Nigeria is set to launch digital currency after El Salvador, a Central American country. The country’s central bank is set to launch a virtual currency system later this year to bring in foreign remittances from expatriates and smooth the international purchasing system.
Rakia Mohammed, the country’s central bank’s director of information technology, told Reuters they had been working on the digital currency project for two years. An official announcement is likely in the coming weeks.
He noted that about 80 per cent of the world’s central banks were exploring the possibility of issuing digital currency, adding that Nigeria could not be left behind.
Earlier, in February, Nigeria banned banks and financial institutions from conducting cryptocurrency transactions. The directive comes in the wake of an unusual increase in monthly cryptocurrency transactions with Africa abroad.
