CBN to stop circulation of Naira note

[Gozie51]

Naira notes will be out of circulation soon, says CBN official

IMO I think this is double standard for Nigerian government. What is the major difference between bitcoin and CBDC if not that governments in the world that preach hate for bitcoin only want to have control and monitor the people's transaction through their regulation.

If the Nigerian government push people into e-naira while they are stopping "bitcoin trading" and banks connected accounts, they are invariably speaking with both sides of the mouth

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[Cookdata]

Hey man, look, It is a bull$h*t move! You and I know they wouldn't do anything about paper money.
At first, I thought they were going to withdraw some Naira denominations from circulation because inflation has rendered 5 and 10 Naira note useless in the market, but it was their branded Enaira that they are forcing on people, I have never for onetime tried to download the app on my mobile.
Less than a year before the next election, watch how they will discard all of the things that current administrations have done, it is the Nigerian government's custom to abandon everything whenever there is a change in government.

[Darker45]

I highly doubt Nigeria has what it takes to go fully digital. The World Bank has it that 4 out of 10 Nigerians are living below the national poverty line. With this data, it would be next to impossible for the country to completely eradicate Naira notes and shift to the use of its digital currency. At best, this is nothing but a goal, a long-term one at that. But, for now, and for the next several decades, Nigeria has no choice but to act according to the real status of their country.

[ololajulo]

Hey man, look, It is a bull$h*t move! You and I know they wouldn't do anything about paper money.
At first, I thought they were going to withdraw some Naira denominations from circulation because inflation has rendered 5 and 10 Naira note useless in the market, but it was their branded Enaira that they are forcing on people, I have never for onetime tried to download the app on my mobile.
Less than a year before the next election, watch how they will discard all of the things that current administrations have done, it is the Nigerian government's custom to abandon everything whenever there is a change in government.

The Government dont know as much as they should on cryptocurrency neither do they have any idea on the macro economy. Such action when election is approaching is suspicious and I think it is to launder fund in the country. Lets consider the reach on internet in Nigeria and how savvy the population is. Nigeria is not in a state to accept electronic currency with the height of corruption, I dont welcome it at all. The next phase of crytocurrency is for technology at large to adopt crycurrency, this direction like every other country is what i want from them before the government make any move.

[dbc23]

Making use of E-naira in Nigeria  is not a good  idea. I don't really know why we need a digital currency In the first place, how about those that can't operate smarts phones and those that does not have assess to it.Statically,  most Nigerians can't afford a smart phones and many still leave below android version 7. I think there's a bigger plan behind this.

[Charles-Tim]

I also read something similar recently, the second quote pointing to the same issue:

CBN urges Delta traders to embrace e-Naira

Let me quote these:

The Delta State Branch Controller of CBN, Mr Godwin Okafor, stated this on Friday at the popular Ogbogonogo market during the market sensitisation on e-Naira, urged market men and women to key into CBN policy.

He said, “We are here at the market today to sensitise the market people to the use of e-Naira. It is fully backed by CBN unlike the Bitcoin that has no legal backing.”

See Delta State Branch Controller of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with lies again in order for people to use their inflationary fiat. I hope Nigerians won't be foolish to the extent they will believe these leaders with misleading information.

“Paper currency will soon be out of circulation because CBN spent money to print money and people abuse the currency in the market, spraying at occasion, payment of okada/tricycle and others and CBN is losing.”

I think CBN officials are out of their mind. They have already reduced Naira circulation already, people are complaining about this in the country, now they do not want to print Naira again, they want to make life difficult for people. This will not go as planned by CBN if truly they are working on it, or probably Godwin Okafo is just out of his mind.

[Lucius]

If the Nigerian government push people into e-naira while they are stopping "bitcoin trading" and banks connected accounts, they are invariably speaking with both sides of the mouth

Such actions speak for themselves, it is unlikely that such things happen by accident. The goal is to impose as much financial control as possible, and on the other hand to make it harder for people to trade Bitcoin. Every government is afraid of losing control of the people, and they are doing so with the help of money that is completely under their control - and to be at least somewhat independent of that system means that you are not dependent on the government and politicians.

Most politicians consider themselves irreplaceable and have a very big opinion of themselves - you just need to listen to what they say at their political rallies. A financially independent person is a danger to them because he simply does not care about their rallies, ideas, or parliamentary/presidential elections.

I think CBN officials are out of their mind.

I am not versed in who is actually pulling the strings in Nigeria (by which I mean international influence), but local politics is not always a product created in the minds of local politicians but is very often the result of external influence. Maybe someone just wants to prevent any possibility of Nigeria approaching any decentralization at all - it is much easier to do business with corrupt politicians than with honest ones.

