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On Wednesday in Abuja, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control closed two stores for allegedly selling prohibited goods to Nigerians.

The stores are situated in the main market of Utako as well as the Zuba Central parking lot.

According to The News Agency of Nigeria, among the illegal goods allegedly used as aphrodisiacs include “Hajiya Ayesha Snuff, AK47, Bulletproof, and Hajiya Aysha Maisanda.”

The operation was carried out as a result of intelligence information concerning the stores, according to Mr. Tamanuwa Baba, Deputy Director, Investigation and Enforcement Directorate, NAFDAC.

“The products are meant to boost sexual performance and some were said to have been manufactured in Ghana.

“NAFDAC laboratory analysis indicates that these products contain a chemical substance called Pyridine which is a potentially harmful to the human body.

“We found a lot of unregistered products in the two shops. We will begin immediate investigations,” he said.

When asked when the shop’s owner would return from his journey, Baba claimed that the agency had detained the salesperson in the Zuba shop.

“We will get in touch with the owner of the shop on where he is sourcing these products from, but from the label on the products, some of them were allegedly manufactured in Ghana.

“What the sellers are saying is that these products usually make them high and some said that the product is used as an aphrodisiac.

“After the investigation, these products are going to be destroyed because they have not been registered by us.

He claimed that a comparable assortment of goods had also been found in the Kabo Investment Limited store in Utako.

Considering that the agency had carried out a similar operation in Sokoto where some of the products had been confiscated from a shop, he described it as alarming that some of the products had flooded the Nigerian market and are quickly spreading.

“I can tell you that Pyridine which is the chemical that is contained in some of these products can cause cancer, skin irritation and even lead to death.

Paxful, a peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange with 1.5 million customers in Nigeria, has announced that it is ceasing operations.

In a blog post published on Tuesday, co-founder and CEO Ray Youssef made this disclosure.

He said, “Today, Paxful will be suspending its marketplace. We are not sure if it will come back.

“This will probably come as a big shock to many. While I cannot share the full story now, I can say that we unfortunately have had some key staff departures. Also, regulatory challenges for the industry continue to grow, especially in the peer-to-peer market and most heavily in the U.S. While we work through these issues, we have taken the most secure option and ask you to explore self-custody and trade elsewhere.”

According to Decrypt, Youssef said during a Twitter Space that a lawsuit filed by a Paxful co-founder who is suing Paxful and Youssef after being “kicked out of the firm” over a year ago also had an impact on the decision to shut down the site.

“My co-founder sued the company and sued me. I have a lawsuit over my head right now,” he was quoted as saying on the Twitter Space.

The 2020 Geography of Cryptocurrency Study by Chainalysis ranks Nigeria ninth in crypto acceptance and usage among the 154 nations included in the study, despite the fact that bitcoin is illegal in Nigeria.

Peer-to-peer technology was introduced to Nigeria by Paxful, which contributed to the growth of the cryptocurrency sector there.

The CEO of Paxful stated that Nigeria is the company’s largest market, with 1.5 million users and a volume of over $1.5 billion to date, in an interview with Business Africa Insider in 2022. (since 2015).

In 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria outlawed cryptocurrency exchanges and related transactions. According to CBN, cryptocurrencies are being used for a number of illicit acts, such as tax evasion, the acquisition of small arms and light weapons, financing of terrorism, and money laundering.