Exploring The Enaira With Bitt Inc.’s CEO
The CEO of Bitt Inc., which helped build Africa’s first CBDC, gives us a closer look at the eNaira.
Bitt Inc. is a Barbados-based FinTech company that champions central bank digital currency (CBDC) and stablecoin adoption around the globe.
The company has significant experience contributing to CBDC initiatives, having previously worked on projects such as DCash, the fiat digital currency issued by The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank for use in the the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union. This CBDC, which is currently legal tender, serves as a digital form of the Eastern Caribbean dollar.
The latest major project Bitt contributed to involved the eNaira, the first-ever African digital currency, which was recently rolled out for use in Nigeria, the continent’s largest economy.
While the CBDC, which was released late last month, has suffered some technical difficulties, it has benefited from significant user interest, according to statements made by Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Godwin Emefiele.
Recently, we spoke with Bitt Inc. CEO Brian Popelka to learn more about how his company contributed to the development and implementation of the eNaira.
Wonder Godzo: What can you tell me about the eNaira selection process?
Brian Popelka: As a global leader in the CBDC space, Bitt has developed relationships with many central banks over the years. Since 2019, Bitt has been discussing the benefits and trends of CBDCs with the CBN and has delivered workshops on the topic in Nigeria.
After diligent research, the CBN decided to move forward with a CBDC initiative. They then reached out to the top 15 CBDC technology providers in the industry and engaged us to understand our offerings and experience.
Bitt underwent a thorough procurement process involving multiple stages of presentations, solution walk-throughs, the provision of a demo system, a detailed technical evaluation, and thorough vetting of company personnel. The factors considered in the evaluation included: technological competence, efficiency, platform security, interoperability, and implementation experience. Bitt scored high in all of these areas.
- Technological competence
- Bitt’s technology team includes over 30 engineers with wide-ranging experience designing, developing, deploying, operating, and maintaining high-capacity software platforms.
- Efficiency
- Bitt’s experience and market-proven product allow it to quickly configure and deploy the infrastructure and set of applications required to launch a CBDC, reducing deployment costs and time-to-market.
- Scalability and platform security
- Bitt’s Digital Currency Management System DCMS is engineered with modern software techniques to provide a secure, scalable, performant and highly available system. Security is designed-in, to use secure defaults, minimize attack surfaces and provide defense-in-depth. Independent modules allow each component to scale independently of others, allowing automatic adjustment to meet variable demands. Built-in redundancy, load balancing, and health checks allow the system to automatically restore failed components, providing a highly available system. Careful attention to information management and storage protects consumer privacy while allowing regulatory bodies access to needed transaction data.
- Interoperability and implementation experience
- Bitt’s DCMS is interoperable with institutional-grade transaction networks such as Hyperledger, Corda, Quorum, and others. Bitt works with the client to determine the best transaction network for their use cases. In addition, the DCMS is interoperable with existing financial system infrastructure including core banking systems, payments service providers, and more.
Wonder Godzo: Can you outline what was involved in developing and deploying the eNaira?
Brian Popelka: The CBN wanted the eNaira’s usability to be on par with advanced payment applications already in Nigeria. Value was to be the differentiator. Bitt worked directly with CBN to determine the ideal technology solutions to meet the functional, ethical, and monetary policy requirements for Nigeria’s use cases, scope, and other factors.
1. CBN went through our product’s functionality, hosted in a sandbox environment, identified the key requirements that would be required for the initial launch, and started building a list of items to include in a roadmap.
2. [We] Defined the main configurable aspects of the solution, such as branding, wallet tiers, transaction alerting, onboarding flows for consumers and merchants.
3. We implemented and configured the solution in CBN’s hosting environment.
4. We worked with stakeholders, such as banks and the national payment system, to integrate the solution.
5. [We] Supported the CBN and stakeholders to mint their first eNaira, set up banks, and merchants.
6. We conducted extensive testing, including a closed pilot with real users and stakeholders, prior to the launch event.
Wonder Godzo: According to the CBN, the eNaira’s original launch date of Oct. 1 was pushed back due to Independence Day celebrations. Can you shed some light on what caused the eNaira’s launch to take place weeks later?
Brian Popelka: As stated by the CBN, the eNaira’s original launch date of Oct 1 was pushed back due to a clash with their Independence Day celebrations.
In addition, CBN received a huge response and interest to the initial announcement of the eNaira project. Subsequently, CBN decided to dedicate additional time to ensure the solution was ready for general availability. During this period, users were invited to a closed pilot, to interact with real eNaira, funded from their bank accounts.
Wonder Godzo: How will Bitt be involved with the eNaira now that the CBDC has been rolled out?
Brian Popelka: Bitt is the CBN’s technology partner on the eNaira deployment journey. Bitt will focus on expanding the eNaira’s utility for all Nigerians. After the launch of the eNaira, we will continue to work with CBN to provide additional features to the market.
Wonder Godzo: Can you provide any figures on how many people (and organizations) have downloaded the mobile app for the eNaira?
Brian Popelka: Unfortunately, we are unable to release this information. Please refer to the CBN to obtain.
Wonder Godzo: What can you tell us about the potential roadmap for Bitt and the eNaira going forward? In other words, how do you think Bitt will be involved with the CBDC?
Brian Popelka: As the governor mentioned, eNaira is not a single event, but rather a journey. We look forward to expanding the eNaira’s features and use cases.
Bitt’s role as official technology partner will be integral [to the] eNaira roadmap:
- Unbanked customer onboarding and transactions via USSD
- Merchant onboarding and transactions
- Onboarding of IMTOs for remittance
- Onboarding of e-commerce merchants
- Wholesale Funds transfer through the RTGS
- Multi-lingual support for mobile & USSD
- Onboarding of wallet developers
- SMS support
- Onboarding of Trade and Exchange platforms
- Onboarding of MDAs
- Regional and time-limited tokens
- Custom smart contracts
- Offline eNaira payments solution
- Cross border payments and interoperability with other CBDCs
- Multiple Signatory Wallets
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This content is for educational purposes only. It does not constitute trading advice. Past performance does not indicate future results. Do not invest more than you can afford to lose. The author of this article may hold assets mentioned in the piece.
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