bitcoin or cryptocurrency more of as threat than an opportunity. This could be a security measure, or way for them to keep control. Maybe its problematic because they could not regulate it and trace it, they must be scared that it could be used for illegal purposes. Some authorities choose to just dismiss these kinds of things insteading of addressing it.

Hope this changes in the future and that your government would one day choose to be open for bitcoin and crypto.

There are really some countries that does not accept Bitcoin. But I know a lot of Nigerian people who use Bitcoin. This is the first time I've heard that your country discourage the people to use it because I thought that it is widely used in your country. Maybe the Nigerian government is afraid of the risks that Bitcoin has. Let just hope that it will be accepted in your country in the near future.

That's not feel so right at all, even I don't know what the story behind this. For any reason it doesn't change the fact that bitcoin is beneficial to a country and to its people. So it's not fair for a government taking those freedom or any kind of isolation for crypto currency.

First.
It was a ban on banks dealing with bitcoins. It is nothing special as there is no bank anywhere in this world that handles bitcoin deposits.
No not mistake banks transferring funds to or from exchanges with banks accepting bitcoins.

Secondary.
Africa generally lags behind. Even if bitcoin would be legally accepted by banks you would see no major change.
Right now you can own BTC transfer BTC buy things with BTC but yet.... how many do?
Most of them just trade around localbitcoins trying to make a living out of a 2-3% fee but in RL there is nothing.

If that country would be mine, I will be upset but don't worry much. As the popularity take into mainstream and the government officials might encourage to make it available in your country soon. I hope I'm right and hoping for the best of your country and the bitcoin users out there.

I know a nigerian that buy bitcoin in any websites. I just don't understand why saying its not accepted in your country. A nigerian person is also into use of technology and even most used bitcoin as payment. Maybe you are saying no merchants yet to accept bitcoin as payment. Even in my country there is no merchant yet for bitcoin. But well let's hope for the future this would happen.

The condition is the Nigeria is not bad because i have many friends in my social media platforms where many Nigerian bitcoiners are .
Actually bitcoin is not under any bad activities conversation in the view of the Nigerian country government but they are only giving warning about it because they know bitcoin is a thing which have lots of fluctuations in the price of the bitcoin .
But i am sure that they are only giving suggestion to not to use bitcoin but actually they don't want stop anyone to use bitcoin , i think the government needed to think that why people are using bitcoin like things , answer is simple because they are making profit.
Here are the words that the central bank of the Nigeria gave
And this is the same statement that my country government gaves us , so I don't think that we need to take tension much about this and use bitcoin in better way and pay tax , don't see that what people are saying ( until any news of ban coming as in my case ).
Now here in my country everything is fine and government looking toward to regulate and legalisation of the bitcoin use .

It is not the way you think that it is not accepted, its just it is not accepted as a legal tender I think don't you worry about that because there is so many different countries that is not yet accepting Bitcoin payments and with your case it is okay as long as you can use your internet you have the right to participate in the Bitcoin scene. No one can stop you if you really want to do what you want to do.

              I think you were right. It is not that your country doesn't really care or it was being descriminated along with the other countries, but can you see and as what have he said, there is not much change if it would be legalized or be accepted in your country immediately. Just don't worry time would really pass, maybe one day your dream may come true, but as of now we could only say that because the improvements has not yet been seen.

it's normal for developped countrys like yours or mine to not legalize the use of bitcoin. Because they want that peice of pie you are getting . they can't track your income from bitcoin so they cannot get % from what you are getting by taxes or any other means so they are banning the use of bitcoin so they discourage you to get it and you have to use regular fiat money where they can track what you have and don't have . what you can do is just ignore them and keep doing what are you doing because they cannot locate you even if they wanted to no one can force you on not using bitcoin or any other alts also they could be that they don't know nothing about Crypto-Currency and they don't to deal with anything that they don't know of it's very propable.

Not only in your country still a lot of country i think did not accept bitcoin but dont worry for now they are not accepted it but in the future they are accepted it just like the other country also

Well there are a lot o reason for some countries to truly accept bitcoin and because there are some possibilities why is this happening there is authority in that country that are against it, banks simply are not accepting the way bitcoin process or might destroy the countries stock market, they think bitcoin is involve in some illegal transaction so criminals would simply slip up fast from the authority, or the country is not that advance yet to be adopted by bitcoin, I think this is some problems a country is having why it is still not accepted.

