So let me get this straight. Nigeria is introducing a CBDC and ditching physical currency altogether? Are they the first country to do this? I don't really follow crypto news or global news for that matter, so I have no idea if anyone has actually done this yet.
Some are close, but without the actual ban on banknotes.
Sweden is near this point but it wasn't really a government decision that made it happen, more like people simply not wanting to carry cash anymore, this is to the point where some small businesses simply refuse clients with cash because it's too much of a headache for them.
But again, this is Sweden, not Nigeria, and more importantly, it was a choice made through decades by their own population, not something thought overnight by a select few.
What about things like bank and debit cards? Are those going to be replaced by this CBDC? I'm not sure if that question sounds simpleminded or not, but I never considered how implementation of a CBDC would play out. Now that I think about it, a country's currency would have to be either their new digital currency or their old one, physical or not. They couldn't really exist side-to-side, could they?
Not necessarily.
It's not like they are two different currencies, there are just two faces of the same coin, there is one naira that is in paper and bank accounts and one e-naira that is some other wallets. Technically they could go like that forever, it's not really that different from having some $ on Paypal, they can be exchanged for $ in your bank account or for $ banknotes, same for the e-naira (in theory!).
I do not believe in CBN about this, they just want to cause panic to make people to use eNaira because many people will suffer this and stoping printing of money is beyond the power of CBN just like bitcoin total ban is beyond their power which is what they would have wanted.
Why do you say stopping the printing is beyond their power? They just shut down the presses and that's it no more banknotes.
And every government has just to wait till every banknote gets reclaimed from the population, it will simply gather them all one by one as you have to pay taxes, you will use those notes, you pay for gas for food, those businesses will be forced to deposit that cash every day at their bank, sooner or later there won't be any cash left or it will be too little that nobody will bother accepting it.
But!, that would work in a country where you can get 99% of the population to use a smartphone or a credit/debit card, not in Nigeria and not this decade.