Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has dismissed report on planned replacement of Naira notes with the country’s digital currency, eNaira.
Reports emerged at the weekend that the apex bank will phase out the Naira with the eNaira serving as the single currency for trades in Africa’s largest economy.
Recall that Mr Godwin Okafor, an official of the Central Bank of Nigeria, had urged traders to embrace the e-naira, noting that paper naira notes will soon be out of circulation.
Okafor, controller, Delta State Branch of CBN, stated this last Friday at the popular Ogbogonogo market during the market sensitisation on e-Naira.
“We are here at the market today to sensitise the market people on the use of eNaira. It is fully backed by CBN, unlike Bitcoin which has no legal backing.”
Nigeria had in October 2021, launched the eNaira in a bid to check the growing adoption of cryptocurrency among Nigerians.
The launch of the eNaira made Nigeria the first country in Africa to officially have a digital currency as a legal tender.
But Osita Nwanisobi, CBN’s director of Corporate Communications, in a statement at the weekend dismissed the claim as outright falsehood.
He said the eNaira was created to complement the physical cash in trades and not to erode its presence as being speculated.
Source: Commweek