[Fortify]

Naira notes will be out of circulation soon, says CBN official

IMO I think this is double standard for Nigerian government. What is the major difference between bitcoin and CBDC if not that governments in the world that preach hate for bitcoin only want to have control and monitor the people's transaction through their regulation.

If the Nigerian government push people into e-naira while they are stopping "bitcoin trading" and banks connected accounts, they are invariably speaking with both sides of the mouth

It's hard to make sense of what is happening with this article, it mentions the e-Naira but doesn't seem to describe how it'll work. To me it looks more like a payment network that is more akin to the Visa/Mastercard networks rather than anything relying on blockchain technology. It sounds like a rather rushed and disorganized plan to force it upon everyone, or is it just a certain group of people like taxi workers who will be required to use it? I feel bad for anyone who struggles with accessing technology, even if Nigeria does have a fairly low age demographic. It's good they're trying to pioneer new tech, but it seems to be poorly executed or maybe the article is just missing a lot of relevant information.

[Asiska02]

What advantage will it bring if the circulation of naira note is done. I don’t see a reason to stop the circulation of Naira note when the government is against cryptocurrency trading in the country. There is a different motive to this and they’re not been truthful of their through intent to the public. Stopping this circulation of Naira note and urging people to embrace E-Naira will only cause more difficulty to the masses especially the larger population that don’t know the basics of using and transferring funds through a smartphone.

[Desmong]

This is unbelievable cause I don't think Nigeria has what it takes to have a digital currency and what value it's gonna be pegged on. The Nigeria naira is already falling every single day and I think the government urge to jump into digital currency to escape the humogeous falls of nature. Maybe we should be expecting Nigeria adopting Bitcoin has one of the official currency. This going to be interesting for her to join to those countries that had officially adopt Bitcoin.

[STT]

Modern paper currency is only IOU written down in fancy writing anyway, there is no promise or contract to pay any value in exchange.  Arent most currencies digital anyway, the vast majority of the value circulated is from balance sheet to balance sheet and never printed.    I cant see it will make any real difference long term, normally they withdraw a particular note for forgery/security updates or just simply the notes wear out perhaps but since most paper is only token value and the central bank does as it wishes without any control or balance does it alter much for the common person.

[Smartvirus]

"Naira notes going out of circulation", am I getting this right or am not just following up on the point that was the intent here. They tend to talk about abuse, when the president ticket costs as much as $167,657, the equivalent of BTC5.7 with current market price in the ruling party and there you have them in few weeks politicians rushing to pick forms and make there declarations. In a nation where the students are left at home to roam the street due to the on going strike of the governing body of universities ASUU for over 4months already and counting. This is hardly the problem of Nigeria at the moment.

How do they expect those in the rural area to be familiar and make use of the e-Naira when they haven't been familiar with the basic devices for this not to think of owning one. It's unheard of what is going on and about happening in Nigeria. The fiat currency is hardly the problem of this country but, the status people whole have stolen away our democracy to operate an autocracy form of government where an out going leader gets to instole a predecessor using the same voting procedure for a shill.

Where a president can act as a minister while occupying the highest office in the country. They award contacts for themselves and live it partly finished with a budget that accommodated surplus. There is no abuse on the currency and the CBN shouldn't complain on what they spend on printing notes. Rather they should beacon on agencies responsible to put corruption in check to carry out there duties judiciously while ensuring that capital intensive projects are duly completed. This would aid the economy more than they looking for a way to reserve more money to be siphoned by some dirty public office holder.

[KingsDen]

I highly doubt Nigeria has what it takes to go fully digital. The World Bank has it that 4 out of 10 Nigerians are living below the national poverty line. With this data, it would be next to impossible for the country to completely eradicate Naira notes and shift to the use of its digital currency. At best, this is nothing but a goal, a long-term one at that. But, for now, and for the next several decades, Nigeria has no choice but to act according to the real status of their country.

Very nice comment from you Darker45. Everything that is achievable is in the data. The data you have today will determine what your tomorrow will be. Nigeria has no capacity to implement an all e-naira currency. It is laughable to me or it shows how the government threatens its citizens.
There are so many Nigerians who do not have access to smart phones and internet coverage, how will they cope with the situation.
I expected that a country like Nigeria will first implement e-voting before saying about e-naira.
Well, the government approves what favours her. An e-voting could prevent election rigging but e-naira will not prevent more minting of naira.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

<snip>they are invariably speaking with both sides of the mouth

Lol.  Governments are kinda known for doing that--mine, yours, and probably all across the globe and throughout time for that matter.

