tinubu Orders Tighter Surveillance Of Cryptocurrency Transactions.

[SuperBitMan]

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial regulators to intensify monitoring of cryptocurrency and digital payment activities, warning that the rapid migration of Nigerians to non-bank platforms poses risks to the economy. Link

The Nigeria government is already scared of the way people are now using cryptocurrencies rather than Banks, is it that they want to stop Nigeria citizens from using crypto because they believe that the more citizens use cryptocurrency for transactions, saving etc the more the Nigeria economy will go down, well I believe that the Nigeria government can use cryptocurrency to help grow there economy so there's no need stopping citizens from using cryptocurrency and they should not make it difficult for people to use.

One of the things I believe Nigerian government wants to achieve when it comes to cryptocurrency is tax, they just want exchange and people using cryptocurrency to always pay there tax, and yeah that is what they should look into and fight for because they can grow the Nigeria economy with that other countries are doing it.
The only reason migration of Nigerians to non-bank like cryptocurrency can poses risks to the economy is when they are not generating tax from it the way they do with Banks, if they can succeed in generating tax from exchange and people using cryptocurrency they won't bother anymore.

[Charles-Tim]

If they want Nigerians not to be holding stable coins, they should make naira a stronger currency and not how it devalued from less than 500 to over 1500 to a dollar within a short period of time.

Countries like South Korea prefer their currency because it is not having declination how naira is.

If the government can prove to us in 5 to 10 years that naira has gotten better, Nigerians will start having trust in naira.

[Felicity_Tide]

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial regulators to intensify monitoring of cryptocurrency and digital payment activities, warning that the rapid migration of Nigerians to non-bank platforms poses risks to the economy. Link

~snip.

I knew a day like this would come, and I expected it to come sooner. "Nigerians are migrating from non-banking platforms", do people just seek for things without a valid reason?. The economy has crumbled far before now. Even the supposed tax won't be used for the betterment of the economy either. These people don't even want to transform the economy with the available resources, so what makes us think that they can do that with cryptocurrency?.

If they want Nigerians not to be holding stable coins, they should make naira a stronger currency and not how it devalued from less than 500 to over 1500 to a dollar within a short period of time.

~snip

This is part of their plan to enforce that recent tax reformation and nothing else. I don't think they even have a valid plan to utilize every collected tax to the fullest, sadly. This enforcement is just their own way of making sure that crypto users are not left out of the entire taxing system.

[Charles-Tim]

This is part of their plan to enforce that recent tax reformation and nothing else. I don't think they even have a valid plan to utilize every collected tax to the fullest, sadly. This enforcement is just their own way of making sure that crypto users are not left out of the entire taxing system.

Yes, I agree with SuperBitMan. He posted that they want to make sure that crypto users are effectively taxed. But if naira is not getting devaluated like the way it has been since decades, I am sure that more people will prefer to have their money in naira instead of stable coins. There are many people that are having stable coins just because they are hedging against inflation and naira devaluation.

I also doubt if Nigerian government has what it takes to effectively make people avoid tax evasion.

[Ambatman]

Ironically Banks biggest competitor's are Fintechs not centralized exchange
Because at the end of the day most people would sell their holdings for one reason or the other
And the proceedings would be made through a Bank.

Nigeria citizens from using crypto because they believe that the more citizens use cryptocurrency for transactions, saving

We barely transact with cryptocurrency except on rare occasions
But that saving? That's where the banks are losing it
They can't use our money to make money for themselves.

the more the Nigeria economy will go down

Nigeria economy has been going down before cryptocurrency.
The advent has rather helped people cope and survive. Let's not even talk about employment opportunities
Which returns are still usually used in the economy.

if they can succeed in generating tax from exchange

10% of Cryptocurrency profit above 10 thousand Naira are now taxed on
According to recent tax reform.

[Charles-Tim]

Nigeria economy has been going down before cryptocurrency.

This is not true. Sometimes our economy will increase and fall bit, increase more than where it fell ll to. The bad economy started during Buhari but it grew back significantly but not up to where Jonathan left. Tinubu came and it went down back massively even down more than our lowest economy in Buhari time. We even dropped from first to 4th in Africa.

