The Abuja School
By: Chukwuemeka Amadi
On October 25th, 2021 Nigeria released the eNaira, Africa’s first Central Bank digital currency. With it being centralized and issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) setting it apart from cryptocurrencies on the blockchain which are decentralized. Its introduction was extraneously hyped as a breakthrough and new horizon for commerce and trade in Nigeria with many stated promises and expectations such as; improving cross-border trade, increase in remittances for government, and establishing an avenue for welfare payments. Also, with a set expectation of the adoption of the eNaira could lead to an increase of 29 billion USD to the country’s GDP. It only just three year removed form its launch but the eNaira already looks like an idea of its time and not really needed in the current period. It was launched just a year after the main impact of the global pandemic and national lockdown when many Nigerians were forced into a mostly cashless economy. and also, the boom cryptocurrencies saw, with more attention brought on to the benefits and possibilities of crypto due to large global adaptation during the pandemic. It is clear the inspirations from the trends at the time lead to the birth of the eNaira. With that said fast forwarding to the present the lofty plans envisioned for the eNaira has quite gotten up to speed and has been largely forgotten from the public consciousness. Which begs the question is the eNaira still an asset for Nigerian economic development or already just a Fad of its time. In September 2024 the CBN deployed the eNaira version 2.0 with a renewed focus on wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency to facilitate the participation of deposit money bank into adopting the eNaira. With efforts also being put in place for the use in the public sector not just private as the CBN expands Naira usage to payments into and between government accounts. and allow Ministries and Agencies to initiate vendor/beneficiary payments from their respective eNaira wallets. Although this is a huge stride in facilitating adaptation of eNaira, it hardly inspires confidence in the ambitions of the digital currency. If the eNaira was a project of high priority to the government, why wait three years before implementing eNaira use in government activities. As of now it is still difficult to gauge the future of the eNaira. With it having nothing to differential itself from the regular fiat naira while not have he traits or benefit of regular decentralized cryptocurrency. It is hard to see the digital currency breaking through and achieve mass adaptation.