The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is reportedly in consultation to re-engineer its Central Bank Digital Currency, the eNaira. Per a report by Bloomberg, the Apex Bank is in talks with New York-based firm R3 and is asking for a new native software that will be used to issue and manage the eNaira. It will also be fully controlled by the Central Bank.
Although the eNaira was issued in partnership with Bitt Inc., the Central Bank wants to have a more robust system that does not need to exclude Bitts Inc, per information from Bloomberg.
Bitts also shared that they are aware of the multiple partnerships involved in the development of the eNaira as well as the latest additional features that the CBN seeks.
The release of the eNaira
Nigeria became the first country in Africa and one of the first in the world to release a CBDC in October 2021 as a measure to drive and deepen financial inclusion for its citizens.
According to the CBN, the eNaira is the result of the “culmination of several years of research work in advancing the boundaries of payment systems in order to make financial transactions easier and seamless for every strata of the society”.
Despite the progress done by the apex bank to issue a digital currency, its adoption has been so low – at about $10 million worth of transactions done with the eNaira after one year of release.
Several reasons highlighted as the setback for its adoption include lack of transparency on the underlying architecture of the CBDC, no specific difference between the eNaira and already existing digital naira used by citizens for digital financial transactions and others.
Global CBDC development
Apart from the most populous African nation in the world, over 105 countries as of November 2022 have shown interest in releasing a national CBDC. At the just concluded World Economic Forum, CBDCs were part of the major headlines discussed with key global leaders.
Visa said during the event that it has plans to develop stablecoins and CBDCs for global payments while Swift revealed that it can help to implement a cross-border CBDC for nations around the world.
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