Nigeria’s Central Bank marks first anniversary of e-Naira

By Callistus Offor (ABUJA)

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.

The CBN Director of Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi disclosed this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.

Mr. Nwanisobi explained that as part of activities lined up to mark the first anniversary of the eNaira, the Central Bank of Nigerian is holding 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 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 CBDC to promote peer learning and benchmarking.

The statement also noted that 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 ExchangeCommission (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

Interested persons can visit the website to register and participate in the workshop: http://www.enaira365days.com