In October 2023, The Central Bank of Nigeria redesigned the higher denomination of 1000 naira notes, 500 naira Iinotes and 200 naira notes and decided to infuse it in the economy at the end of January 2023, a feat which was initially noded as a welcome development own to the fact that it is almost 19 years when such monetary policy was last carried out and also a means of developing a strong financial infrastructure which is capable of sustaining the present financial services and also institutionalized the payment vision gate way provided in a document presented by the CBN for cashless economy in her 2025 document.
The apex bank who have developed an E-naira payment platform build on a centralized #Blockchain system know as Hyperledger Fabrics which is backed by government regulations and law and is now a new entity for both financial services and store of value, and most banks have been directed to introduce their customers on how to use the digital speed wallet combo downloadable on Google play store. The e-wallets is structured in a way that it meets the requirements for the widely used mobile banking services and will be easy for them to make use of it.
Cryptocurrency may not be fully legal in Nigeria, due to a ban on February 2021 when CBN wrote a memo to #Nigerian banks to that effect and instructed Nigerian banks not to accept or recognize platform promoting,trading or executing financial transactions using various cryptocurrency particularly #Bitcoin. This implies that Bitcoin and other alternate coins are not to be traded by banks as instrument of exchange or store of value and is punishable under the CBN rules and guidelines. The move was seen as a shock to the already rising cryptocurrency platforms such as #Binance, #Coinbase and others who have a large number of registered users on their platform and are now perform various financial transactions using cryptocurrency as a preferred means of payment. The apex bank said that Bitcoin and others are issued by unregulated and unregistered entities and so can easily make customers lose their investment within minutes, they also said that cryptocurrencies will easily be use as a means for terrorist and kidnappers to collect money from the victims, citing the unregulated issuers and anonymity of the #Blockchain technology, its untraceable nature and high volatility of most of the coins.
The ensuing drama and politics about the naira redesign can be tapped positively to sustainable gain by both the federal government and It's apex bank the CBN by tapping into the advantages and business/financial gain cryptocurrencies can offer to its citizenry rather than outright ban and isolation has seen in recent monetary policies. #Cryptocurrencies have over 2000 listed coins which are use as a medium of exchange or store of value and more than **36.5 million users only in the United State making it one of the biggest source of **Foreign Exchange in the economy. It has also facilitate and revolutionized the banking system as various Fintech companies are providing financial and business assistance to its citizenry. Many of such institution can contribute to the aquisition of loans, startup capital, shares and other instrument needed for economic expansion and growth.
#Blockchain technology can not be mutilated or hacked because of its powerful cryptic encryption. Information passed through Blockchain nodes are usually encrypted and often requires both private and public key to decrypt, making it very useful for conducting election which will be free from political manipulation and election rigging. Innovations, technological advancement are some of the gains that are offered by #Blockchain Engineering, this technology provides sustainable capital and human development and can help steer development and move the nation forward.
When #Bitcoin was first introduced, it shows that speedy and effective money transfer and movement was possible and another thing that was remarkable was the cost of performing such transaction which was relatively low and can be increase or reduce to accelerate the transaction processes. However, most alternate coins like #Bitcoin Cash(BCH) now have even faster transaction process and less cost of transfer compared to Bitcoin. This speed of transaction have helped to facilitate international trade owing to the large volatility of the crypto market and the effectiveness of doing foreign trade within a short frame of time, in fact orders place on Exchange books can be executed within some few seconds or minutes or most time instantly. This cryptocurrencies will provide an avenue for countries to speed up certain business deals and also avoid the bottleneck bureaucracy often encountered when trading between countries. The technology also offers security to investment based on the fact that different nodes(computers) are synchronized on the #Blockchain network hence failure of one node can not lead to the failure of the entire system and so transaction will still be broadcast even if some computers servers are not responding. #Cryptocurrency has created millions of jobs for both traders, exchangers, developers and the entire tech ecosystem such feat allows job creation within the various sectors of the economy who are relying on the technology for carrying out the employment responsibilities and task.
It becomes imperative for the financial institutions in #Nigeria to look beyond the present economic situation and limitation or disadvantages of cryptocurrencies and draw out a new monetary policy similar to the digital currency and e-wallets development that will embrace cryptocurrencies. #Nigeria is amongst the first country in Africa to deploy and develop a digital currency and have already developed a blueprint for achieving a cashless #economy .
