African giant Nigeria announces plan to launch CBDC

TL;DR Breakdown

• CBN announces plan to launch CBDC
• Other African countries working on a CBDC

The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced that it would be launching a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) before the end of 2021. According to local reports, the Director, Information Technology Department, Mrs. Rakiyat Mohammed, announced at the banker’s committee meeting on Thursday.

Mrs. Rakiyat noted that about 80 percent of central banks in the world are looking into the possibility of issuing a central bank digital currency, and Nigeria cannot be left behind.

She also mentioned that the CBN had been exploring technology and had made tremendous progress for two years so far.

While explaining what the Nigerian digital currency would look like, the director said, “We have currency in two forms in Nigeria as of now, there are the notes and there are the coins. So the Central Bank currency is to be the third form of money which means just as we have electronic money, digital money is not new in Nigeria. Just as we are about the third or fifth in the whole world as far as advancement in the use of digital money is concerned. So this is going to compliment the coins and cash that we have. So the Central Bank digital currency will just be as good as you having cash in your pocket and even as you have the cash in your pocket, you are going to have the cash on your phone.”

Nigeria joins other African countries set to launch CBDC

Nigeria now joins a handful of other countries in the African continent planning to float a CBDC. Recently, the Bank of Ghana announced that they are working on a CBDC and are quite advanced in their operation.

Previously, South Africa and Kenya have also spoken about researching on floating a CBDC for their country.

However, globally, China remains at the forefront on the CBDC race as it appears to have completed development and only test running the digital currency before its full launch in 2022.