By Omodele Adigun and Uche Usim, Abuja
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday, has said that its digital currency, the eNaira, remains a great initiative that is not in any way threatening the nation’s financial stability.
According to the apex bank’s spokesman, Dr. Isa Abudulmumin, some media reports which stated otherwise is a misconstrued extract of the ‘foreword’ and some articles in the bank’s recently-released Economics of Digital Currencies: A Book of Readings.
Abdulmumin explained that a recurring theme in the book was the interest of regulators, such as the CBN, in the role of cryptocurrencies as speculative investments and the potential threat they harbour for financial stability.
“Pursuant to that, the articles in the book provide an in-depth understanding of CBDCs generally and the workings of the eNaira in particular, highlighting issues and challenges in implementation and adoption.
“One of the media reports speaks of “concerns about Nigeria’s central bank digital currency, eNaira, indicating potential risks to financial stability despite its success in narrowing the country’s financial inclusion gap.
“The nexus implied is unconvincing. In the ordinary course of things, the CBN does not join issues on news commentary; however, we are constrained to clarify the reports to ensure that misunderstandings are not fostered,” he said.
He added that the eNaira structure continues to evolve and undergo modifications targeted at improving the user experience across all interfaces. We encourage Nigerians to embrace the technology for, amongst other things, greater financial inclusion.