Last week, two big things happened in the Central Bank Digital Currency (“CBDC”) arena. Another G-7 economy, the UK, took a big step toward adopting a CBDC. At the same time, the first largish economy to have launched a CBDC, Nigeria, descends further into financial chaos.
One of the world’s oldest central banks, the Bank of England (“BoE”), and the British government jointly confirmed that a digital pound would probably be necessary at some point in the none-too-distant future. While they were saying that, lengthy queues were forming at ATMs across Nigeria, the first largish economy to launch a CBDC, as most Nigerians struggle to access physical money following the government’s disastrous demonetisation campaign.