CBN to Introduce Digital Currency By October

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN with its stakeholders outlined its digital currency initiative via a private webinar.

The Nigerian Central Bank (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele had earlier announced that the bank will be working on a central bank digital currency during the 306th Banker’s Committee meeting.

According to private sources, the pilot scheme will be launched on October 1st, 2021.

The press briefing delivered by the Director IT department, Rakiya Mohammed, at the end of the meeting further explained that the Bank had been conducting research in regards to central bank digital currencies since 2017 and may conduct a proof of concept before the end of this year.

The project name is tagged Project GIANT and it will use the Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain.

CBN stated that about 80 percent of central banks globally are currently exploring the possibility of issuing their central bank digital currency (CBDC) and Nigeria could not be left behind.

The Hyperledger Fabric is an open source project that acts as a foundation for developing blockchain-based products, solutions, and applications using plug-and-play components that are aimed for use within private enterprises.

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Nigeria’s central bank further revealed that the importance of eNaira includes Macro management and growth, cross border trade facilitation, financial inclusion, monetary policy effectiveness, improved payment efficiency, revenue tax collection, remittance improvement, and targeted social intervention.

The Nigerian Apex Bank also underlined the benefits for the fintech ecosystem that include enhanced operational efficiency, opportunities for fintech start-ups in building services/products like financial inclusion that will contribute to the economic growth, and the creation of a new system complimenting the traditional payment system.