An expert in the Africa department of the International Monetary Fund has expressed optimism for the future success of Nigeria's e-Naira, Africa's first central bank digital currency and the world's second.
Despite its underwhelming performance since its launch in October 2021, Jack Ree, a senior economist in the Africa department of the IMF, who conducted a study on the eNaira last year, suggested in an IMF podcast that with some adjustments to its current model, the digital currency could become popular.
However, since its introduction 21 months ago, the e-Naira has struggled to gain traction, with less than one million downloads indicating that Nigeria's vast population has not yet fully embraced it, as this number is less than one per cent (-1%) of the total bank accounts in the banking system.