CBN Lines Up Celebration Events as eNaira Clocks 1

• Says CBDC attracts interests of IMF, World Bank, global CBDC Community

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced a calendar of events to mark the first anniversary of the eNaira, Nigeria, and Africa’s first digital currency.

On Monday, October 25, 2021, in the State House in Aso Villa, President Muhammadu Buhari formally introduced the digital currency.

Osita Nwanisobi, the director of the corporate communications department, said in a statement that the introduction of the eNaira has established Nigeria as one of the forerunners in the deployment of a CBDC into live production.

This, the statement said, had continued to attract the interest of global stakeholders such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, other Central Banks, and the CBDC community.

As part of activities lined up to mark the first anniversary of the eNaira, the statement said the CBN will hold a one-day workshop themed “Leveraging Innovation for Inclusive Growth and Development: The eNaira Advantage” scheduled to take place on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The objectives of the workshop include the review of the eNaira implementation journey, one year after; to drive further adoption of the eNaira through public engagement and facilitate global policy dialogue on CBDC to promote peer learning and benchmarking.

According to the statement, the event will be hosted by the Governor, Godwin Emefiele, while the Ministers of Communication and Digital Economy and Humanitarian Affairs will be speakers at the event.

Other key participants at the event include the Chief Executives of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), members of the Bankers’ Committee, the academia, financial services, and telecommunications regulators, merchants, agents, cooperative groups and technical experts, the entertainment industry; amongst others.

The event will also feature a policy round-table discussion on “Effective Collaboration for National Development (Infrastructure, Interoperability, regulation)” and a panel discussion on “eNaira Adoption for economic growth”.