• Unease over how digital currency will affect financial intermediation • Nigeria joins Bahamas, Sweden, Cambodia, South Korea as pioneers of CBDC • ‘It’s elitist but will enhance the efficiency of payment system’ • We are ready for rollout, CBN insists Nigeria makes history today as it becomes the first African country to digitise its currency, an exercise the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has described as “one of the milestones of a long journey.” But the eNaira take-off is causing unease in the banking sector even as the concept note has admitted the project could unsettle banks as it comes with disintermediation risk. Amid the anxiety, some experts have warned that eNaira is just one of the disruptive technologies banks will need to accept and adapt to; to avoid being overrun. The launch will put Nigeria on the global Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) tracking map as the fifth country to launch a centralised national electronic money after the Bahamas first unveiled its version in 2017. Nigeria’s unveiling was earlier scheduled for October 1, 2021, but the apex bank said it was postponed owing to other national activities to mark the country’s 61st Independence anniversary. President Muhammadu Buhari will do the unveiling at the State House, Abuja. The project kicks off as the global community embraces the race for CBDC creation. Today, about 10 central banks are in the pilot stage of their CBDCs, while six have executed proof of concept. Some countries, including China, are positioning their digital currency project as the lead strategy for internationalising their currencies. Central banks around the world, most notably in China, the United States and the United Kingdom, are actively considering whether to adopt or create their own CBDC. The geopolitical pressures are high, with China far enough along in trials that it plans to roll out this new currency for international visitors as early as the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Other countries, keen to embrace the “tech revolution,” are vying to be early adopters of CBDCs. South Korea, Sweden, Cambodia, the Bahamas and Hong Kong are among various countries with pilot programs. South Africa also recently announced a trial of CBDCs for cross-border payments, just as Ghanaian central bank is seeking to make its digital currency, the e-cedi, available to offline users soon. On the readiness of the underlying infrastructure for the rollout, Director of Corporate Communications at CBN, Osita Nwanisobi, told The Guardian, yesterday, that the apex bank was fully ready. The Guardian perceived a little tension in the financial system on how the implementation would affect commercial banks in dealing with their role of intermediation. CBDCs, like other electronic money, including privately issued stable coins and cryptocurrencies, leverage blockchain technology to facilitate peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions and remove intermediaries. A source, who has monitored the unease among top bankers, admitted that it was too early to conclude that eNaira would reduce the volume of bank transactions, but disclosed that “bank executives are extremely worried that a widespread adoption of eNaira could reduce the volume of businesses executed by banks and transaction revenues.” A professor of economics and international finance expert, Ken Ife, said banks, like other industries, have no control over the evolution and impacts of blockchain. He said bankers would either smartly retool their operations to leverage the new technology or be left behind in the process. “Technology is the definition of all means of production and exchange; there is no limit. Blockchain technology has come to stay. It is about what you can do with it. It will affect the banking sector like every other sector. It will render the traditional model of banking that comes with high costs useless. The banks will either embrace it in a constructive way or they will be overtaken by the revolution,” Ife stressed. Also, Vice President of Highcap Securities Limited, David Adonri, said the fear expressed by bankers “is real as much of the revenues are truncation-based.” He wondered how the banks could play in the ecosystem, which is expected to be peer-to-peer (P2P)-driven. But in the design note, CBN said the eNaira “complements existing banking products and services and will not destabilise existing system”. Users are also expected to be linked with a commercial bank for complaint with Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AMT/CFT) guidelines even as Nigeria’s CBDC leans towards the account model. “The eNaira payment system will be compliant with AML/CFT guidelines to ensure integrity of the financial system. To achieve this, CBN has adopted an account-based CBDC. Through this option, CBN will be able to identify users on the platform using the identified frameworks: Bank Verification Number (BVN) and National Identity Number (NIN). “However, considering that the CBN is adopting a platform to market model, it means it would rely on financial institutions and other payment service providers to deliver layered value-added services on the eNaira platform. The CBN as such alluded to the fact that the role of AML/CFT checks will be handled by financial institutions, who have proximity and provide value-added services to customers. “To facilitate this process, customers will have the option to choose their preferred banking partner during the onboarding process and customers will be linked to that bank. The linked banks will as such be responsible for performing AML/CFT checks on the users and ensuring overall compliance,” the apex bank said in the concept note. There is, however, no sufficient information in the document to show how banks will make revenues from their role in the implementation of the digital naira. The eNaira, as it is conceived, is an alternative payment system and store of value for households and businesses to hold and use. To establish the ecosystem, users will need to convert some of their existing bank deposits into eNaira to hold in their wallets. The CBN admitted in the project design that conversion of bank deposits to eNaira could affect the banks in the form of reduction in deposit liabilities and availability of funds for bank