Nigeria leads sub-Saharan Africa’s P2P bitcoin trade

[Gozie51]

Since the Central Bank of Nigeria banned cryptocurrency in Nigeria in February, P2P trading has surged in the country.

It is evident with the speed of Nigeria youths getting more attracted on online businesses, bitcoin trading is one sure angle to look into for investment with the rate of volatility. Nigeria is therefore increasing in bitcoin popularity which P2P is relied on heavily for transaction because of the CBN on accounts connected to banks and cryptocurrency exchanges. This is having more positive outlook for the bitcoin crypto economy.

Link here

[Porfirii]

This is a clear example of what we usually say about authoritarian Governments trying to ban cryptocurrencies: that it ends up useless to try to stem the tide.

BTW, does anybody know which African country has more P2P bitcoin trade than Nigeria? as title says sub-Saharan, it implies that there may be some other countries from other regions in Africa where this kind of trade is even more common?

[Yogee]

...BTW, does anybody know which African country has more P2P bitcoin trade than Nigeria? as title says sub-Saharan, it implies that there may be some other countries from other regions in Africa where this kind of trade is even more common?

I was thinking of South Africa since it's the most crypto friendly country in the continent but that's also the reason why there's less P2P trades. There are probably more transactions done on custodial platforms there so the country with most P2P trades will remain Nigeria for a long time.

[Darker45]

I hope the government of Nigeria has been made aware of this so that they will realize that they are actually not in a good position to partially ban the cryptocurrency in the country.

Bitcoin is designed for P2P transactions. And as an antagonist of Bitcoin, Nigeria is actually fulfilling the goal of Bitcoin. The government could remain adamant in the face of what appears to be a futile action against Bitcoin or acknowledge it as a rising technology and start regulating and taxing related transactions with financial institutions.

[AmoreJaz]

I hope the government of Nigeria has been made aware of this so that they will realize that they are actually not in a good position to partially ban the cryptocurrency in the country.

Bitcoin is designed for P2P transactions. And as an antagonist of Bitcoin, Nigeria is actually fulfilling the goal of Bitcoin. The government could remain adamant in the face of what appears to be a futile action against Bitcoin or acknowledge it as a rising technology and start regulating and taxing related transactions with financial institutions.

they should have just legalised the crypto-exchange business, at least get the tax from these platforms. because with p2p, they are not getting anything. i guess, they will realised it soon about the repercussion of their strict approach towards crypto. crypto users will always find a way how to encash their money.
btw, aside from Nigeria, Kenya is reported to be leading in p2p trade as well . Togo, Tanzania, and Ghana are in the top positions also in terms of p2p trade according to this article.

[Kyraishi]

All of these news are somewhat misleading in my opinion.

The volume of p2p bitcoin trading is bound to go up due to the fact that bitcoin itself has went up, and the fiat currencies domestically have appreciated.

Whilst it is clear that Nigeria is leading the way in terms of trading volume, I don't necessarily think that it's an accurate indicator for whether or not adoption has actually occurred. We'll need to see bitcoin used as a store of value/actual medium of exchange for that and not just speculation.

[Darker45]

I hope the government of Nigeria has been made aware of this so that they will realize that they are actually not in a good position to partially ban the cryptocurrency in the country.

Bitcoin is designed for P2P transactions. And as an antagonist of Bitcoin, Nigeria is actually fulfilling the goal of Bitcoin. The government could remain adamant in the face of what appears to be a futile action against Bitcoin or acknowledge it as a rising technology and start regulating and taxing related transactions with financial institutions.

they should have just legalised the crypto-exchange business, at least get the tax from these platforms. because with p2p, they are not getting anything. i guess, they will realised it soon about the repercussion of their strict approach towards crypto. crypto users will always find a way how to encash their money.

Exactly. After all, if they are monitoring the figures, they should have already been enlightened that they cannot kill cryptocurrency. And the government shouldn't be unfriendly toward a neutral technology which they couldn't kill. They'd rather legalize and milk it.
 

btw, aside from Nigeria, Kenya is reported to be leading in p2p trade as well . Togo, Tanzania, and Ghana are in the top positions also in terms of p2p trade according to this article.

In a continent where fiat currencies are fast depreciating and where remittance plays a major role, crypto is a blessing indeed. It keeps the value of the African people's savings over time, if not increase it, and provides them a cheaper and faster way to transact globally.

