Nigeria Unveils E-Naira Website, Expect Cash to Fade Over Time

The website is up and this is the domain: “eNaira is a central bank digital currency (CBDC) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria as a legal tender. It is the digital form of the Naira and will be used just like cash…eNaira enables households and businesses to make fast, efficient, and reliable payments, while benefiting from a resilient, innovative, inclusive, and competitive payment system.” This is the biggest fintech product in the history of Nigeria. Yes, when the central bank drives anything, expect that thing to light up.

Looking at the alexa ranking, it is already one of the most popular websites in Nigeria, just within days. That shows you that the apex bank can get the crusaders and believers of Bitcoin to join.

This takes me to this video in 2017 (below) and this piece where I asked the Central Bank of Nigeria to make Nigeria the hub of blockchain dapps. We are on course and it is amazing.

The most exciting skill coming up in the next few years would be building digital technology solutions on blockchain. That would be integrated and fused with AI (artificial intelligence). But while AI may take longer, in Nigeria, because of the data availability issues, blockchain will advance due to the cost savings most of the participants will enjoy.

Yet, eNaira will likely push cash away over the next few decades but the rising of Nigerian Naira will not happen because of eNaira. Nigeria has to do what nations do: create, make and build things. Once we do that, Naira will have the support it needs. But that does not mean that you cannot spend digitally, and welcome eNaira which will even reduce the cost of managing Naira because printers will lose their contracts.

“eNaira is a Central Bank of Nigeria-issued digital currency that provides a unique form of money denominated in Naira. eNaira serves as both a medium of exchange and a store of value, offering better payment prospects in retail transactions when compared to cash payments.

“eNaira has an exclusive operational structure that is both remarkable and nothing like other forms of central bank money. There are several benefits from a central bank-issued digital currency in Nigeria, and this cuts across different sectors of, and concerns of the economy.”

Welcome e-Naira.

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