Kwami Ahiabenu,II Knowledge Chief

  Nigeria was the first African country and a significant economy to launch Central Bank Digital Currency – eNaira on Oct. 25, 2021. According to The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, since its inception until August 2022, the eNaira has recorded only 840,000 downloads. Emefiele made this announcement at the eNaira Hackathon platform held to promote and develop more digital currency use cases and add on innovative products, thereby giving the eNaira platform more functionality. Currently, the 270,000 active eNaira wallets are made up of 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets. The eNaira platform recorded over 200,000 transactions valued at over N4 billion ($9.5 million). This would be a drop in an ocean if you situated these eNaira statistics within the context of Nigeria’s population of 206.1 million (2020), 201.31 million (2022) mobile phone subscribers, and the value of mobile money transactions valued at  N4.86tn (11,419 B USD) . Also, ...

  This paper discusses critical considerations in the design of central bank digital currency (CBDC) in West Africa through a comparative case study of Ghana’s (eCedi) and Nigeria’s (eNaira) design frameworks. This paper analyses CBDC design options framed through context (digital payment landscape and CBDC objectives), technical aspects (design principles, architecture, risks), use cases, and deployment plans. This study conducted a thematic analysis of official CBDC design documents to identify similarities, differences, and patterns. The results indicate more similarities between the eCedi and eNaira designs than differences. Differences were observed in the CBDC deployment context, risk profiles, and plans. Surprisingly, neither country has articulated the detailed legal and regulatory environments for CBDC. This paper highlights the use of CBDC designs to promote citizens’ welfare by using financially inclusive policy goals within central banking’s welfare functions, thereby e...