The majority of developing nations around the world are suffering from persistently high inflation, and Nigeria is no exception. Due to this, more often than not, the official exchange rate of national currency to, say, the US dollar is a far cry from what you can reasonably expect to get on the street or with an exchange service. Cryptocurrency conversions are no different, whether you are trying to exchange Bitcoin for Naira or some other crypto.
But don’t worry, after reading this piece you will know how to get the most out of your stash.
How to Calculate BTC-to-Naira Exchange Rate
The official exchange rates are typically published by the nation’s central bank on a daily basis, and in case of Naira, it will be the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) who does the job. If you know Bitcoin price in USD, you can then easily calculate the cross rate of BTC to Naira – the “official” one, as it were.
While it is unlikely that you will be able to buy either USD and, by extension, Bitcoin at these rates (unless you are a buddy of the CBN’s governor or the governor himself), being aware of them may still come in handy. Basically, they will tell you if someone is trying to rip you off by luring you into an unprofitable trade to get your stuff cheap.
And if you know the real exchange rates as determined by the play of free market forces, you will also know what price you should ask for your precious coins in case you need to sell them.
It is easy to find both the Naira-to-USD exchange rate and Bitcoin price in USD.
To get the official Naira exchange rate, head over to the CBN rates page here. As of September 29, 1 USD can buy you 432.37 NGN (spoiler: the dollar can fetch you much more than that, as we will see later):
To find out how much NGN you need to pay to get 1 USD in real life, we can use an exchange that offers this trading pair. Some crypto exchanges do exactly that.
More specifically, Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, allows you to trade NGN for stablecoin USDT. And while technically USDT is not USD, its price against the dollar doesn’t depart too much from parity, and thus the NGN:USDT quotes on this exchange are a pretty good estimate of how much the Nigerian currency is really worth.
As of right now, you need to shell out 730.2 NGN to buy 1 USDT on Binance:
Now it becomes as easy to see that the real price at which Naira changes hands for USD has very little to do with the exchange rate set by the central bankers. Moreover, it looks like there’s no light for Naira at all.
Who are they trying to fool exactly?
It would be extremely interesting to know more about the people privileged to buy USD at the official exchange rate if there are any. But what’s even more important from a practical point of view is that you can actually sell USD (as represented by USDT) for a premium of nearly 69% to the official price (730.2 vis-à-vis 432.7 NGN).
Although Binance doesn’t allow us to trade Bitcoin for Naira directly on its spot market, we can always calculate the cross rate by multiplying the Bitcoin price by Naira’s exchange rate.
At the moment, Bitcoin changes hands on Binance at $19,706.87 per coin:
Then the real exchange rate that you can use as Bitcoin’s reference price in Naira will be:
19,706.87 x 730.2 = 14,389,956.47 NGN
This is how much you make by converting one Bitcoin to Naira on the Binance spot with USDT as an in-between. If you could get a better price elsewhere, well, good for you.
Otherwise, you would be selling with a discount – that would be a rip-off!
Using Bitcoin and Naira exchange rates to calculate the cross rate is one of the two approaches toward understanding the real value of an asset for which there will be no free market in some fiat currency.
Alternatively, we can check NGN-denominated Bitcoin prices across different trading platforms with which you can sell Bitcoin for Naira directly.
Let’s get to this right now.
Rates on Different Exchanges and Marketplaces
According to the 2021 Global Crypto Adoption Index report by Chainalysis, Nigeria took the 5th position in terms of cryptocurrency adoption globally. And while it is only named the 11th in this year’s report (mostly due to changes in metrics used), it remains Africa's largest crypto market (with Kenya coming next).
Limited access to financial services and rising inflation are named among the main reasons fueling the interest towards crypto in this country.
And as it always happens in countries with weak currencies, and Nigeria fits this pattern perfectly, the monetary authorities of this nation understandably consider cryptocurrencies a threat to the stability of the country’s national currency. Since 2021 local banks have been prohibited from processing transactions in one way or another related to digital assets.
As a result, the task of converting Bitcoin to Naira and withdrawing fiat mostly comes down to finding a place where these two functions are supported. Cashing out has never been easy with crypto anyway, and converting Bitcoin to Naira isn’t a piece o’cake, either.
In general, you can exchange crypto for fiat by using orderbook-based exchanges, peer-to-peer (p2p) marketplaces and swap services. The good news is that there are platforms in all these three categories that allow you to sell Bitcoin for Naira and withdraw fiat to your bank account in Nigeria (although with a few caveats).
