Nigeria launches digital currency eNaira

Nigeria on Monday (October 25) became the first African nation to launch a digital currency - the eNaira.

It says the move will expand access to banking and help grow the economy by billions of dollars.

Africa's biggest economy joins the Bahamas, which was the first to launch a general purpose central bank digital currency.

But experts say questions remain about eNaira.

Particularly over the consistency of the Central Bank's rules.

The bank says 33 lenders, 2,000 customers and 120 merchants had already registered with the platform, which is available via an app on Apple and Android.

And President Muhammadu Buhari said use of the currency could grow the economy by $29 billion over ten years.

Nigeria's young, tech-savvy population have eagerly adopted digital currencies.

But official digital currencies, unlike cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, are backed and controlled by the central bank.

Some say the central bank has not yet made clear whether users could transfer eNaira back into traditional naira.

Or whether they could use cryptocurrency to buy or sell the eNaira.