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Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has announced plans by the CBN to own a majority stake in Bitt Inc. after its registration in Nigeria confirming earlier reports on the matter.
Bitt Inc., is the technical partner to the Nigeria’s apex monetary authority on digital currency, eNaira project scheduled for launch October 1.
Emefiele while speaking at the end of the CBN monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting on Friday in Abuja denied having a stake in the Barbados-based fintech company.
Bitt Inc.,not my company
His words: “Bitt Inc would establish a company in Nigeria and the CBN would own a majority stake in the company. So it is not my company as people have said.”
On 30 August 2021 the CBN announced the appointment of Bitt Inc as technical partner for the eNaira Project. Based in Barbados, Bitt Inc was founded in 2013 as a provider of Blockchain based payments platform.
Emefiele said the selection of Bitt Inc,. by the CBN was “rigorous.” Bitt came first in the vendor selection process with an average score of of 82.3% well above above the other five bidders.
Rigorous vendor selection process
“The CBN went through a rigorous vendor selection process in line with the Public Procurement Act conducted by seven departmental directors and a deputy governor. Ten companies were evaluated based on the following criteria: technology ownership and control; implementation timeline; efficiency and ease of adoption; support for anti-money laundering and combatting of terrorism; platform security; interoperability; and implementation experience,” said Emefiele.
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The CBN has been accused of shunning the over 30 indigenous Fintech companies that would have further promoted local capacity to develop the eNaira in a manner that incubates and enhances Nigeria’s national income
But the bank’s chief in defense stated that: “Bitt Inc is the first company to digitize a Central Bank digital currency on a blockchain.”
