Jamaica, the island country situated in the Caribbean Sea, is planning to launch its CBDC this year, according to Prime Minister Andrew Holness. The Jamaican bureaucrat tweeted:
The Bank of Jamaica will roll out our own digital Jamaican dollar in 2022 after a successful pilot during 2021.
— Andrew Holness (@AndrewHolnessJM) February 10, 2022
The statement comes after the Jamaican central bank’s “successful” pilot experiment last year. The Bank of Jamaica announced towards the end of 2021 that three plans were tested during the pilot phase. According to the reports, The CBDC will join a limited group of nation-states that have already adopted CBDCs, including China, Nigeria, and Venezuela. Meanwhile, the European Commission said that a digital euro bill will be unveiled in 2023, while the Federal Reserve released research and code for its CBDC project.
In its CBDC trial, the Bank of Jamaica collaborated with National Commercial Bank (NCB) and a small number of wallet providers. On August 9, Jamaica’s central bank issued approximately $230 million in CBDC. Andrew Michael, Prime Minister of Jamaica, expects that more than 70% of Jamaicans will use CBDC during the next five years.
