The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has announced that the new naira notes would be unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari during the weekly Federal Executive Council at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday.
Emefiele said this during a press briefing after the Monetary Police Committee meeting in Abuja.
He also stated that the new notes would go into circulation earlier than the December 15, 2022 date stated by the apex bank.
Meanwhile, Rakiyat Mohammed, CBN’s Director of Information Technology, said that about 36 million Nigerians currently had zero access to financial services.
Speaking on Tuesday during the Zenith Bank Tech Fair which was held in Lagos, Mohammed, who spearheaded the development and deployment of the eNaira, said the CBN was the first Central Bank in Africa and second in the world to launch a Central Bank Digital Currency.
Delivering her presentation at the Fair which is themed ‘Future Forward,’ she said the development of the CBDC was borne out of the urgent need to provide “financial inclusion to the 36m Nigerians who currently lack access to financial services.”
She further said, “Nigeria has the 6th most advanced retail payment system. This was according to a report by ACI. So, if you look at that report, you will see why.
“Remember, when the president launched eNaira, he did say in the next 10 years, we expected eNaira and its associated technologies to increase our GDP by $20bn. We are working on that.”
She also stated that in the light of emerging trends, it had become pertinent to develop a currency that was a legal tender that would be able to play in the digital economy space.
Alleluia is the Assistant Editor and Content Writer at LagosPost.ng. She is a prolific writer and editor, she has written features and news stories on Lifestyle, Sports, Business, Politics and B2B marketing. She is also an event coordinator, host and social media content creator.
