The National Bank of Ukraine intends to trial the digital hryvnia this year, and banks have already been invited to join the pilot program.
The director of the Department of Payment Systems and Innovative Development of the National Bank of Ukraine, Andriy Poddieryohin, announced this in the “Chronicles of the Economy” podcast.
In February 2022, the National Bank and the Ministry of Statistics developed a road map for the introduction of the electronic hryvnia.
Now, the National Bank will conduct testing of the digital hryvnia throughout this year, for which banks have already received invitations to participate in the pilot project.
The experiment in Ukraine aims to test the use of digital currency from the central bank to determine the public demand for this type of money and the necessity of its implementation.
The electronic form of Ukraine’s monetary unit, the e-hryvnia, will be a direct obligation of the central bank. According to the definition of the NBU, the digital Ukrainian currency will complement cash and non-cash forms of money and perform all their functions.
According to the Department of Payment Systems director, those banks that confirm their participation will invite their customers to the experiment.
The NBU plans to start the second pilot project using the e-hryvnia in the second half of 2024. Roughly, it will last about half a year.
As part of the experiment, all those willing to test the e-hryvnia can exchange their cash and non-cash money for it.
” We are not considering the approach used in China, where money was handed out to incentivize people,” Poddieryohin informed.
As part of the experiment, they plan to test the possibility of paying with digital money offline.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), where this pilot project has been running since 2016, also strives to keep up with the rest of the world.
At the same time, the NBU noted that the use of the e-hryvnia should be convenient and accessible to all segments of the population, legal entities, state bodies, banks, and non-bank financial institutions.