The Central Bank Of Nigeria Is Looking For A "Mitra Technology" To Improve The ENaira System

Godwin Emefiele, governor of The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) (photo: twitter @cenbank)

JAKARTA - The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) continues to develop its central bank digital currency (CBDC), eNaira, and this time calls for support for new technology.

According to a Bloomberg report on February 21, CBN is in talks with a new "tech partner" to develop a new and better system to manage eNaira.

According to sources close to the matter, Nigeria's financial authorities have discussed the plan with New York-based technology company R3.

New software for eNaira will be created to allow CBN to have full control over this initiative. However, unnamed sources say the matter is confidential.

Efforts to create eNaira begin in 2021 with the help of financial software company Bitt. According to the report, the new partner will not immediately take on the role of Bitt but will help the total control phase for Nigeria's central bank.

In a statement, cited by Cointelegraph, Bitt said it was aware that CBN is working with various partners for its technological innovations. Bitt confirmed that it is still working with CBN and is "developing features and additional upgrades."

Despite being one of the first countries to launch a CBDC, eNaira Nigeria is experiencing a slow start, with low adoption. According to several reports, this ambitious project is "surprised", with only 0.5% of Nigerians using CBDCs.

In January, a Nigerian innovator launched his country's first active Bitcoin Lightning node. Shortly after, the government announced plans to create a legal framework for stablecoin and Initial coin offering.

Nigeria is one of more than 90 countries exploring the use of CBDCs. Other countries including Russia and Japan, both have plans to launch their currency before summer. The city of San Francisco is also considering the possibility of developing a CBDC system.

However, there was an active rejection of CBDC from activists who called it a "supervision" tool.