7 Steps in Luno: How to Convert Your USD to Nigerian Naira Using Bitcoin

In recent times cryptocurrencies have been gaining a lot more recognition than in the past, it is almost accurate to say that the speed at which they have been gaining recognition is almost exponential. Bitcoin has the largest market dominance has seen a steady increase from the end of 2019 to date.

Africa happens to be one of the regions in the world that have been responsible for this sudden surge. With Nigeria being at the forefront of this race, Google trend had indicatedan increase in the Google search for Bitcoin for the last few months. Considering the fact that the country has been experiencing some relatively troublesome economic situations, it is not uncorrelated with the efforts its citizens have been making which is a clear pointer that they are now seeing this digital currency as a more stable alternative.

According to the latest World Bank report, in 2019, 9.3% of the value to be transferred is charged as the cost of sending funds to sub-Saharan Africa via regular Remittance services — with Nigeria being the highest user — This is said to be the highest remittance rate anywhere around the world.

Besides the relatively unstable economy, the number of Nigerians in diaspora have been on the increase and seeing that cryptocurrencies are a better alternative to remittance services offered by local financial operators, migrants in need of sending funds to their friends and loved ones are gradually resorting to the use of Bitcoin to escape the exorbitant charges by the banks and other financial operators.

This newly found interest also explains the recent increase in the number of exchange platforms that have been springing up to meet this growing demand for liquidity within this space. Some platforms where Nigerians can receive funds in dollars or Bitcoin and convert to Naira has been seen as a way out of the too many constraints fiat presents, they include Luno, LocalBitcoins, Paxful, Bitpesa, to mention but a few.

In this article, we would be explaining in detail the steps to take in opening an account as well as the process of conversion of USD/BTC to Naira. We would be using Luno which happens to be one of the country's oldest and trusted exchange platforms.

Luno (formerly known as BitX) offers a 0% fee for users who make liquidity by placing an order while market takers are meant to pay a fee between 0% to 1% for the Nigerian Naira. Bank transfers and credit card deposits can also be made on the platform easily, while bank transfers are free, credit card deposits will incur a fee.

The ease of use, low fees, and high transaction limits are some of the major features that endear it to many Nigerians, thereby giving it a very positive reputation. Besides the BTC/NGN trading pair, Luno also has other Bitcoin trading pairs which include:

BTC/EUR

BTC/ZAR

BTC/MYR

BTC/IDR

Below are the steps to receive and convert your US Dollars or BTC to Nigerian Naira:

Step 1: Visit the Luno website to create an account.

Step 2: Sign up to create an account and sign in using your registered email and password.

Step 3: Select the purpose of opening the account. Note that this is what Luno will use to determine what kind of account a user intends to open.

In this case for "receiving funds into the country".

Step 4: Now to receive Bitcoin go to the Homepage and click on the BTC option.

Step 5: Click on the receive icon to reveal the wallet address and a bar code to receive BTC.

Step 6: Name your wallet and scan the barcode or copy the wallet address and paste as a message to the sender.

Step 7: Select BTC as the currency you would like to sell and input the amount.

Finally, click on "Next", now when you get your Naira, link your account to the Luno platform and transfer to your account. It would take a little while for the balance to reflect but after you do that all you have to do is wait for your account to be credited.

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