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Nigeria Is Now Rewarding Citizens for Using Licensed Money Senders, Not Crypto

The "Naira 4 Dollar Scheme" is a bid to funnel remittances through official channels. Meanwhile, peer-to-peer bitcoin remains popular.

Updated Sep 14, 2021, 12:23 p.m. Published Mar 10, 2021, 7:00 a.m.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is incentivizing citizens to use licensed international money transfer operators (IMTOs) to send and receive money, according to a report by the BBC.

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In a letter dated March 5 and signed by Associate Director A.S. Jibrin, the CBN said it launched the "Naira 4 Dollar Scheme" for remittances in a bid to funnel payments from abroad through official channels.
The incentive program went into effect on Monday and ends May 8.
"In effect, a typical recipient of diaspora remittances will, at the point of collection, receive not only the [U.S. dollars] sent from abroad but also the additional [5 naira] per [1] USD received," the letter states.
In February, the CBN issued a five-page statement clarifying its position on cryptocurrencies, stating they are not a form of legal tender in Nigeria.
As a means for cross-border payments, cryptocurrencies remain a popular option in the West African nation.
According to data site UsefulTulips, Nigeria is by far the leading country in Sub-Saharan Africa for peer-to-peer bitcoin trading volume.

Remittances Africa Nigeria CoinFlash Central Bank of Nigeria

Tanzeel Akhtar

Tanzeel Akhtar has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes Africa, Financial Times, The Street, Citywire, Investing.com, Euromoney, Yahoo! Finance, Benzinga, Kitco News, African Business Magazine, Hedge Week, Campden Family Office, Modern Investor, Spear's Wealth Management Magazine, Global Investor, ETF.com, ETF Stream, CIO UK, Funds Global Asia, Portfolio Institutional, Interactive Investor, Bitcoin Magazine, CryptoNews.com, Bitcoin.com, The Local, The Next Web, Mining Journal, Money Marketing, Marketing Week and more. Tanzeel trained as a foreign correspondent at the University of Helsinki, Finland and newspaper journalist at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. She holds a BA (Honours) in English Literature from the Manchester Metropolitan University, UK and completed a semester abroad as an ERASMUS student at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She is NCTJ Qualified - Media Law, Public Administration and passed the Shorthand 100WPM with distinction. She does not currently hold value in any digital currencies or projects.