Kenyans might soon have a digital shilling after the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) invited the public to give their views on the planned rollout in May. This will be the first digital shilling to be operated by CBK, making Kenya the second African country after Nigeria.
The CBK has maintained that it is against the use of cryptocurrency and that the planned digital shilling is not crypto saying it is considering the adoption of the digital shilling in response to the changing world. Kenyans have been calling on the regulator to consider crypto.
Central Bank says the digital shilling will be “a sovereign currency in an electronic form and it would appear as a liability on CBK’s balance sheet and an asset to users holding it.”
The digital currency will be known as CBDC and will be a national fiat currency in digital form. This will also mean that besides the printed cash, the Central Bank of Kenya will also issue the electronic equivalent.
The CBK has made it clear that CBDC is different from Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, meaning the CBK will maintain reserves and deposits to back it up.
“To comprehensively evaluate the potential applicability of the CBDC in Kenya, CBK requests for public comments on a number of questions,” said the CBK.