Nigeria’s central bank on hunt for new tech partners in bid to fix ‘broken’ CBDC

Nigeria wants to fix its central bank digital currency (CBDC) after a rocky launch. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has opened talks with United States-based tech firm R3 to improve the existing systems around the eNaira.

The CBN is planning to create new software for the eNaira that will give it full control over the entire scheme. Insiders claim that the talks with R3 are reaching intermediate stages, and an official agreement could be made public in the coming weeks.

Nigeria’s eNaira was developed by Bitt Inc in 2021, with the firm still playing a key role in the day-to-day management of the CBDC. Bitt disclosed to Bloomberg in a written statement that the terms of the agreement allow the CBN to seek new tech partners for the CBDC project.