Bitcoin bounty hits 60% in Nigeria as it limits cash withdrawals from ATMs

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The price of Bitcoin (BTC) in Nigeria has soared well above market levels amid the central bank’s continued efforts to push its citizens towards digitized money.

At the time of writing, the price of 1 BTC on the Nigerian crypto exchange NairaEX is currently at 17.8 million naira, which is equivalent to $38,792.

This represents a premium of more than 60% over the current Bitcoin market price, which is around $23,700 at the time of writing.

This comes as the Central Bank of Nigeria has continued to impose limits on cash withdrawals from ATMs as part of an ongoing effort to accelerate its transition to a cashless society.

#Bitcoin is hope

BREAKING: Bitcoin is selling at a 60% premium in Nigeria ($37,235) due to increased demand.

The Central Bank of Nigeria began limiting cash withdrawals to $44 a day earlier this month.

Now world leader in Google searches for “Buy #Bitcoin” pic.twitter.com/SI861WUhVy

— SHIB Bezos (@BezosCrypto) January 29, 2023

Earlier this month, the central bank imposed a limit on cash withdrawals following an announcement in December.

Since January 9, citizens were only allowed to withdraw a maximum of 20,000 NGN (about $43.50) from ATMs per day with a limit of 100,000 NGN (about $217) .

The move also came just days before the new Naira notes were put into circulation in a bid to curb inflation and money laundering. The central bank has imposed a January 24 deadline for Nigerians to exchange their old, higher value banknotes for the new currency.

However, people suffered long queues amid complaints that there was not enough time to meet the deadline. The central bank has now extended that deadline to February 10, according to reports from January 29.

This is not the first time the Bitcoin premium has risen in Nigeria. In February 2021, the central bank banned regulated financial institutions from providing services to cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. This drove the BTC premium to 36% at the time.

Related: Nigeria Set to Pass Bill Recognizing Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

Recent interest in bitcoin has also seen Nigeria become the top country for bitcoin web searches, according to Google Trends.

BREAKING: The Nigerian central bank is introducing new cash withdrawal limits (20,000 naira ~ $44 per day) and announced that all old naira notes will be worthless by the end of January.

Nigeria leads the search How to buy #Bitcoin worldwide pic.twitter.com/O26si2nHde

— Carl MENGER (@CarlBMenger) January 18, 2023

Additionally, on January 26, Reuters reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria had launched a domestic card scheme to compete with foreign cards like MasterCard and Visa.

The “AfriGo” card scheme was designed to give Nigerians better access to bank card services and bypass the often costly foreign card fees and currency exchange fees.

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