The Central Bank of Nigeria has revealed the pilot for its Central Bank Digital Currency which runs on Hyperledger Fabric. Hyperledger fabric is a permissioned enterprise-grade distributed ledger platform.
Unlike public blockchain platforms such as Bitcoin and Ethereum where everyone has access to the data on the network, only known or allowed participants are able to access the network.
In a virtual meeting yesterday held on Zoom, Director of Information Technology, Rakiya Mohammed made some revelations about the CBDC, She said that the CBDC will lower the cost of business in a presentation she made as well as increase demand for financial products and services due to improved financial inclusion.
It was also revealed that the CBDC project code named Project Giant will launch its pilot scheme on the 1st of October, 2021.
Earlier in June, the Central Bank revealed that the CBDC will launch in the December, and that it has spent over two years studying the concept of Central Bank’s digital currency and have identified the risks.
The Apex Bank also noted that due to the risks, it will setup a governance structure that would involve all industry stakeholders to assess all the risks.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has been moving at an unprecedented speed since it revealed it will launch its own digital currency.
In February, the Banker’s Bank prohibited financial institutions from facilitating cryptocurrency transactions and ordered all DMBs to investigate and close off accounts of entities involved in cryptocurrencies.
A month after the Central Bank released the circular prohibiting banks from facilitating crypto transactions; it announced a scheme to boost remittances – the “CBN Naira 4 Dollar Scheme.” Which it hoped will drive the growth of remittance in the country.
Via the scheme, the Central Bank will pay N5 for every $1 received by recipients and the payment will be made via the commercial bank. The CBN had said the scheme will run till Saturday, 8th of May, 2021 but later extended the scheme.
In the Virtual Meeting where the IT Director, Rakiya Mohammed was talking about the e-Naira yesterday, she mentioned how the CBN will treat other cryptocurrencies, she said the CBN will release a guideline and before that stakeholders will be consulted.
In a presentation made by Rakiya Mohammed, the Central Bank revealed that the CBDC will bring; New approaches to processing payments, New Service Provider and non-bank players, New possibilities for payments, Integration with new systems and other benefits.
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