The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, sets to debut its digital currency dubbed “Eco” to bolster economic standards of income and expenditure. The digital currency will serve as a unified currency within West African states that strengthens the economic activities without any barrier.
The Central Bank Digital Currency, CBDC, administered by CBN is responsible for distributing eNaira fiscally to millions of Africans. Unlike Eco, the second digital currency in Africa that restricts the fiscal distribution of eNaira to other African countries as a single currency. Although there is a bias economic barrier attached to trading with eNaira which explains Eco’s introduction into the western community.
Nigeria expected other African countries to adopt the eNaira since it’s the first to hit the limelight — eNaira will stream outpouring value if general adoption is possible. Recall West Africa is dominated by French-speaking countries that adopt CFA francs as its single currency within eight West African countries in a fraction of fifteen countries in the west.
However, Eco was scheduled to debut during the pandemic but the economic crisis delayed its introduction that is expected to resolve several financial challenges within Africa’s banking sector. eNaira could have encountered a similar challenge that was maneuvered by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN after consenting international interests.
eNaira debut alongside Nigeria’s independence celebrations and accounted for N62.8m completed ten-thousands of transactions via both consumer and merchants digital wallets. Remember the Nigerian digital money also faced a slight hiccup when it debuted — eNaira came out live after twenty-five days after it launched.
The Nigerian digital currency exhibit encouraging revenue growth with more than 114,900 active wallets currently trading with eNaira. Techbooky suggests introducing another currency poses a threat to eNaira’s development.
“eNaira provides an alternative for Africa’s single currency since it permits cross border payment.”
It is a no-brainer that every other country will like to be at the frontline where their domestic currency is used as a single currency within the continent which depicts Eco’s introduction. Several resources, energy, and time has been dedicated to eNaira’s growth. The ECOWAS single money initiative is expected to unify Africa regardless of autonomous contributed resources.
