Assessing the eNaira’s promise to deepen financial inclusion

In the beginning, there was money.

More specifically, a thousand years ago, when money meant coins, China developed paper currency under the Tang dynasty. Then European explorers like Marco Polo introduced the concept in Europe, but it wasn't until the early 1800s that Napoleon issued paper banknotes.

Safe to say, what we know as money has shifted over the years.

But the most dramatic shift in the way people and authorities think and talk about money has likely been most pronounced in the last two years. In short, technological change is upending finance. For emphasis, the current changes are so dramatic because the creation of money has never been so democratised. I mean, various forms of money have always been created and used in mini-societies. Take, for example, a small island called Yap in the middle of the western Pacific Ocean. Their form of money is a human-sized giant stone.