eNaira Safe, Can’t Be Hacked By Fraudsters– PWC Economist

Andrew Nevin, Partner and Chief Economist, PricewaterhouseCoopers have said that Nigerians who trust crypto-currencies that have no conventional market fundamentals should not worry about the security of the eNaira issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He also said people like ‘Ramon Olorunwa Abbas’ popularly called ‘Hushpuppi’ can not hack ààthe eNaira.

President Muhammadu Buhari had at the launch on Monday said the Central Bank Digital Currency will attract an estimated inflow of $29bn over the next ten years from the currency.

But fears of the safety of the eNaira greeted the currency at the launch.

Although the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, dismissed worries on the safety of the eNaira, Nigerians have expressed fears on different social media platforms.

Nigeria’s version of the eNaira which is controlled by the CBN is expected to give the government vast control over the movement of the currency.

The CBN has also positioned the electronic naira to receive diaspora remittances and ease the bureaucracy of the traditional banks.

In Nigeria, Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have overshadowed the future of digital money as a legal tender until a sudden stoppage of its use in official banking channels in February this year.

Nigeria ranked third place after the US and Russia in 2020, accounting for more than $400m worth of crypto transactions.

Reacting to how prone the blockchain is to fraudsters like Hushpuppi as asked by Arise Tv presenter, Reuben Abati, the PWC chief economist said, the technology on which the eNaira is built is solid and safe.

Nevin said, “If your details are compromised you have a problem.

“The system is very secure. But I think the thing that is really interesting here is that Nigerians are leaders in using crypto assets and crypto- currencies which of course you are not sure of what the value is. What has happened particularly among young Nigerians is that they understand how this sort of technology works.

“I think Nigerians are going to find out that they will find it very easy to use the eNaira. It is the same technology like the crypto asset but not some dubious asset we are not sure of the value, but is for the legal tender, for the naira.”

He said the underline technologies are very solid and theft risk free.

“You can go online right now and you can look at every transaction that has ever been done in bitcoin, back to the beginning.

“Literarily, hundreds of thousands of crypto assets use the same underlying technology, no one has ever cracked Bitcoins. No one has ever cracked Ethereum. So from the key point, I think it is very solid,” he added.