Not too long after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) successfully launched the website for its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the apex bank has received a notice that stated that it had violated the corporate name of a corporate company. Signed by Olakunle Agbebi Esq for Olakunle Agbebi & Co., the document received by the central bank is titled “Infringement of Trademark & Violation of Corporate Name cease and desist Notification to the Central Bank of Nigeria”.
With the e-Naira launch just a few days away, one would wonder if this would rise up to become a challenge.
The company that sent the cease and desist notification goes under the name “ENAIRA PAYMENT SOLUTIONS LIMITED registered with the number 508500. The company has long been in existence and has been incorporated since the 7th of April 2004.
The document sent to the apex bank says that the launch of the e-Naira is a willful infringement of the aforementioned company’s trademark, adding that ENAIRA PAYMENT SOLUTIONS LIMITED, due to the CBN’s actions have been exposed to damages and loss of goodwill.
“For this reasons, our client has approached the Federal High Court in Suit No: FHC/AB/CS/113/2021 between ENAIRA PAYMENT SOLUTIONS LIMITED vs CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA to seek a restraining order including an order to restrain CBN from proceeding in the launch on 1st October 2021”, the document read adding that “In the interim, the CBN is hereby warned to cease and desist from using or purporting to use the name e-Naira for its product or in any way”.
The central bank is yet to make a statement about this development and the launch of its central bank digital currency – the e-Naira is still slated for the 1st of October which is also the day that marks Nigeria’s 61st independence anniversary.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
