CBN Marks First eNaira Anniversary  

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled a programme of events to commemorate the first anniversary of the launch of Africa’s first Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) tagged the “eNaira”, which was formally launched by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Aso Villa on Monday 25 October 2021.

A statement by the director, corporate communications department of the bank, Osita Nwanisobi, said the implementation of the eNaira had put Nigeria in the global spotlight as one of the pioneers to deploy a CBDC into live production.

This, the statement said had continued to attract the interest of global stakeholders such as the 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 the eNaira implementation journey, one year after; to drive further adoption of the eNaira through public engagement; and to facilitate global policy dialogue on CBDC to promote peer learning and benchmarking.

According to the statement, the event will be hosted by the Governor, Mr. 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”.

The CBN, therefore, encouraged 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. It also urged members of the public to visit the website (www.enaira365days.com) to register and participate in the workshop.