In a recent webinar, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced that it has set a clear date for the start of the CBDC pilot – October 1st. Rakiya Mohammed, director of information technology at CBN, emphasized this initiative as the agency researched and developed the project for four years.
According to reports, the pilot project will run under the name “GIANT” and run on Hyperledger Fabric, a licensed blockchain infrastructure. In addition, Mohammed pointed out that CBN can carry out a proof-of-concept before the end of 2021.
Nigeria’s top bankers recalled in the webinar that around 80% of the world’s central banks are currently trying to issue their own CBDCs.
With the help of this future project, Nigeria hopes to focus on solving increasingly serious regional problems such as monetary policy effectiveness, revenue tax collection, improved payment efficiency, remittance improvement, financial inclusion, and targeted social intervention. In addition, CBN indicated that the e-naira will make cross-border trade easier.
Nigerians Love Digital Assets Despite Ban From Central Bank of Nigeria
Nigeria is one of the leading cryptocurrency markets in Africa. Millions of the country’s young residents use digital assets to solve their financial problems.
Not that long ago, however, CBN imposed restrictions on virtual currency transactions. The Apex Bank urged local banks to stop offering services to Bitcoin customers. The agency stated that many criminal organizations are using the asset to promote money laundering and even finance terrorism. However, a few weeks later, the central bank changed its position. It stated that it was fine with cryptocurrencies and did not prevent people from trading with them.
Although many people expected this obstacle to threaten the market and reduce its size, it did not. Nigerians remain bullish, and under the CBN ban, the country has become Paxful’s largest peer-to-peer market. According to reports, the transaction volume of more than 1.5 million local platform users reached $1.5 billion.
It is also important to emphasize that there are huge differences between digital currencies issued by central banks and cryptocurrencies. As the name suggests, while central banks can issue digital currencies, cryptocurrencies are issued by unknown and unregulated companies. “
