NBU will conduct open testing of e-hryvnia in 2024

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) plans to test the e-hryvnia in the second half of 2024. The head of the Department of Payment Systems and Innovative Development of the NBU, Andrey Podderegin, spoke about this in the “Chronicles of Economics” podcast.

According to him, the pilot project will be open and will last approximately six months, and everyone will be able to take part in it.

“[...] Banking and non-banking institutions will be agents of the central bank in distributing money, exchanging it and allowing users to manage it using their mobile applications,” Podderegin said.

He added that the NBU has already sent an invitation to banks to participate in the initiative. The message also says that the volume of e-hryvnia emission will be announced after the number of banks and their clients that will participate in the pilot project is known.

During the experiment, participants will be able to exchange “cash and non-cash money” for e-hryvnia. In addition, during the pilot project they want to test payments with digital currency offline, as well as provide the technical ability to program e-hryvnia, the statement said.

Andrey Podderegin noted that in Ukraine they do not plan to give out money to people in order to interest them, as was the case in China. He also added that the purpose of the experiment is to determine whether there is a demand for this form of money among the population in the country and whether there is a need for its introduction.

It should be noted that the NBU conducted the first pilot project for the use of e-hryvnia in 2018. Then the National Bank issued 5443 e-hryvnia, which were used only by the regulator’s employees.