The Central Bank of Nigeria will explore the development potential of stable coins, using blockchain applications to increase the momentum of the central bank's digital currency (CBDC), and regulatory considerations related to the initial sale of coins (ICO) over the next two years.

The following is an important introduction to a policy and regulation entitled "Nigerian payment platform Corporate Vision 2025" released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The 83-page document touches on a variety of dangers of the current payment pattern, and the software for distributed ledgers is outstanding.

The document deeply analyzes the impact of CBDC on distributed books, and briefly describes 11 potential advantages of this kind of service, including cash cost control, severe crackdown on counterfeit banknotes, clear audibility, freight logistics improvement and high payment efficiency.

Nigeria's central bank feels that fiscal policy can be changed through CBDC regulation and optimization, which in turn can better manipulate the value of the currency. The World Bank also mentioned that it can better monitor and manipulate tax evasion, money laundering and other illegal activities through CBDC.

In the end, CBN boasts of improving financial diversity and socio-economic development, promoting innovation and efficiency by promoting competition among current financial enterprises' retail payment products. They say the time frame for launching CBDC solutions in Nigeria is three to five years.

As the law stipulates that digital currencies are becoming more and more popular in different countries around the world, stable currencies are also valued in Nigeria. CBN stressed the need to develop a regulatory framework for the implementation of stablecoin goods in Nigeria.

CBN holds a cautious attitude towards ICO, paying attention to the fact that due to the current "lack of supervision" of ICO, it is "not interested" to adopt them. Even so, CBN recognizes the effectiveness of ICO as an asset class and points out the potential for the use of ICO as a new way to raise funds for current accounts, personal-to-personal loans and crowdfunded projects.

The role of intelligent contract is another focus in policies and regulations. CBN mentioned that there were "tangible benefits" in combining clearing with the transfer of use rights under blockchain smart contracts, the transfer of financial fund use rights or economic and trade transactions.

Since October 2021, the host country has been implementing its CBDC-eNaira, but this project has been difficult to win the strong support of Chinese citizens. According to a report released by Bloomberg News in October 2022, eNaira accounts for only 0.5% of the country's population. In addition, Nigerians are increasingly interested in cryptocurrencies, and data from Google's search engine in 2022 shows the country's enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies.

Cointelegraph contacted Moz Sogi Solank, executive director of Revitalization Capital Financial institutions, and Internet Finance to expose Nigeria's enthusiasm for cryptocurrency trading, and the government's public eNaira was not reported.

Solanke has the same experience, stressing that Nigerians do not show much interest in eNaira, although local financial institutions promote it to his customers.

"so far, eNaira has not been used on a large scale among Chinese customers or stores."

Solanke says the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies is driven by their cross-border e-commerce performance and the speculative selection of capital gains they offer. According to Solanke, measuring whether eNaira will become increasingly ubiquitous in Nigeria is a more complex consideration.

First, more customers will download and support wallets for free. ENaira Wallet needs to be given several high-end test cases to attract customers, stores and other participants in the financial system. The seller must have a payment solution that is transmitted to the eNaira and then powered by contactless machines and devices that can be loaded into wallets through smartphones, QR codes, or USSD codes.

Solank also believes that any industry must have clearer incentives to adopt eNaira. Incentives, such as zero or relatively low P2P or store transaction fees and more than immediate financial services, may drive adoption.

Solanke said that fully considering that improving the use of Sablecoins may weaken the legal effect of monetary policy, Sablecoins is another topic of complicated discussion. This is one of the reasons why CBDC will be a key theme in the evolution of economic development in the middle and later stages, and one of the reasons why central banks are likely to look for regulatory clarity for stable companies.

Fully considering that ICO is likely to be called securities or a new asset class, the potential adoption and regulation of ICO will require CBN and the Nigerian Stock Exchange Federation to work together.

The Central Bank of Nigeria adopted a strict position on the cryptocurrency field in 2021, effectively prohibiting local financial institutions from providing assistance to cryptocurrency trading centres. About 18 months later, the local news media reported rumors of a reversal of the current policy in a way that might change current laws and regulations, which would recognize cryptocurrencies as investment assets.