As per my knowledge about Bitcoin, only have Japan is country accept Bitcoin on the world at now. Because most other country consider accept Bitcoin or not, they worry in someday all people in their country use Bitcoin and avoid taxes fees, if that future become true, they cannot develop their country.

I think that's because the government in your country still thinks that bitcoin will be a threat because of an anonymous transaction. but judging from the other side, maybe bitcoin is not suitable to apply in your country (my country also not suitable). so the government must really think to make regulations to prevent any regrets and mistakes.

I haven't heard any news about bitcoin in my country that is discouraged. As of now it is really lenient towards others. I notice several times when I share my story about bitcoin with others make the uncertain to believe because they were once a victim of scams so they are particular of suspecting the kind of monkey business that it brought to us bitcoiner. I guess it will change their minds if I will show many proofs and will help them on a daily basis in discussing bitcoin to them in a gradual mode.

Bitcoin may not be accepted officially in Nigeria and 99% of businesses, but I know for a fact that it is used by a tiny minority and they have websites and buy and exchange them.

I am a little bit confused, is bitcoin banned in Nigeria or there is not any place that would accept bitcoin as payment directly? If second, then you are not the one. In my place also there is no bitcoin ATM or a place that would accept bitcoin. There is nothing special in this. Bitcoin is just in the beginning of it's development and spreading over the world. I think soon such places will appear everywhere.

I am not Nigerian. But, in my opinion maybe because bitcoin has the possibility of exploitation by criminals and terrorists. Bitcoin has an anonymous transaction, so that is difficult to trace and susceptible to abuse by criminals, especially in money laundering and financing of terrorism. Some country has the same worries about that. Hopefully in the future, it can be minimized so bitcoin can be accepted in every countries.

I think now a lot of people who have at least a few bits on the account want to use them somehow, and this applies not only to Nigeria. There is no mechanism, no regulation of the use and turnover of bits in the country's limit. Maybe soon things will change, but for now everything at this level and with it will have to be tolerated.

Not only Nigeria have that issue. Nearly all the countries in the world expect the Japanese all of the government never accept the bitcoin the legal usage.
Bitcoin ATM is available in multiple locations in Europe, middle East and Asian places. Actually if you wish to use the ATM you to spare the fee for it. So use the exchange to change it.

Why is Bitcoin not accepted in our country (Nigeria)? I think it's because a country's policy on bitcoin is different. in the country I just bitcoin still not legal.Mungkin in the coming year many countries that receive bitcoin as a medium of exchange to replace money

But it doesn't mean Bitcoin is forbidden in Nigeria. I don't see any evidence that people there can't use Bitcoin. The system surely won't encourage you to use Bitcoins (yet) until they find a way to control it at their own favour. Even without encouragement from your countries you can continue using Bitcoin, if there isn't legislation about it, the government and the local laws can do nothing about it.

The same problem is here in my country, because the government is not interested till now to decentralized the bitcoin and prevail it in the country as a legal currency. Why because the official have some problems. I think you will be better understood what I want to say. They will not be able to print more money and so will not be able to keep in their pockets and accounts. The most reason in my country is only this.

In my country many people think that this is not real, and the government yet has not taken any serious steps to accept bitcoin as the global currency. But as I think everything faces a lot of hurdles and troubles in their beginning but with the passage of time people become familiar with that thing and been accepted by the whole community and the government as well.Still it will take a little bit time.

As far as i know there alot of nigerian buying bitcoin and theres no laws that nigerian government are not accepting bitcoin. If you can ooen and search this web site it means government are not banning bitcoin or in a simple way bitcoin is accepted but few of your people know about bitcoin thats why there are also few businesses are accepteing bitcoin. Down be discourge by your country as soon your people and the government will know the importance and various uses of bitcoin it will take a little time to make

well in a lot of the countries bitcoin is suffering from the government because government is still not believing in bitcoin and a lot of institutions are not allow to accept bitcoin or to charge the fesses using bitcoin but in US and UK bitcoin is being accept as a school fee and some food markets are accepting bitcoin payment so I want the same rule in my own country I wish my dream come true soon.