The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said data from the use of the proposed eNaira will help the bank formulate better macroeconomic policies.
Director of information technology of the bank, Rakiya Mohammed, stated this while speaking virtually at the third-quarter industry forum of the committee of e-business industry in Abuja, on Wednesday.
Explaining the economic implications and importance of a centralised and regulated digital currency in the country, she said the adoption of a digital currency would boost cross-border trade and must be accepted as a form of payment by all merchants and business outlets.
“And when countries come on board and create their own digital currencies then we will be able to have a faster exchange of currencies, and therefore we might be able to boost cross-border trade at a much lower cost,” she said.
Mohammed noted that even though Nigeria has one of the best payment systems in the world, in terms of payment efficiency, it would still be improved on.
“We believe that the eNaira will be a catalyst for digital economy because the people who are outside the formal banking sector will be integrated.”
She said the apex bank had concluded development of the eNaira design and would unveil same soon, adding that the digital currency would be a legal tender like the fiat naira but would rather than replace, complement cash notes.
“One, eNira will be equal to one fiat naira, and we adopted a two-tier retail model that would be a lot less disruption into the financial system.
“Our banks, payment service providers, and fintech are all going to be on board and we are going to key to the infrastructure they have already and incorporate the new system.
“It is not meant to replace the cash we have, but only to supplement.”
On the anonymity of transactions, she said: “It would be value-based, which means that we will see the amount of money changing hands without necessarily seeing who is behind the transactions so anonymity is complete and absolute.
“This will allow us to be able to conduct their AML/KYC operations. It is going to be non-interest bearing, at least for now.”
