the CBN is set to commence offering a digital currency before the end of this year. “Very soon we would make an announcement on the date for the launch and by the end of the year, we should have the digital currency,” CBN’s Director of Information Technology, Rukayat Mohammed, said. “We would possibly launch a pilot scheme in order to provide this kind of currency to the populace.”
Speaking during a briefing of the Bankers’ Committee virtually, she pointed out Nigeria cannot be left behind the global efforts to issue central bank-backed digital currencies.
She also addressed concerns over a possible ban on cryptocurrencies saying, “Let me state categorically that cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin and the rest of them are not under the control of the central bank; they are purely private decisions that individuals make.”
Meanwhile, participants discussed the effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on households, as well as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), as the apex bank revealed that it had received over one million applications for the Targeted Credit Facility (TCF). According to CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, the government has set aside sufficient funds to provide the necessary support for those affected.
“At the advent of the COVID-19 interventions, the governor set aside N50bn, but the request was overwhelming. Then he made N100 billion and now at the last MPC meeting, he announced that the bank will make N400bn,” Director of Corporate Communication of the CBN, Osita Nwasunobi, said on behalf of the Governor. “As we speak, the CBN has received over one million applications in respect of this particular intervention. So for us, it is a means of monitoring our interventions, a means of evaluating our programmes and looking out whether what we are doing is actually impactful to the Nigerian public.”
