Binance Launches Support for Nigerian Naira in Partnership with Flutterwave

Binance, easily the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, has announced today that it has opened deposits for users in Nigeria, to easily trade cryptocurrencies, using the Nigerian Naira (NGN). Binance has stated that deposits are immediately open for users to directly use the NGN to buy and sell select digital assets. This new feature was made possible through a partnership with the Nigerian payment technology company, Flutterwave.

According to an announcement, Binance is now allowing the use of the NGN for three assets on the following trading pairs: BUSD/NGN, BNB/NGN, as well as BTC/NGN. To set the ball rolling, Binance is allowing a promo period of an unspecified length of time, where users can register and deposit NGN with zero deposit fees for up to 36,000 NGN (about $100). The exchange has also announced that about $10,000 worth of NGN will be distributed as rewards to all customers worldwide, who make a deposit, on a “first-come-first-served manner.” Furthermore, deposit fees have been pegged at 1.4% with a 150 NGN (about $0.42) lower limit and a 430,000 NGN (about $1,191) upper limit per transaction.

Speaking on the launch, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, has said that cryptocurrency in the continent is significantly needed because there are still a lot of people who do not have proper access to banking services. CZ said:

“Africa has illustrated one of the largest demands and instrumental use cases for cryptocurrency, notably for financial access, in the world’s second-largest continent. In Sub-Saharan Africa, about 95 million people remain unbanked while many regions in the area, including Nigeria, have embraced new technologies with an increasing amount of innovation. Working with Flutterwave will help bridge the fiat-to-cryptocurrency gap and we hope to stimulate more financial inclusion as Africa demonstrates strong potential in leading crypto adoption.”

The launch of NGN support for Binance marks the second time the giant crypto exchange platform is entering the African market. Last year, Binance launched its Binance Uganda exchange allowing Ugandan users join the platform and deposit money using the country’s official currency, the Ugandan Shillings (UGX). At the time, Binance began with the BTC/UGX and ETH/UGX trading pairs. CZ also said at the 2018 African Blockchain Conference held in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala, that the exchange was also looking to expand to other parts of the continent including Kenya but didn’t mention Nigeria at the time.

Olugbenga “GB” Agboola, the Flutterwave CEO and co-founder, has touched on the company’s desire to improve African lives and cement the continent’s position in the world’s finance space.

“What we do at Flutterwave is, create possibilities for the everyday African to become prosperous. We create opportunities for the everyday African to reach prosperity levels that were beyond them in the past. That’s what this partnership is about. Africans are firmly part of the global financial community, Flutterwave is ensuring this”, said he.