CBN to commemorate first anniversary of E-Naira launch

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled a programme of events to commemorate the first anniversary of the launch of the country’s digital currency, eNaira.

Osita Nwasinobi, spokesperson of the CBN, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

President Muhammadu Buhari formally launched the digital currency at the state house in Abuja on October 25, 2021.

Nwanisobi said as part of activities lined up to mark the first anniversary of eNaira, 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 in Lagos.

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

“The implementation of the eNaira has put Nigeria in the global spotlight as one of the pioneers to deploy a CBDC into live production,” the statement reads.

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“This has continued to attract the interest of global stakeholders such as the IMF, World Bank, other central banks, and the CBDC community.”

Nwanisobi said the event will be hosted by Godwin Emefiele, CBN governor, while the ministers of communications 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, telecommunications regulators, merchants, agents, cooperative groups and technical experts, the entertainment industry; among others.

The CBN spokesperson said the event will also feature a policy round-table discussion on ‘effective collaboration for national development (infrastructure, interoperability, and regulation)’ and a panel discussion on “eNaira adoption for economic growth”.

“The CBN, therefore, encourages Nigerians to be part of the celebration which shall be streamed live on the bank’s social media channels as well as those dedicated to the eNaira,” the statement adds.