The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday disclosed that Nigeria is the first country in Africa to launch the digital currency known as e-Naira.
Emefiele spoke at the opening ceremony of the two-day ongoing CBN Fair 2022 held concurrently in Makurdi, Benue State, and Lafia in Nasarawa State.
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Represented by Osita Nwanisobi, the Director of Corporate Communications Department of the CBN, the governor noted that the e-Naira became necessary for Nigeria to keep pace with other countries of the world.
“Nigeria is incidentally the first country in Africa that has launched the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) – the e-Naira,” he said.
He explained that the fair holding simultaneously in Lafia and Makurdi was meant to inform Nigerians about what the CBN is doing, essentially, for three main reasons: to educate, inform the public about its policies and interventions and how they can benefit from it.
The governor stressed that not many people have heard about the e-Naira, hence the need for sensitisation even as CBN remains committed to ensuring that more people in the country are financially included.
“The whole essence is to ensure that more people in this country are financially included. If you see, a lot has happened in terms of the evolution of money from commodity to metallic, then paper, to plastic and now we are talking of digital. And so, we need to be at pace with where the world is moving,” Emefiele said.
Earlier, the CBN Branch Controller in Makurdi, John Odekina, in his welcome address at the fair, said the gathering was initiated for the populace to talk to CBN concerning whatever was bothering them about their financial matters.
