While the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have sounded notes of caution, they have not and cannot place a ban on activities regarding bitcoin in Nigeria. Here is what we know so far about Bitcoins;
- Globally bitcoin transactions are not regulated by the central banks. Bitcoin is also not banned in advanced economies like the United States and Britain.
- Bitcoin transactions instead, take place, with a bitcoin Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) under an application before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States.
- Bitcoin is in no way related to Ponzi scheme MMM.
- Bitcoin is simply a virtual currency.
- There are several bitcoin exchanges in the country, but based on enquiries by Nairametrics from bitcoin players, the most commonly used in Nigeria are Nairaex and Naira4dollar.
NairaEx
- NairaEx has a simple and easy to use site event though the blog page on bitcoins appears not to work.
- Trades are however limited to bitcoin and perfect money.
- Perfect money quotes are not displayed on the quote ticket.
- The frequently asked questions (FAQs) is easy to understand and very comprehensive.
- Nairaex has one physical office in Abeokuta, Ogun State, which is odd since Lagos is the commercial capital of the country.
- They have a better exchange rate compared to several exchanges.
Naira4Dollar
- Naira4dollar Naira4dollar has been in existence since 2006.
- They have a greater variety of digital currencies. In addition to bitcoin, one can also carry out transactions relating to Perfect money and Webmoney.
- The site appears cluttered.
- Exchange rates are a bit lower compared to other exchanges. Customer service is poor, despite the positive opinions posted prominently on the site.
- Why have BBM and Whatsapp contacts and then state that a 24/7 response is not guaranteed?
- They have a wider network of physical offices in Lagos and Ibadan, as well as several customer care numbers to call. This makes resolving issues related to bitcoin transactions much easier.
NairaEx btc trade have not been steady recently, and they have not come with a categorical statement of what is happening, sometimes on the platform you will see a message “bitcoin trading is not available” and current message now is “Trading is disabled, trading will be back once we resolved the network issues. Sorry for the inconvenience (update will be provided tomorrow)” Instability of NairaEx is a deep concern to traders. In fact I have to quickly cancel a transfer I initiated to my NairaEx wallet, when I saw the instability of the system.