Dr Subhajit Basu co-authors opinion piece on Nigeria's digital currency
Dr Subhajit Basu, Associate Professor in Information Technology Law, and Dr Adekemi Omotubora (University of Lagos) have written an opinion piece in The Register about Nigeria's digital currency.
Nigeria recently became the first African country to launch its central bank digital currency (CBDC) called the eNaira. However, according to Dr Basu, there are significant privacy challenges associated with the digital currency. Authorities may be able to see a person’s every transaction, which could make an individual’s data vulnerable to malicious use for political or commercial purposes. The scale of the impact is likely to be significant as a great deal of information about individuals could potentially be obtained.
“Trust is paramount to any payment system; hence robust legal rules and data governance framework is essential to address the risks associated with digital currency.
“However, the Nigerian government institutions are notorious for flouting the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation”, said Dr Basu.
