Nigeria launches central bank digital currency 'to drive economic growth'

Nigeria is the latest country to launch its central bank digital currency ("CBDC"), eNaira, as a "major step forward in the evolution of money," President Muhammadu Buhari said at the launch on Monday. President Buhari said eNaira and the blockchain technology it uses can foster economic growth and increase Nigeria's gross domestic product by $29B over the next 10 years. The launch comes just eight months after the West African nation began a crackdown on cryptocurrencies. Like all CBDCs, eNaira is an equivalent of Nigeria's paper naira currency and is regulated as an official tender by Nigeria's central bank. "It is a much simpler payment mechanism and... is going to help in a lot of dimensions including in reducing the amount of cash being used and the cost of transactions," said Andrew Nevin, chief economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers Nigeria. As of 2020, Nigeria has recorded 2.7B transactions valued at 162.9T naira ($397.1B),