enaira-charting-the-course-for-financial-inclusion-on-its-one-year-anniversary

eNaira Charting the Course for Financial Inclusion on its One-Year Anniversary

 

Bitt joins the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in celebrating the one-year anniversary of the eNaira. Since its launch on 25 October 2021, citizens and residents of Nigeria were the first on the continent of Africa to be able to use a legal tender digital currency for their daily financial transactions.

Bitt and the CBN continue to work diligently to roll-out eNaira updates in adherence with the CBN’s published roadmap. The implementation plan identifies three phases. The project roll-out is currently in phase two. In addition to onboarding banked customers and merchants, and integrating and optimizing core banking systems to facilitate transactions throughout the existing eNaira ecosystem, other major achievements include:

  • Unbanked customer onboarding and transactions via USSD
  • Integrations with the National Payment Service for QR functionality and wholesale funds transfer (RTGS)
  • Onboarding of IMTOs and integration of DCMS to exchange Naira
  • Multi-lingual support for mobile applications and USSD
  • SMS Integration with CBN’s SMS gateway service
  • Security hardening

The next phases will include:

  • Onboarding of Nigerian Trade and Exchange platform
  • Sector-specific tokens for grants and subsidies
  • Programmable payments for eNaira payment scenarios

Brian Popelka, CEO, Bitt states “This year has been full of firsts for Africa. Being the first provides the opportunity to become the first to find solutions and to chart the course for others to follow. Today’s one-year milestone is an exceptional achievement for both the Central Bank of Nigeria and Bitt teams. We look forward to continued partnership on this CBDC deployment journey and to provide additional features to expand eNaira’s value to all Nigerians and everyone, everywhere.”

Bitt has ensured that Nigerians play a pivotal role in this project by expanding its global team to include Nigerian engineers, product managers and executives.  Imran Khan, EVP, Partnerships, states, “Utilizing local talent cements our commitment to Nigeria and to the entire African continent as we endeavor to lower infrastructure cost and improve the access and user-experience of receiving and sending money, thereby promoting financial inclusion throughout Africa.”

bitt-develops-africa’s-first-cbdc

Bitt Develops Africa’s First CBDC

 

eNaira, the Bitt-developed central bank digital currency (CBDC), has officially rolled out in Nigeria. Citizens and residents of Nigeria are now the first on the continent of Africa to use a legal tender digital currency for their daily financial transactions.

Bitt is very excited to be entering the African CBDC market as the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Technology Partner. Bitt’s market-proven Digital Currency Management System (DCMS) is currently licensed by national financial institutions in six countries across Central America and the CaribbeanNigeria is a sophisticated economy which operates on a modern infrastructure. Bitt’s DCMS fulfilled CBN’s criteria for technological competence, efficiency, platform security, interoperability, and implementation experience.

CEO of Bitt, Brian Popelka, “We are elated to have developed, tested and deployed the eNaira monetary infrastructure in record time. Today’s launch is an exceptional achievement for both the CBN and Bitt teams. We look forward to continued partnership on this CBDC deployment journey and to provide additional features to expand eNaira’s value to all Nigerians.”

Bitt is driven by the empowerment of people through providing accessible, low-cost, and real-time payments; and supporting the digitization of economies. Bitt’s DCMS could lower infrastructure cost and improve the access and user experience of receiving and sending money, thereby promoting financial inclusion throughout Nigeria. Furthermore, the eNaira has been designed to promote local innovation, leveraging Nigeria’s world-class FinTech talent.

Bitt’s DCMS is a production-ready digital currency infrastructure that enables central banks and financial institutions to efficiently deploy their own digital currency. Bitt’s DCMS plugs into the underlying transaction network of choice, such as Hyperledger Fabric (used in the implementations of DCash in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union and the eNaira in Nigeria), and Stellar (to be presented at the 2021 Singapore Fintech Festival).