Muhammadu Buhari has come out to say that the Central Bank Digital Currency, eNaira can boost Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product by $29 billion over the next 10 years.

He recently revealed this in Abuja during the official launch of the eNaira, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, the currency will definitely help transfer a lot more people and businesses from the informal into the formal sector, which will lead to increment of Nigeria’s tax base.

He added that the currency will surely boost remittances, aid cross border trade, enhance financial inclusion, make Monetary Policy more effective, and help the government to send direct payments to citizens eligible for specific welfare programmes.

His words, “In recent times, Your Excellencies, the use of physical cash in conducting business and making payments has been on the decline. This trend has been exacerbated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resurgence of a new Digital Economy.”

“Alongside these developments, businesses, households, and other economic agents have sought for new means of making payments in the new circumstances.”

“The absence of a swift and effective solution to these requirements, as well as fears that Central Banks’ actions sometimes lead to hyperinflation, created the space for non-government entities to establish new forms of ‘private currencies’ that seemed to have gained popularity and acceptance across the world, including here in Nigeria.”

“While the journey to create a digital currency for Nigeria began sometime in 2017, work intensified over the past several months with several brainstorming exercises, deployment of technical partners and advisers, collaboration with the Ministries of Communication and Digital Economy and its sister agencies like the Nigerian Communications Commission, integration of banking software across the country and painstaking tests to ensure the robustness, safety and scalability of the CBDC System.”

“Aside from the global trend to create Digital Currencies, we believe that there are Nigeria-specific benefits that cut across different sectors of and concerns of the economy. The use of CBDCs can help move many more people and businesses from the informal into the formal sector, thereby increasing the tax base of the country.”

“Alongside digital innovations, CBDCs can foster economic growth through better economic activities. Indeed, some estimates indicate that the adoption of CBDC and its underlying technology, called blockchain, can increase Nigeria’s GDP by US$29 billion over the next 10 years.”

“It is on these bases that I am delighted to officially launch the Central Bank of Nigeria Digital Currency, called the eNaira, and in so doing, we have become the first country in Africa, and one of the first in the world to introduce a Digital Currency to her citizens.”