The Central Bank of Nigeria, announced that the country's government will work closely with Bitt Inc as a technical partner in its efforts to launch its own cryptocurrency, "eNaira".

The Central Bank announced plans to launch its own digital currency later this year after Nigeria banned banks and financial institutions from handling or facilitating transactions in cryptocurrencies in February.

Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said eNaira will operate as a wallet where customers can store funds held in their bank accounts. In a statement, Emefiele said the currency would accelerate financial inclusion and allow for cheaper and faster inflows of remittances.

Barbados-based Bitt earlier this year led the development of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union "DCash," the first digital currency issued by the currency union's central bank.

In related news, the first cryptocurrency ATM opened in Honduras last week as Bitcoin backers sought to spur demand for virtual assets after neighbouring El Salvador became the first country to establish Bitcoin as legal tender. 

The machine, locally dubbed "la bitcoinera," allows users to acquire Bitcoin and Ethereum using the local lempira currency and was installed in an office tower in the capital of Tegucigalpa by Honduran firm TGU Consulting Group. 

Along with the World Bank, the intergovernmental financial body has been expressing its disapproval of El Salvador’s crypto legislation since the get-go, raising alarms about economic and legal risks threatening the country if Bitcoin becomes an official legal tender.

“Privately issued crypto-assets like Bitcoin come with substantial risks. Making them equivalent to a national currency is an inadvisable shortcut,” read the IMF’s latest warning posted on Twitter, with a link to last month’s blog.

Written by monetary and capital markets department director Tobias Adrian and legal department head Rhoda Weeks-Brown, the blog post covers a host of risks that are threatening those countries that decide to legalize “privately issued tokens” as the national currency. 

While recognizing the “advantages of their underlying technologies,” the authors insist that cryptocurrencies shouldn’t be adopted to such an extent, stating such boldness is a “step too far.”