Blockchain

Nigeria will pilot central bank digital currency in October

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For most of 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been Its anti-cryptocurrency measuresHowever, the agency doubled its investment and research on blockchain, the underlying technology of encryption, this week, and set a clear date for its blockchain-driven central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot program.

On October 1, CBN will It is said that Launch the “GIANT” pilot program-a CBDC project developed since 2017, which runs on the open source blockchain Hyperledger Fabric.

CBN’s director of information technology Rakiya Mohammed said that the bank may conduct a proof-of-concept before the end of 2021. According to reports, in a webinar held with stakeholders this week, CBN representatives emphasized that the institution must not lag behind most central banks in the world in making progress in their own CBDC research and development.

Among the motivations cited for the project, CBN pointed out that CBDC will facilitate macro and growth management, cross-border trade support, and financial inclusion.

In CBN’s view, the potential benefits can still be further expanded, including higher payment and remittance efficiency, better monetary policy transmission, better tax revenue, and the facilitation of targeted social policies.

related: Nigerian Minister of Communications links blockchain to national digital innovation efforts

Together with CBN, the Bank of Ghana has been rapidly moving towards the pilot phase of its central bank digital currency this summer. The country has positioned itself as a pioneer in the development of CBDC on the African continent and believes that the digital currency issued by the central bank is superior to decentralized encrypted currencies and has lower risks.

However, Ghana’s vigilance towards cryptocurrencies was overshadowed by Nigeria’s more aggressive measures, which included prohibiting commercial banks and other financial institutions From the service cryptocurrency exchangeNevertheless, the adoption of Bitcoin and The country’s BTC peer-to-peer transactions are still high.