[Sithara007]

LOL.. this is why I always say that any action against cryptocurrencies by the central banks ultimately result in a boost for crypto. Look at what happened in Nigeria. When the central bank implemented a banking ban, it just created a lot of negative publicity, and eventually a lot of users (who were otherwise not aware of cryptocurrency) decided to invest in Bitcoin. BTW, it is not surprising that Nigeria is leading in P2P volumes. Nigeria is the most populous country in that region and centralized exchanges are not available after Binance closed it's door to users from that country recently.

[slaman29]

This is a clear example of what we usually say about authoritarian Governments trying to ban cryptocurrencies: that it ends up useless to try to stem the tide.

BTW, does anybody know which African country has more P2P bitcoin trade than Nigeria? as title says sub-Saharan, it implies that there may be some other countries from other regions in Africa where this kind of trade is even more common?

Governments should be learning about this for hundreds of years. When you restrict or try to control something your people want, they go underground, they do it with more risk. We've seen it with gambling, with alcohol.

But this isn't even about what people want, but what people need also. Nigerians and others need this new form of money because they know the current one is weakening.

About your question, I would suggest like Yogee South Africa is the most obvious? I know Binance tried to go there because of huge demand. But I think even Morocco and Egypt it is rising up, just I'm not sure if they are also considered Sub-Saharan?

[semobo]

Since the Central Bank of Nigeria banned cryptocurrency in Nigeria in February, P2P trading has surged in the country.

It is evident with the speed of Nigeria youths getting more attracted on online businesses, bitcoin trading is one sure angle to look into for investment with the rate of volatility. Nigeria is therefore increasing in bitcoin popularity which P2P is relied on heavily for transaction because of the CBN on accounts connected to banks and cryptocurrency exchanges. This is having more positive outlook for the bitcoin crypto economy.

Link here

Governments are on the losing side here, if they regulate instead of banning then they can make income in the various forms of taxes but why their central bank is strictly opposing the bitcoin. The government itself encouraging the users to do illegal things by banning the opportunities from their citizen while does not giving any opportunity by the government itself.

[Princejebs]

The Nigerian central Bank is rule with primitive set of people, they thought the world still revolve round their old system where they issued ban at every small thing that don't benefit them.
I have been using p2p even before the ban of financial installations and I have never experienced any form of disappointment except sometimes when there is network issue in making fiat transfer between two people and it's normal thing in banking systems.
Operating banks to make transaction of crypto without their knowledge has been the best merit of p2p so far.

[Sithara007]

It might be the reason but for some countries it might not be, remember that the ban was coincidentally happened when there was a rally or something so the public is still angry about their government but the central banks did the ban which lead to more public clamor.

In the third world countries, the governments have this habit of banning anything that they can't control. These politicians have a belief that ordinary citizens should dance to their whims and fancies. Bitcoin is something that they can't control and therefore they are trying to ban it. But after a while, they will understand that it is not something that can't be banned by a government decree. If they want to ban Bitcoin, then they need to shut down internet permanently, because BTC will exist as long as internet is there.

[stompix]

Reality check:

In the last trading week, a total of $17,599,679 was traded in BTC volume from sub-Saharan Africa.
Nigeria led sub-Saharan charge with $8,761,051 in BTC traded volume.

That comes to $1.25m a day, or to help you visualize the amount of revenue a Walmart superstore or a Costco generates a day, now, since we're talking about a country of 200 million, how does this volume of 20 cents per citizen per month sound like?

[Gozie51]

That comes to $1.25m a day, or to help you visualize the amount of revenue a Walmart superstore or a Costco generates a day, now, since we're talking about a country of 200 million, how does this volume of 20 cents per citizen per month sound like?

If you compare that percentage with the population of other sub saharan countries and relate it to their percentage of active participant in bitcoin trading, then you see that the number is high in Nigeria. The information put out through the link is obviously well researched and from physical overview in Nigeria, I know many job seekers are now finding success in bitcoin trading.

[Dave1]

I hope the government of Nigeria has been made aware of this so that they will realize that they are actually not in a good position to partially ban the cryptocurrency in the country.

Even if they get aware of it, I doubt that they will made a U-turn, on the contrary, they might get stricter by the day.

Bitcoin is designed for P2P transactions. And as an antagonist of Bitcoin, Nigeria is actually fulfilling the goal of Bitcoin. The government could remain adamant in the face of what appears to be a futile action against Bitcoin or acknowledge it as a rising technology and start regulating and taxing related transactions with financial institutions.

