Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) in Africa: Why CBDCs Could be A ‘Disaster’ for the Continent

Abstract

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are been designed a ‘new normal’ for the world of finance in which payments (digital currency) can be made directly from one party to another without financial intermediaries regardless macroeconomic links. Digital currency has ushered the world of finance into uncharted waters as central banks and international institutions crumble to fine their feet’s in a fast moving stream of decentralised finance (DeFi) and global stablecoins. As central banks embark on the CBDCs journey, there are number of questions which must be address: What problems are CBDC’s expected to solve? How do current design thinking resolve these problems in Africa? Are there alternatives to CBDCs in Africa ? Broadly, CBDCs are expected to resolve inefficient and costly domestic and cross-border payments and settlement, ensure price stability and financial stability, retain monetary policy independence and digital de-dollarization. A qualitative descriptive design has been adopted in this study.Findings. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) well-designed in a new multilateral fair and just international monetary architecture has the potential to ensure price stability and financial stability in both advanced and developing economies in general, but more importantly would enable developing countries to regain some among of monetary policy independence. However, under the CBDCs design thinking within the framework of existing international monetary and financial architecture, no economy in Africa can withstand the powers of BigFintech, DeFi, global stablecoins and foreign sovereign digital currencies. This paper concludes that African countries must decide whether to cede their sovereign power to an independent monetary authority with single digital currency to manage under their control or cede their economic and financial destiny to unaccountable foreign BigFintech and/or foreign sovereign CBDCs in form of digital dollarization. Keywords: digital currency, CBDCs, digital dollarization, international monetary system, Africa DOI: 10.7176/RJFA/12-18-03 Publication date: September 30 th 2021