So let me get this straight.  Nigeria is introducing a CBDC and ditching physical currency altogether?  Are they the first country to do this?  I don't really follow crypto news or global news for that matter, so I have no idea if anyone has actually done this yet.

Charles-Tim already posted this quote, but I have no idea what it means:

“Paper currency will soon be out of circulation because CBN spent money to print money and people abuse the currency in the market, spraying at the occasion, payment of Okada/tricycle and others and CBN is losing”

What about things like bank and debit cards?  Are those going to be replaced by this CBDC?  I'm not sure if that question sounds simpleminded or not, but I never considered how implementation of a CBDC would play out.  Now that I think about it, a country's currency would have to be either their new digital currency or their old one, physical or not.  They couldn't really exist side-to-side, could they?

[Upgrade00]

The Nigerian government are most likely just blowing smoke. A purely digital economy is not feasible at this present point in time, so phasing out physical notes is not either. This is probably an attempt to draw more attention to the eNaira which has not taken off ever since it was launched.

Now that I think about it, a country's currency would have to be either their new digital currency or their old one, physical or not.  They couldn't really exist side-to-side, could they?

Yes they can; El Salvador is a popular example. They recently adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender and still use their previous fiat currency; USD, with both co existing side by side;



Here's the link which contains the full list of Nations and their currency; there are some others there which uses two currencies side by side (not including a cryptocurrency) like Lesotho, Panama and Sahrawi republic which uses four different currencies.


Edit; (off topic discussion)
I can see from the screenshot above that the commonly used ISO code for Bitcoin is BTC or XBT.
I am aware that bitcoin is normally represented by three letters as BTC, but have never come across where it's represented as XBT.

On research, I discovered that XBT is result of ISO standards; that a currency not linked to any country, should be started with an 'X', hence XBT for Bitcoin and XAU for gold.
It seems a bit confusing as there's already a cryptocurrency using that acronym. And XBT is not used in practice as it's said to be on the list.

[Charles-Tim]

So let me get this straight.  Nigeria is introducing a CBDC and ditching physical currency altogether?  Are they the first country to do this?  I don't really follow crypto news or global news for that matter, so I have no idea if anyone has actually done this yet.

This is almost exactly what the news means. Nigeria has their own CBDC called eNaira already. Delta State Branch Controller of CBN, Mr Godwin Okafor is not talking about naira that are transferred electronically but just only the paper naira, saying the money used for printing it is too much. So we can say they just want more means they will not print naira again or to reduce its printing. I think this should happen naturally than a threat from CBN in a way CBN should no more print naira again because people are not using it, but which is very unlikely in this era in Africa continent generally.

What about things like bank and debit cards?  Are those going to be replaced by this CBDC?

No, just paper naira.

What about things like bank and debit cards?  Are those going to be replaced by this CBDC?  I'm not sure if that question sounds simpleminded or not, but I never considered how implementation of a CBDC would play out.  Now that I think about it, a country's currency would have to be either their new digital currency or their old one, physical or not.  They couldn't really exist side-to-side, could they?

It has been existing side by side and even CBDC is fiat. Nigeria is the first country I have heard this from and there have been reduction in circulation of naira when eNaira was created (I guess). All that was rumoured was that CBN were reducing paper naira in circulation at the time. I do not notice much reduction again recently as I can withdraw from ATM again just like before the eNaira was created, unlike when it was created.

The funniest thing is that, Nigeria's population is estimated to be over 200 million people, while at least, 10 million or more (just guess) will be using Android phones, but people that have downloaded the eNaira speed wallet are still less than 200 thousand people for over many months now. I think CBN are looking for means to make people use the failing eNaira.

I do not believe in CBN about this, they just want to cause panic to make people to use eNaira because many people will suffer this and stoping printing of money is beyond the power of CBN just like bitcoin total ban is beyond their power which is what they would have wanted.

If I guess right, the first form of fiat is in paper, later electronic means of fiat was created as a result of internet and devices available which can make its adoption to be successful. I do not see functional difference between fiat that can be transferred electronically like through credit cards and on devices using bank app or web if compared with CBCDs. All I can just say is that CBN present head officials are completely out of their mind.

[stompix]

So let me get this straight.  Nigeria is introducing a CBDC and ditching physical currency altogether?  Are they the first country to do this?  I don't really follow crypto news or global news for that matter, so I have no idea if anyone has actually done this yet.