I agree, and it's borderless as well, so I don't know how the government are going to counter it, unless they've change their mind, regulate it and put a tax on it. It's better that way, I believed, still a win-win for Nigeria's crypto enthusiast.

[Sithara007]

Reality check:

In the last trading week, a total of $17,599,679 was traded in BTC volume from sub-Saharan Africa.
Nigeria led sub-Saharan charge with $8,761,051 in BTC traded volume.

That comes to $1.25m a day, or to help you visualize the amount of revenue a Walmart superstore or a Costco generates a day, now, since we're talking about a country of 200 million, how does this volume of 20 cents per citizen per month sound like?

How can we be sure that these are the real volumes? There are dozens (if not hundreds) of P2P platforms, and it is very difficult to get a clear picture on a country-by-country basis. Also, not many of the P2P platforms publish these sort of trade volumes. Some like Localbitcoins do, but they now require KYC verification and many of the users don't even consider them as P2P. And in a country like Nigeria, where the government is openly hostile towards cryptocurrency, I am sure that the users will try to hide their real identity and volumes as much as possible (as I have seen here in India as well).

[CaptainCrapper]

Since the Central Bank of Nigeria banned cryptocurrency in Nigeria in February, P2P trading has surged in the country.

It is evident with the speed of Nigeria youths getting more attracted on online businesses, bitcoin trading is one sure angle to look into for investment with the rate of volatility. Nigeria is therefore increasing in bitcoin popularity which P2P is relied on heavily for transaction because of the CBN on accounts connected to banks and cryptocurrency exchanges. This is having more positive outlook for the bitcoin crypto economy.

Link here

P2P trade that means sell & buy very helpful to all of the users I think it needs for all supports county where we can very easy sell buy and can cash out very easy.so I strongly support it I think it will very help in the crypto world.

[timerland]

Trying to ban bitcoin and other decentralised crypto is a futile exercise.

It's like wack-a-mole. If you try to limit centralised exchanges then exchange activity will simply pop up in other places such as P2P. We've seen this happen in Venezuela and India and we're now seeing it happen in Nigeria. Not surprising whatsoever.

The more productive thing to do is obviously to increase positive regulation in this field so that there's more tax revenue collected. It's as simple as that.

[stompix]

If you compare that percentage with the population of other sub saharan countries and relate it to their percentage of active participant in bitcoin trading, then you see that the number is high in Nigeria. The information put out through the link is obviously well researched and from physical overview in Nigeria, I know many job seekers are now finding success in bitcoin trading.

It doesn't matter!
What I pointed out was the ridiculousness in claiming Nigerians are avoiding the bank ban through p2p and that the volume shows record signs of people dealing with BTC daily. Compared to another ridiculous statement that 20% of the Nigerian population owns BTC it means that the average is 10$ per year or that in 10 years from now on every Nigerian user will have on average 100$ worth of Bitcoin. If you want another comparison, as you people like to compare yourself with the US, keeping the same pace assuming NO coin is sold twice so every single one on Paxful will be directly sent to cold storage, it will take all Nigerian traders 12 years to reach the holdings of MicroStrategy.

How can we be sure that these are the real volumes? There are dozens (if not hundreds) of P2P platforms, and it is very difficult to get a clear picture on a country-by-country basis. Also, not many of the P2P platforms publish these sort of trade volumes.

You are free to come with the other dozens of p2p platforms that are used in Nigeria and have the same volume as Paxful does, as I work with the data people are publishing and drawing conclusions from that, So, if you want to challenge my assumption, come with data.
If people in Nigeria would indeed use bitcoin on the par of the US as they claim, probably there won't be a difference of volume in LN channels of 1,049.709162220 BTC  to 0.00356253 between those, right?

[Vishnu.Reang]

You are free to come with the other dozens of p2p platforms that are used in Nigeria and have the same volume as Paxful does, as I work with the data people are publishing and drawing conclusions from that, So, if you want to challenge my assumption, come with data.
If people in Nigeria would indeed use bitcoin on the par of the US as they claim, probably there won't be a difference of volume in LN channels of 1,049.709162220 BTC  to 0.00356253 between those, right?

LOL.. people are free to claim whatever they like. Who in their right mind will claim that the trade volumes in Nigeria can be compared to those in the United States? That is just deranged. For starters, the monthly salary in Nigeria is around 1/50th of those in the United States. And I am really skeptical whether the internet penetration and technological know-how in Nigeria is as good as that in the US. But it is entirely another topic, when you compare Nigeria with the other countries in the neighborhood.