The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) plan of an efficient system of payment via the introduction of the e-Naira and its implementation is a praiseworthy endeavour that is heightening the progress of the economy of the country.
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| President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) during the official launch of the Nigerian digital currency, the e-Naira, in Abuja. Photo: Statehouse/Facebook/Femi Adesina |
The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) revealed, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), also called e-Naira, is one of the Federal Government’s solutions to the challenges of foreign exchange that amazed the leaders of the global economy.
In a statement signed by Niyi Akinsiju, BMO Chairman, and Cassidy Madueke, Secretary, the organization made known that Nigeria has gone ahead to pioneer sovereign currency while many other countries are still pondering on its importance.
The e-Naira has shown to be some hope for the economy of Nigeria since its launch in October 2021.
“What we have now is a multi-platform transactional economy; and not just that, we are now running a strong electronic platform economy, digital transactional economy and a crypto-based digital currency”.
Quoting the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, the digital currency, BMO noted, “underlying blockchain could increase Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 29 billion dollars, in 10 years.
“Alongside digital innovations, digital currencies could foster economic growth through better economic activities, increase remittances, improve financial inclusion and make monetary policy more effective”.
The organization further said: “the e-Naira, being the first central bank digital currency in Africa, has attracted much attention and countries across Africa are coming to Nigeria to understudy its technicalities.
“Most countries in the high G7 cadre, the IMF and the World Bank, were not expecting this from us. And from Nigeria comes the digital currency that people are now buying into: we have more banks facilitating and more traders across the world engaging in it.
“The beauty of this is that it is not just a domestic transactional platform, it also avails international transaction, one can transact from any location with a naira account at an official exchange rate. As CBDC gets bigger, emphasis will gradually move away form hard currency (dollar) to digital currency”.
BMO buttressed that aside from making life simpler for Nigerians, the “e-Naira has made transactions simpler than what it used to be and also generated tax from merchants registered on the app. With more registrations and participation we expect more revenue to be generated.”