Further we are going to examine if the exchange rates they offer are worth your bottom line.
Yellow Card
Swap services can be useful when you need to quickly exchange crypto for fiat without extra effort. Yellow Card is one such service that offers instant swaps of crypto into fiat in Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa.
In addition to Bitcoin, it supports Ethereum and USDT, which you can exchange for a bunch of local currencies.
Due to reasons explained above, the only option currently available to Nigerians looking to convert Bitcoin to Naira is through a voucher to be redeemed with a third-party service provider after the conversion. Put simply, selling crypto on Yellow Card is a two-step process, where the second step occurs outside the service.
Which calls into question the whole idea behind “instant” swaps this service offers.
The Naira-to-USD exchange rate here (737 NGN for selling crypto) is somewhat higher than on Binance:
If we calculate the cross rate between Bitcoin and Naira using the Yellow Card prices, we will get the price of 1 BTC equal to:
19,735.05 x 737 = 14,544,731.85 NGN
The apparent premium of around 2% to Binance exchange rates is not to be taken at face value because it will likely get eaten away somewhere down the road, for example, when redeeming a voucher (read, you won’t be able to arbitrage it).
On the bright side, the USDT-to-Naira conversion rates that you get with this service are still pretty close to market prices – Yellow Card won’t rip you off.
Luno
Luno, a global cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in London and present in Africa, offers orderbooks for an array of Naira trading pairs. Similar to Yellow Card (and apparently for the same reasons), the Nigerian users can’t withdraw directly to their bank accounts on this exchange and need to use vouchers for this.
Users of the exchange also trade Bitcoin for Naira with a small premium to Binance prices. As of this writing, selling 1 BTC will fetch you 14,450,000 NGN:
The major advantage of this exchange over Yellow Card is that you have full control over the price at which your order should be executed.
With swap services like NairaEx or Yellow Card, you have to live with the price specified by the platform. On orderbook-based exchanges (and p2p marketplaces, for that matter), on the other hand, if you think that the current price is too low or too high, you can set your own and then wait until the market eventually gets there.
This is not something you can meaningfully do with a swap service.
Bitpapa
Bitpapa is a p2p marketplace with a growing presence in Nigeria that allows you to sell such cryptos as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Toncoin, Monero and USDT for Naira. Because users of this platform are trading with each other and the money goes directly from the buyer to the seller, they can use any payment method available in Nigeria (like bank transfers or cash).
Which means that out of the three options examined here, Bitpapa is the only one that allows direct payment in Naira, without the necessity of employing vouchers.
The platform calculates the price of Bitcoin in Naira as an average taken from a few exchanges, and the market price for 1 BTC is currently at 14,528,029 NGN, which is consistent with other platforms:
As we can also see, offers to sell Bitcoin start at 4% premium to the market price (6% to the Binance prices).
Because users are free to specify any price in their offers, no one can stop you from undercutting these rates and earning a decent profit. There are no trading fees when you are going to use someone else’s offer, and only 1% fee when you create your own.
It should be added that unlike Yellow Card and Luno, Bitpapa doesn’t require its users to go through an identity verification process.
Bottom Line
As this article clearly demonstrates, the real market value of Naira has nothing to do with the “certified” exchange rates as published by the central bank of Nigeria. Next, there’s no significant difference between Luno and Bitpapa rates – they are in line with the exchange rate calculated on the basis of Binance prices, with the implication being that you can use either platform if you need to quickly find out how much 1 BTC is worth in Naira.
And in case you need to sell your Bitcoin and receive the payment in Naira without any further effort, Bitpapa gets you there.
FAQ
Q: Where Can I Sell My BTC in Nigeria?
A: You can sell your Bitcoin in Nigeria using a swap service, an exchange or a p2p marketplace. For example, Bitpapa allows direct conversions of BTC to Naira.
Q: How Much Is $1 BTC in Naira Now?
A: 1 dollar can buy you 730.2 NGN on Binance, which is roughly 0.00005066 BTC.
Q: How Much Is One BTC in Naira?
A: At the moment, 1 Bitcoin is worth around 14,500,000 NGN.
Q: How Much Is 0.1 BTC in Naira?
A: At the price of 14,500,000 NGN per Bitcoin, 0.1 BTC will cost you 1,400,000 NGN.
