The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has indicated its interest in creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The organization has already issued preliminary instructions for local banks in the country on a CBDC project dubbed e-Naira. It will be implemented in five stages.
As noted by Nairametrics, the draft document includes the design and structure of the project, after the implementation of which digital naira will be declared legal tender in Nigeria.
When creating a digital currency, the Central Bank will focus on such elements as Know Your Customer (KYC), stability of cloud servers, testing of sellers and consumers.
“As a national infrastructure, the e-naira system will be subject to comprehensive security audits without all data and personal information (PII) being stored in the registry ,” the report says.
The future digital central bank currency will offer parity value and operate like an interest-free CBDC.
The document also describes e-Naira wallet testing and transaction costs. To test the digital currency, the Central Bank plans to attract citizens of the country and points of sale by testing solutions for remote CBDC transactions.
To implement the project, CBN will cooperate with the fintech firm Bitt Inc, which will provide technical support.
Interestingly, the work of Nigeria on the issue of CBDC was preceded by the Central Bank’s ban on commercial banks to provide services on accounts related to the operations of cryptocurrency exchanges. However, despite this, the use of cryptocurrencies in the country continues to grow.
