Back in 2020, the Central Bank of Jamaica announced its readiness to launch its token. The regulator already then began to negotiate with IT companies that should help the country create a national digital currency.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness told reporters that he has no doubts about the popularity of CBDC among the population.
In his opinion, up to 70% of the country's inhabitants will use the token as a payment instrument. The transition to the use of digital currency will take about five years, Bloomberg quoted the prime minister as saying.
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The launch of the Jamaican CBDC is scheduled for the first quarter of 2022. Holness emphasized that the government's task is to provide people with access to the Internet so that they can freely use the token.
Testing of the coin started last spring. The Irish company eCurrency acted as a partner of the Jamaican authorities. The central bank issued 230 million Jamaican dollars in CBDC ($1.5 million).
The tokens were distributed among employees of one of the departments of the Central Bank and employees of the National Commercial Bank. After that, the regulator started test operations with CBDC.