Nigeria Seeks Help to Create Crypto eNaira
2023.02.21 10:00
Nigeria Seeks Help to Create Crypto eNaira
By Tiffany Smith
Budrigannews.com – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is continuing its efforts to create the eNaira, its central bank digital currency (CBDC), but this time it is requesting assistance.
Bloomberg reported on February 21 that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is in talks with new “technology partners” regarding the creation of a new and improved system for managing the eNaira.
According to people familiar with the situation, the Nigerian financial authority has discussed these plans with the technology company R3 in New York.
The unnamed source stated that the matter is confidential, but new software for the eNaria will be developed with the intention of maintaining complete control over the initiative by the CBN.
According to the report, a new partner will not assume Bitt Inc.’s role immediately but will instead help phase in total control for the Nigerian central bank. The effort to create the eNaira began in 2021 with the assistance of Bitt Inc., which is based in the United States.
Bitt Inc. said in a statement that the CBN collaborates with a variety of partners on its technological innovations. It affirmed in any case that it actually works intimately with the CBN and is “at present fostering extra elements and improvements.”
Even though Nigeria is one of the first countries to implement a CBDC, local adoption of the eNaira has been sluggish. Only 0.5% of Nigerians have adopted the CBDC, according to some reports that criticized the ambitious project as “crippled.”
Before the country’s first active Bitcoin Lightning node was launched in January by a Nigerian innovator, the country also announced its intention to establish a legal framework for ICOs and stablecoins.
Nigeria is one of 87 nations participating in CBDCs. Russia and Japan are two additional nations that intend to introduce their own currencies prior to the summer. The possibility of developing a CBDC system is also being investigated by the city of San Francisco.
However, activists who view these centralized digital currencies as instruments of “surveillance” are actively opposing them.