Some are close, but without the actual ban on banknotes.
Sweden is near this point but it wasn't really a government decision that made it happen, more like people simply not wanting to carry cash anymore, this is to the point where some small businesses simply refuse clients with cash because it's too much of a headache for them.

But again, this is Sweden, not Nigeria, and more importantly, it was a choice made through decades by their own population, not something thought overnight by a select few.

What about things like bank and debit cards?  Are those going to be replaced by this CBDC?  I'm not sure if that question sounds simpleminded or not, but I never considered how implementation of a CBDC would play out.  Now that I think about it, a country's currency would have to be either their new digital currency or their old one, physical or not.  They couldn't really exist side-to-side, could they?

Not necessarily.
It's not like they are two different currencies, there are just two faces of the same coin, there is one naira that is in paper and bank accounts and one e-naira that is some other wallets. Technically they could go like that forever, it's not really that different from having some $ on Paypal, they can be exchanged for $ in your bank account or for $  banknotes, same for the e-naira (in theory!).

I do not believe in CBN about this, they just want to cause panic to make people to use eNaira because many people will suffer this and stoping printing of money is beyond the power of CBN just like bitcoin total ban is beyond their power which is what they would have wanted.

Why do you say stopping the printing is beyond their power? They just shut down the presses and that's it no more banknotes.
And every government has just to wait till every banknote gets reclaimed from the population, it will simply gather them all one by one as you have to pay taxes, you will use those notes, you pay for gas for food, those businesses will be forced to deposit that cash every day at their bank, sooner or later there won't be any cash left or it will be too little that nobody will bother accepting it.

But!, that would work in a country where you can get 99% of the population to use a smartphone or a credit/debit card, not in Nigeria and not this decade.

[Charles-Tim]

Why do you say stopping the printing is beyond their power? They just shut down the presses and that's it no more banknotes.

That is true. But, to be specific, I mean in Nigeria. Poverty rate in Nigeria is high. Many people in Nigeria do not have money to live above the poverty line not to talk of buying non-browsing (cheap) phone, and many are illiterates.

In the state I am living in Nigeria, the villages I know very well, some people (most especially old people though) can not even use phone. Some people are poor and do not have phone or any other online device. Some people know how to use phone but prefer the simple ones because they can not browse or do anything online. And all what some people know is just paper money, they have never and they do not want to use any other than paper money which is the only one they are literate to. Many are just illiterate to anything online. Some people are not even having phone. I remember when I went to a state in the Northern part of Nigeria, it is even worse in the North.

I believe the CBN is out of its mind to say something like this, they only want to make some people use eNaira is all what they are doing because I believe they can not be so stupid to want to do what is not possible without making the poor citizens suffer. This will later lead to either the president to tell CBN to stop the nonsense, or the house of rep and senate to step in. Even if I am wrong, law suit will be filled against CBN which I know it can not win as it only wants to suffer the poor masses and deny them of using what they have right to use while illiterate to online money.

But I believe CBN will never do that but can reduce the printing of naira. What I meant by it would be beyond the power of CBN is because it is not the right time to stop printing naira, that they will fail if they want to stop that for now until the right time comes when almost everyone in the country will know how to spend naira electronically and by using eNaira.

[Ebede]

What advantage will it bring if the circulation of naira note is done. I don’t see a reason to stop the circulation of Naira note when the government is against cryptocurrency trading in the country. There is a different motive to this and they’re not been truthful of their through intent to the public. Stopping this circulation of Naira note and urging people to embrace E-Naira will only cause more difficulty to the masses especially the larger population that don’t know the basics of using and transferring funds through a smartphone.

This people rejected cryptocurrency and in 2020 and warm the central bank of Nigeria not to accept any cryptocurrency transaction and still want naira note to be made public and this is to show that telling people of naira is useless unless the rejected bitcoin for the country is return to normal and if they want to legalize cryptocurrency they should because no way cryptocurrency will be ban and some thing relating to cryptocurrency exist because it will not get support

[Majestic-milf]

Its not about going digital or introducing new methods of currency adoption. It is a question of can this be maintained? In 2009, the polymer note was introduced and the government put it into circulation and claimed it was a better way of extended the lifespan of #5, 10, 20 and 50 notes respectively, but now, these aforementioned currencies no longer have value and I ask why go through the stress of making it a polymer in the first place
 E-naira is the new Fiat and CBN is urging traders and marketers to embrace as it gives no room for fraud or counterfeit currencies.. is this really true?
 If the govt can just wake up and begin to bring these currencies into circulation, why can't crypto currency be given a chance?