CBDC Updates Across Africa: Which Countries Are Closest to Launch?
Nigeria’s eNaira remains the only retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) live in Africa, and five years after its launch, it is also the continent’s most closely studied cautionary tale. Other central banks are moving more slowly, with more attention to legislation, offline access and whether people will use the product at all. The question of which country comes next now has a more complicated answer than it did in 2021.
Nigeria: live, but being rethought
The eNaira went live in October 2021, making Nigeria the first African country and the second in the world to launch a retail CBDC. Adoption has been weak. Reported cumulative transactions of about N22 billion over several years are small for an economy of Nigeria’s size, and usage has leaned on government-linked schemes rather than everyday retail demand.
In June 2026, the Central Bank of Nigeria published its Payments System Vision 2028, which repositions the eNaira as payments infrastructure rather than a consumer wallet. The document points to government salaries, pensions and cash transfers as likely use cases, and to regional payments and remittances as longer-term ones. It does not offer a detailed roadmap beyond Nigeria. The eNaira is still legal tender and fully operational, but the strategy concedes that the original retail pitch did not work.
Ghana: the longest wait
Ghana is the country most often named as next in line, and also the one that has missed the most deadlines. The Bank of Ghana began piloting the eCedi in 2021 and ran a trial with 2,750 participants in Accra, Tarkwa and Sefwi Asafo in early 2022, with offline payments via NFC as a design priority. It published a pilot report in October 2024.
The launch has repeatedly slipped. Officials said the retail rollout was targeted for the end of 2025 but depended on enabling legislation, and later statements pointed to the end of 2026. No firm date has been published. In May 2026, Governor Johnson Pandit Asiama said the bank was preparing to use the eCedi for cross-border transactions and regional financial integration, a sign that the project is being reframed beyond domestic retail use.
Ghana’s central bank has also acknowledged that the eCedi must prove its value against a mobile money ecosystem that is already highly interoperable. That is the same adoption problem Nigeria ran into.
Rwanda: the clearest timetable
Rwanda now has the most concrete schedule. In February 2026, the National Bank of Rwanda said it had completed a five-month proof of concept for an e-Franc, concluding that a retail CBDC is technically feasible and could support instant digital payments. It then announced a 12-month pilot covering Kigali, one secondary city and selected rural locations.
If that timetable holds, the pilot runs into early 2027, and a decision on wider release would follow. The central bank has said the digital currency would sit alongside cash and cards, not replace them. Rwanda’s preferred design is a two-tier model, with the central bank issuing and commercial intermediaries distributing. A limited live corridor with a partner central bank is also expected to be explored during the pilot.
Morocco and the North African track
Morocco is working on two fronts. Bank Al-Maghrib completed a first pilot of peer-to-peer retail payments, then started a second trial with the Central Bank of Egypt and the World Bank focused on cross-border transfers. The governor said the bank is studying both wholesale and retail uses.
That makes Morocco one of the more active experimenters, though no launch date has been given. The cross-border emphasis is notable, since several African projects now treat regional settlement as a more realistic first use than domestic retail payments.
South Africa steps back from retail
South Africa moved the other way. The South African Reserve Bank’s November 2025 position paper concluded that the country does not currently have a strong policy case for a retail CBDC, and said no decision had been taken to proceed. Wholesale work continues through the Project Khokha series and cooperation with the Bank for International Settlements, but a retail digital rand is not on the near-term agenda.
The wider field
Beyond these cases, progress is thinner. Atlantic Council data cited in regional reporting shows that 25 African countries are exploring CBDCs, but that count covers everything from research to pilots. The same tracker listed Benin’s project as inactive and Senegal’s as cancelled. Countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Namibia remain largely at the research stage.
What the timeline really shows
On current evidence, Nigeria is the only live case, Ghana has the most mature pilot without a launch date, and Rwanda has the clearest schedule but is only a few months into a year-long test. Morocco is advancing quietly, and South Africa has chosen to wait.
The common thread is that launching a CBDC has turned out to be the easier part. Legislation, offline functionality, merchant acceptance and competition from mobile money and instant payment systems decide whether a CBDC gets used. For Nigerian readers, the eNaira’s second act under Payments System Vision 2028 will say more about the technology’s future in Africa than any new launch announcement.
