Bitt and IDEMIA have won the 2022 G20TechSprint global central bank digital currency (CBDC) competition. The news comes on the one-year anniversary of the eNaira, a joint project of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Bitt, making Nigeria the first on the continent of Africa to be able to use a legal tender digital currency for their daily financial transactions.

The announcement came ahead of the G20 Bali Summit from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and Bank Indonesia as they concluded their third annual contest, which received more than 100 submissions from many of the world’s leading financial, technology, science, and marketing companies.

“Bitt and IDEMIA are humbled to have been given such a prestigious award. Our solution gives everyone access to CBDC, even those who cannot afford a smartphone. We help fulfil the vision to make digital cash available anywhere and anytime, with or without network coverage,” says Jerome Ajdenbaum, VP digital currencies at IDEMIA.

An independent panel of 11 experts, convened by Bank Indonesia, assessed the developed prototypes from the shortlisted teams to determine the winners.

Bitt and IDEMIA joined forces to bring together Bitt’s Digital Currency Management System (DCMS) and IDEMIA’s secure solution for offline CBDC payments. The different components enable central banks to launch their CBDC with complete interoperability with current systems to ensure low-cost access with a variety of easy-to-use payment devices and the best identity management verification available in full compliance with regulatory requirements.