Tanzania plans to develop and launch its CBDC

The wave of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) all around the world, especially around Africa, resulted in another country joining the list of CBDC development. The Bank of Tanzania is reportedly gearing up to introduce CBDC.

According to a Bloomberg report published on Friday, Florens Luoga, the governor of the Bank of Tanzania, stated on Thursday that the country intends to follow Nigeria in implementing its own CBDC. Luoga stated that Tanzania’s central bank had “already initiated development” for a digital shilling, the country’s currency, since 1966.

While JPMorgan recently said that CBDCs could help in saving transaction costs worth $100 billion, Edward Snowden believes that CBDCs are the “evil twin” of cryptocurrencies.

Tanzania is also aiming to boost research in digital currencies and improve the central bank officials’ capacity as it prepares to create a CBDC, according to the governor. 

Many countries are looking at China, which is in the final stage of launching its digital yuan. In a report by TheCoinRise, it is mentioned that China is not winning the race of CBDCs. Last month, Nigerian CBDC went live. Ghana is also considering offline functionality for its awaited CBDC, which is still in the development phase.

Tanzania changes its views

After the November 2019 directive from the central bank of the country, Digital currencies are strictly banned in Tanzania. The bank said that the cryptocurrencies were not recognized by local law. However, now the Bank of Tanzania is reportedly trying to overturn its ban. As TheCoinRise reported, Zanzibar, the United Republic of Tanzania’s semi-autonomous territory, is also looking for Bitcoin adoption under a structured set of regulations.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan also hinted in June that Tanzania should be preparing for the crypto.

As per Luoga, the central bank of the country is inspired by Nigeria’s CBDC launch, eNaira, which is the second country to launch CBDC fully available to the public after the Bahamas, which launched its CBDC in October last year.