New money will be distributed to Ukrainians: who will receive e-hryvnia

New money will be distributed to Ukrainians: who will receive e-hryvnia

Ukrainians will be allowed to test the possibilities and evaluate the benefits of the digital hryvnia. Participation in the pilot project will be available to everyone.

In this regard, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has already sent out invitations to banks - those institutions that confirm their participation will be able to offer it to their customers. Head of the NBU’s Department of Payment Systems and Innovative Development Andriy Podderyogin told the "European Pravda" publication.

“We plan to make this pilot project open. Banking and non-banking institutions will be agents of the central bank in distributing money, exchanging and allowing users to manage it using their mobile applications,” Podderyogin said.

This experiment on using e-hryvnia will be the second one – it is planned to begin in the second half of 2024 and will last up to a year. The pilot was carried out in 2018, when 5443 e-hryvnia were issued, but then they were available only to employees of the financial regulator.

Now the NBU wants to know whether this form of money will be in demand. Program participants can pay in digital hryvnia offline, as well as exchange it for cash and non-cash money.

However, as in China, where e-yuan was distributed in millions to interest the population, it will not happen in Ukraine, Podderyogin warned. Instead, the e-hryvnia issue will be determined only after the number of people willing to take part in its testing becomes known.