[SuperBitMan]

This is part of their plan to enforce that recent tax reformation and nothing else. I don't think they even have a valid plan to utilize every collected tax to the fullest, sadly. This enforcement is just their own way of making sure that crypto users are not left out of the entire taxing system.

I also doubt if Nigerian government has what it takes to effectively make people avoid tax evasion.

The government has already established the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) that is empowered by law to collect taxes from individuals and companies, including fintechs and crypto exchanges.
And again in 2023 Nigeria government also introduced the Finance Act and a Digital Assets Tax framework to cover cryptocurrency transactions, meaning by law Nigeria has all it takes to collect tax and avoid tax evasion.

So Nigeria government can make crypto exchange that registered with them to always pay tax Now where the problem is Many crypto transactions people do happen by peer-to-peer (P2P), making them harder to track, people can always use this to avoid paying tax and the government won't catch them.

However Nigerian government can instruct all registered crypto exchange that conduct P2P trading to take tax from every transaction that is being done and then forward it to them when that is done is now very easy for them to monitor the exchange compliance.

[Btcdeybodi]

So the government is starting again to hunt and impose taxes on crypto transactions, ain't they tired of all these stuffs already? Anyways, any sensible crypto enthusiast will just need to start some business that will earn him fiats which he can use for daily expenditures and other stuffs that requires the use of the naira. Shey if person decide to hold his bitcoins for self custody wallet no body can know how much you own not to talk of taxing your decentralized transactions. Make we just learn to dey hodl, this government go dey tired i swear.

This is part of their plan to enforce that recent tax reformation and nothing else. I don't think they even have a valid plan to utilize every collected tax to the fullest, sadly. This enforcement is just their own way of making sure that crypto users are not left out of the entire taxing system.

Yes, I agree with SuperBitMan. He posted that they want to make sure that crypto users are effectively taxed. But if naira is not getting devaluated like the way it has been since decades, I am sure that more people will prefer to have their money in naira instead of stable coins. There are many people that are having stable coins just because they are hedging against inflation and naira devaluation.

I also doubt if Nigerian government has what it takes to effectively make people avoid tax evasion.

I agree with you that some people keep stable coins like USDT as a hedge against inflation since our naira currency keeps depreciating but does keeping stable coins actually a hedge towards inflation? these are coins with little to no volatility so i wonder why anyone will keep them just because of that kind of mentality.

[Africolo]

Even the US with all the suffocated tools and  on chains analyst could not track all US related transactions what more can the CBN of Nigeria with no tools so? Nothing.

This is an attempt to impose service and profit tax on crypto transactions. They tried it with Kucoin once and it didn't stay up for long. The new administration are going rogue on tax.

[yixichloro2xx]

Nigeria won't still do anything about it, they are just making mouth....

[Frankolala]

Why is Tinubu worried over spilled milk. When he took over power what did he do first. He removed fuel subsidy for his own selfish benefits and look at the mess he has put the country economy into. People are trying to secure their funds from inflation by investing into bitcoin due to the high rate of inflation. He is envy and angry that they are killing the economy when he has already killed the economy on the first week that he stepped into office. Nigeria government always look for who to put the blame of their failure on.

[Pi-network314159]

This is part of their plan to enforce that recent tax reformation and nothing else. I don't think they even have a valid plan to utilize every collected tax to the fullest, sadly. This enforcement is just their own way of making sure that crypto users are not left out of the entire taxing system.

Yes, I agree with SuperBitMan. He posted that they want to make sure that crypto users are effectively taxed. But if naira is not getting devaluated like the way it has been since decades, I am sure that more people will prefer to have their money in naira instead of stable coins. There are many people that are having stable coins just because they are hedging against inflation and naira devaluation.

