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Africa Live: Meningitis outbreak kills 17 students in Nigeria - BBC News Africa Live: Meningitis outbreak kills 17 students in Nigeria - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Nkechi Ogbonna
West Africa business journalist, BBC News
Nigerian authorities on Wednesday detained executives from the global cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance over allegations of “fixing the country’s exchange rate”. The
Details of the arrest of the two executives remain murky. However, reports say they had arrived in Nigeria to discuss the suspension of the trading platform with Nigerian authorities. United States has said it is “deeply troubled” by the passing in Ghana of a stringent
The country’s Central Bank Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, had on Tuesday revealed that about $26bn (£20bn) had passed through Binance Nigeria in cryptocurrency trades through “sources and users who we cannot adequately identify”. anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, which it says threatens constitutional
In a Wednesday interview on local Channels Television, Bayo Onanuga, the presidential spokesman, accused the crypto platform of fixing the country’s exchange rates and assuming the role of the central bank. freedoms.
“If we don’t clamp down on Binance, Binance will destroy the economy of this country. They just fix the rate,” he added. “The
Binance officials are yet to respond to the claims. bill would also undermine Ghana’s valuable public health, media and civic
Last December, Nigerian authorities lifted a two-year ban imposed on cryptocurrency transactions over what they described as money laundering and terrorism financing risks posed by cryptocurrency in the country. spaces, and economy,” the US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said
This government's clampdown on Binance is among the measures it believes would save the local naira currency, which has depreciated by almost 70% in the last eight months. in a statement.
It
has called for the “review of the constitutionality of the bill”.
The new bill passed on Wednesday imposes
a prison sentence of up to three years for anyone convicted of identifying as
LGBTQ+. It also imposes a maximum five-year jail
term for forming or funding LGBTQ+ groups.
The passing of the bill has been criticised
by rights organisations and other groups.
Rightify Ghana strongly condemned “this regressive
legislation, which poses a grave threat to the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+
individuals in the country”.
UNAids executive director Winnie Byanyima
said the bill, if it becomes law, could incite violence by Ghanaians against their fellow citizens.
She said that it will “obstruct access to life-saving services,
undercut social protection, and jeopardise Ghana's development
success."
The bill will be presented to President
Nana Akufo-Addo after which he’ll have seven days to sign it into law or refuse
to assent to it, according to Ghana’s constitution.
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