*Osita Nwanisobi, Director of Corporate Communications Department, Central Bank of Nigeria, states the implementation of the eNaira has put Nigeria in the global spotlight as one of the pioneers to deploy a CBDC into live production

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

As the First Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to have been launched on the African continent, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has unveiled a programme of events to commemorate the first anniversary of the eNaira.

ConsumerConnect had reported that President Muhammadu Buhari October 25, 2021, activated the West African country’s digital currency.

Mr. Osita Nwanisobi, Director of Corporate Communications Department, in a statement issued Thursday, October 20, 2022, in Abuja, FCT, indicated that the implementation of the eNaira had put Nigeria in the global spotlight as one of the pioneers to deploy a CBDC into live production.

Nwanisobi stated this development has continued to attract the interest of global stakeholders, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, other Central Banks, and the CBDC community.

Therefore, as part of planned activities to mark the anniversary, the Director of Corporate Communications Department stated that the CBN would hold a one-day workshop with the theme, “Leveraging Innovation for Inclusive Growth and Development: The eNaira Advantage”.

According to him, the event is scheduled to hold Tuesday, October 25, 2022, at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Nwanisobi also disclosed objectives of the workshop include the review of the eNaira implementation journey, a 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 event, he noted, will be hosted by Mr. Godwin Emefiele, Governor of CBN, while the Ministers for Communications and Digital Economy and Humanitarian Affairs would 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, and the entertainment industry, the statement said.

A policy round-table discussion on “Effective Collaboration for National Development (Infrastructure, Interoperability, regulation)”, and a panel discussion on “eNaira Adoption for economic growth” as well will be part of features of the workshop in Lagos.