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The Director of Information Technology of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mrs Rakiyat Mohammed, said that the banking regulator will launch a digital currency before the end of 2021.
“As I said before the end of the year, the Central Bank will be making special announcement and possibly launching a pilot scheme in order to be able to be able to provide this kind of currency to its populace,” she said.
She said about 80 per cent of central banks in the world were exploring the possibility of issuing central bank digital currency and Nigeria could not be left behind. For over two years now, she added, the CBN had been been exploring technology and had made tremendous progress. “We have in two forms in Nigeria as of now, there are the notes and there are the coins."
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“So the Central Bank currency is to be the third form of money which means just as we have electronic money, digital money is not new in Nigeria. Just as we are about the third or fifth in the whole world as far as advancement in the use of digital money is concerned. The Central Bank digital currency will just be as good as you having cash in your pocket and even as you have the cash in your pocket, you are going to have the cash on your phone.”