The undoubted groundswell of support for the introduction of digital currency by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) after many years of dithering has been greeted with loud applause by stakeholders who agree that it’s an idea whose time has come.

To recapitulate the prophetic words of Victor Hugo, the great poet, and novelist, you cannot stop an idea whose time has come.

There is a sense in which the tacit support being given by the apex regulator of the deposit money banks, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the introduction of digital currency into the nation’s financial ecosystem has been considered the right step in the right direction.

The Nation

Enter Nigeria’s digital currency

Although the virtual currency has boomed in the country in the last five years, the CBN proposal to officially introduce digital currency into the country has been considered as a late-blooming interest still.

Giving what is tantamount to tacit support of digital currency, the Director-Information Technology Department, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mrs Rakiyat Mohammed, said that the banking regulator will launch a digital currency before the end of 2021.

Muhammed disclosed this during a press briefing on the Bankers’ Committee meeting last Thursday.

According to her, the CBN will be making a special announcement and possibly launching a pilot scheme in order to be able to provide this kind of currency to its populace.

She said about 80 percent of central banks in the world we’re 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 exploring technology and had made tremendous progress.

Explaining what the Central Bank digital currency would be, she said there were currently two forms of money in the country.

She added, “We have in two forms in Nigeria as of now, there are the notes and there are the coins.

“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. So this is going to compliment the coins and cash that we have.