Today Bloomberg reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approached new potential suppliers for its central bank digital currency (CBDC) project, the eNaira, which launched in October 2021. Bloomberg cited un-named sources saying the central bank wanted to control its own technology, a point the central bank has previously made. Enterprise blockchain firm R3 was one of the firms said to be in discussions with the CBN.
The central bank is currently working with Bitt which is also involved in other CBDC projects, including for the Eastern Caribbean.
So far, the take up of Nigeria’s CBDC can be described as lukewarm at best. Last week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) described the adoption of the eNaira as ‘rather slow’. By the end of November 2022, the number of wallets was less than a million, which represents under one percent of bank account holders. Ten percent of merchants with point-of-sale terminals support the CBDC. However, even those with wallets are mostly inactive.
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