March 7th, 2022
E4E was recently awarded an Algorand Foundation grant award to support tech policy advocacy on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in Africa. Following the spirit of Ubuntu, E4E’s inaugural Fellowship program will be crowdsourcing intelligence from a broad range of stakeholders and enthusiasts. This grant will support E4E’s goal of publishing a Policy Report on CBDCs in Africa at the end of the Fellowship program.
The inevitability of digital currencies is a fact supported by the historical evolution of money from cowries of the stone age to today’s paper money. Obviously, the digital age needs money that embodies the characteristics of this era.
While private digital currencies like Bitcoin and Eth appear to be gaining prominence, Central Banks worldwide are considering a countermeasure through a CBDC. Apparently, the Battle of the Coins is imminent.
However, with the exception of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Bank of Ghana, and the South African Reserve Bank (the Bank), few CBDC-related activities are seen in Africa. This calls for an examination into the state of CBDC in Africa. We at E4E appreciate the support received from the Algorand Foundation, and look forward to contributing to this topical conversation with a focus on the African continent.
“We intend that the eventual Policy Report will serve as a guiding light on the CBDC path as more African countries launch, pilot or explore central bank digital currency in Africa” – Faith Obafemi, Executive Director, E4E.
About Algorand Foundation
The Algorand blockchain — designed by MIT professor and Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali – is uniquely capable of delivering on the promise of a borderless global economy. It achieves transaction throughputs at the speed of traditional finance, but with immediate finality, near-zero transaction costs, and on a 24/7 basis. Its carbon-neutral platform and unique pure proof-of-stake consensus mechanism solves the “blockchain trilemma” by achieving both security and scalability on a decentralized protocol, and without a second of downtime since it went live in 2019.
The Algorand Foundation is dedicated to helping fulfill the global promise of the Algorand blockchain by taking responsibility for its sound monetary supply economics, decentralized governance, and healthy and prosperous open-source ecosystem.
About E4E
The E4E (Emerging Technology for Emerging Markets) think-tank is a non-profit focusing on evidence-based tech policy advocacy-to-action around emerging technologies for emerging markets, that ensures emerging markets are not outmanoeuvred in the adoption of emerging technologies.