Nigeria Will Soon Create A Digital Currency — CBN

As the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), continues to faces questions over its ban on cryptocurrency transactions in the country, Nigeria will soon create its digital currency, the CBN said on Tuesday, Newspremises can report.

The governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, said this while addressing journalists after a two-day meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee in Abuja.

According to him, the idea of a digital currency would soon become a reality in the country, and that the central bank has already set up its committee, which is working on the concept.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the MPC on Tuesday retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 11.5 per cent, voted to maintain the asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR, retained the Cash Reserve Ratio at 27.5 per cent, and left the Liquidity Ratio at 30 per cent.

Mr Emefiele appealed to bandits and others involved in criminal activities across Nigeria to drop their arms and embrace the apex bank’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP). He said those involved in criminality can be more productive by embracing the apex bank’s scheme.

“If you want an economy to grow, the level of insecurity must be low because if there is a high level of insecurity like what we see today, the economy will suffer,” Mr Emefiele said, adding that there is a connection between security and economic growth.

“I, therefore, would like to appeal to our brothers, who decide that they want to live in bushes and forests, that they should please, begin to retreat, drop their arms and come and embrace the anchor borrowers’ programme,” he said.

“If they do so, it will help them; if they choose not to do so, they will be confronted by the security as this battle continues.

“I am optimistic before the end of the year that the security challenges confronting the country will substantially abate.”