Nigerian government shouldn't expect people to leave their money in the bank and allow it to face inflation while a stable coin or volatile asset like Bitcoin is there to recover the Lost value of fiat. Well I think they are just being unreasonable at this moment, they are very angry since they can't have gull access to cryptocurrency tax, and since it is decentralized and not currupt like centralized system. Nigeria government are just unnecessarily fighting what is not important. The tax generated from fiat transaction is not enough for them now crypto tax is more important. They have already made some exchanges to delist NGN p2p from there exchange app like binance, kucoin I think okx is on the list Also, just to avoid people transacting without charges. Kucoin later drop message some months ago about people paying some amount of fee per transaction but yet thisNGN has not yet been lifted till now. Active exchanges like bitget and bybit are still removing this trx fee but I guess the amount they agreed is not enough for them. I know Nigeria government are very greedy and wicked maybe they may have probably wanted this exchange to increase the tax and they refuse. I know the next target know is that if exchaican not pay the amount of fee they needed them to tax from Nigeria, they may force them to stop all Nigeria p2p just for everyone to follow fiat rout but I guess that will be their worst nightmare because it wouldn't be possible because everyone of us including politicians still need those exchange to do their crypto business.

[Felicity_Tide]

I came across this news headline yesterday, and I immediately remembered that we've been having a few discussions on something similar for a while now. There was no need of creating a new thread since something similar had been created before now by the OP, so I thought it would be best to merge it with this particular one, rather than creating my own.

So, like the headlines says, from Jan next year, Nigerians and non-residents will not be able to operate a bank account without a Tax ID number.

This proves that the government are not messing around. And I want to believe that those that already have an account will be forced to get a tax id. Crazy to see how these people enforce policies that won't benefit the country. Naira keeps depreciating, and they are acting like all is fine.

[Marykeller]

I came across this news headline yesterday, and I immediately remembered that we've been having a few discussions on something similar for a while now. There was no need of creating a new thread since something similar had been created before now by the OP, so I thought it would be best to merge it with this particular one, rather than creating my own.

So, like the headlines says, from Jan next year, Nigerians and non-residents will not be able to operate a bank account without a Tax ID number.

This proves that the government are not messing around. And I want to believe that those that already have an account will be forced to get a tax id. Crazy to see how these people enforce policies that won't benefit the country. Naira keeps depreciating, and they are acting like all is fine.

Wahala. Every Nigerian must be taxed; you can't escape that, no matter who you are.

What makes me feel pain about all these taxes of a thing is that, not all Nigerians earn money, weekly or monthly, and they are asked to pay starting from next year. From where will they get the money for it? This our government is heartless, they have no pity for Nigerians.

In other news, still in the same January 2026, Nigerians are asked to pay 5% surcharge on petrol and diesel sales

Link: https://businessday.ng/news/article/what-to-know-about-fgs-5-tax-on-petrol-diesel/

[Cryptoprincess101]

Wahala. Every Nigerian must be taxed; you can't escape that, no matter who you are.

What makes me feel pain about all these taxes of a thing is that, not all Nigerians earn money, weekly or monthly, and they are asked to pay starting from next year. From where will they get the money for it? This our government is heartless, they have no pity for Nigerians.

In other news, still in the same January 2026, Nigerians are asked to pay 5% surcharge on petrol and diesel sales

Link: https://businessday.ng/news/article/what-to-know-about-fgs-5-tax-on-petrol-diesel/

This whole thing is turning into wickedness, imagine 5% surcharge on sales of petroleum products, this is just insane of the government. Paying of tax is normal in every country but how will people who are not earning money weekly or monthly be taxed, i feel for the market women and people who do petty businesses to earn ends meet because this is a very harsh and tough decision by the government. I hope they don't end up deducting money from people unnecessarily all in the name of tax, if they are taking tax let it be on income and not begin to tax the money that are already in one's account. 

[Nightwatchmare]

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other financial regulators to intensify monitoring of cryptocurrency and digital payment activities, warning that the rapid migration of Nigerians to non-bank platforms poses risks to the economy. Link

The Nigeria government is already scared of the way people are now using cryptocurrencies rather than Banks, is it that they want to stop Nigeria citizens from using crypto because they believe that the more citizens use cryptocurrency for transactions, saving etc the more the Nigeria economy will go down, well I believe that the Nigeria government can use cryptocurrency to help grow there economy so there's no need stopping citizens from using cryptocurrency and they should not make it difficult for people to use.

