BY BAMIDELE FAMOOFO
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami and his counterpart in the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Sadiya Umar Farouq, have been selected as key speakers at the one year anniversary of the launch of the digital money (eNaira) of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
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 the following: i. review the eNaira implementation journey, one year after; ii. to drive further adoption of the eNaira through public engagement; and iii. to facilitate global policy dialogue on CBDC to promote peer learning and benchmarking.
The event to be hosted by the Governor, Godwin Emefiele, will attract other key participants which 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, 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, encourages 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.
President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Aso Villa on Monday 25 October 2021, formally launched the eNaira.
Director, Corporate Communications of the CBN, Osita Nwanisobi, said the implementation of the eNaira has put Nigeria in the global spotlight as one of the pioneers to deploy a CBDC into live production.
“This has continued to attract the interest of global stakeholders such as the IMF, World Bank, other Central Banks, and the CBDC community,” he added.
