The Tragic Tale of the Central Bank of Nigeria's Launch of the eNaira

To date, only two African countries have launched a CBDC: Nigeria (eNaira) and Zimbabwe (ZiG), a digital token that is backed by gold. This post will focus on Nigeria and the eNaira.

Psalm 94:18 (KJV)

¹⁸ When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.

---

Photo source: Channels Television News

The Tragic Tale of the Central Bank of Nigeria's Launch of the eNaira

According to the IMF, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) officially launched the eNaira on October 25, 2021. The IMF explains:

Like coins or cash, the eNaira is a liability of the CBN. The eNaira uses the same blockchain technology as Bitcoin or Ethereum and, like them, the eNaira is stored in digital wallets and can be used for payment transactions; and it can be transferred digitally and at virtually no cost to anyone in the world with an eNaira wallet. There are, however, important differences. First, the eNaira features stringent access right controls by the central bank. Second, unlike these crypto-assets, the eNaira is not a financial asset in itself but a digital form of a national currency and draws its value from the physical naira, to which it is pegged at parity.

The CBN’s goal was to achieve 90% adoption of the eNaira by its population, but, in reality, as of at least October 2022 as reported by Bloomberg, the CBN only achieved less than 0.5% adoption and use of the eNaira by its population. Nigerians simply did not want to use its country’s CBDC.