One of the things I believe Nigerian government wants to achieve when it comes to cryptocurrency is tax, they just want exchange and people using cryptocurrency to always pay there tax, and yeah that is what they should look into and fight for because they can grow the Nigeria economy with that other countries are doing it.
The only reason migration of Nigerians to non-bank like cryptocurrency can poses risks to the economy is when they are not generating tax from it the way they do with Banks, if they can succeed in generating tax from exchange and people using cryptocurrency they won't bother anymore.

If the Nigerian government wanted to achieve tax from cryptocurrency they could have achieved it long go because they know that Nigerian citizens are willing to pay tax so they can freely carry out cryptocurrency transaction in the country, but since the Nigerian government don't want its citizens to gain financial freedom, they will always make it difficult for its citizens to carry out cryptocurrency transaction so they can achieve their devilish plans. I am not surprised with this news because that's what President Tinubu is best at doing. With the free fall of nira, Nigerian citizens who has crypto knowledge won't want to save their money in the bank so it won't be affected by inflation; they will prefer saving their money in either Bitcoin or stablecoin as a hedge over inflation. If president Tinubu can equate $1 to 450 naira or 500 naira, Nigeria citizen will prefer saving their money in naira.

[Hewlet]

Nigeria won't still do anything about it, they are just making mouth....

Even if effective implementation is going to be an issue, the very fact that they see crypto as a threat to the banking system because it doesn't give them the expected revenue they hope tells of same reason most government kicks against everything that partains to decentralisation. Same way they equally attacked most fintech when interest shifted from the banking system to fintech.

Naira to dollar is now almost at a fixed rate of a dollar equalling 1500 Naira and even tending towards the upward direction against the naira. With that, why won't people opt for a better alternative that that is stronger than the naira?

[Africolo]

Nigeria won't still do anything about it, they are just making mouth....

Even if effective implementation is going to be an issue, the very fact that they see crypto as a threat to the banking system because it doesn't give them the expected revenue they hope tells of same reason most government kicks against everything that partains to decentralisation. Same way they equally attacked most fintech when interest shifted from the banking system to fintech.

Naira to dollar is now almost at a fixed rate of a dollar equalling 1500 Naira and even tending towards the upward direction against the naira. With that, why won't people opt for a better alternative that that is stronger than the naira?

This administration is unpredictable, the economy is drowning and there's a lot of looting going around and one is being held responsible because the president himself is doing the worst.

There are billions of crypto transactions trades going on in Nigeria and the government has always been unsupportive towards crypto so we don't know if this move is to place a tax since there's literally a tax on everything now or to place another restrictions on.

[yixichloro2xx]

Nigeria won't still do anything about it, they are just making mouth....

Even if effective implementation is going to be an issue, the very fact that they see crypto as a threat to the banking system because it doesn't give them the expected revenue they hope tells of same reason most government kicks against everything that partains to decentralisation. Same way they equally attacked most fintech when interest shifted from the banking system to fintech.

Naira to dollar is now almost at a fixed rate of a dollar equalling 1500 Naira and even tending towards the upward direction against the naira. With that, why won't people opt for a better alternative that that is stronger than the naira?

You are spot on. Anytime a system threatens the revenue stream of traditional institutions, resistance is almost guaranteed. Governments and banks have always thrived on control, so whether it was fintech, mobile money, or now crypto, the pushback usually comes from fear of losing that grip. Decentralisation is not just a technology shift, it is a power shift, and power never changes hands quietly.

On the Naira, you are right. If the local currency keeps weakening and people watch their savings lose value daily, it becomes common sense to look for stronger alternatives. Nobody wants to hold money that depreciates faster than it can be earned. That is why Bitcoin and other decentralized assets attract attention, not just for profit but as an escape route from a failing monetary system....In the end, people will naturally migrate toward what protects their value. Resistance might delay it, but it cannot stop it.

[Spaceman1000$]

There is little they can do about cryptocurrency, na noise them dey make, them dey see the huge transactions way boys dey pull out with crypto, and e dey pain them say no be them dey in charge to control the process. They want to extend their tax collections to cryptocurrency, the one way them don dey collect since, watin them don carry am do. Cryptocurrency especially bitcoin cannot be controlled by them, so the surveillance wouldn't have any effect, so I believe this is just another news where the FG is just playing to the Gallery.