Towards a Secure Central Bank Digital Currency System:A Case Study of Tanzania
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Date
2026-04-05
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John Wiley and Sons Inc
Abstract
This study contributes to the implementation of a secure Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) system in Tanzania. It identified the challenges faced by Tanzania's digital financial services (DFS), proposed relevant mitigations, and designed a secure CBDC system suitable for Tanzania. It also seeks to support ongoing CBDC research by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) and provide insights to other stakeholders exploring CBDCs. It employed a mixed research approach to collect and analyse data from a representative Tanzanian population, revealing that security concerns (53.3%) and high transaction charges (21.9%) were the main challenges in adopting DFS. Additionally, unreliable electricity and internet connectivity and low digital literacy were reported. Despite showing potential to address the identified challenges, a CBDC must be carefully designed to attract users and integrate smoothly with existing DFS. Furthermore, efforts should be made to address infrastructural and digital literacy challenges to maximise the practical realisation of CBDC benefits in Tanzania. This study is the first of its kind in Tanzania to combine stakeholder-informed insights with a context-specific CBDC design focused on security. Furthermore, it contributes to BoT's ongoing CBDC research and to other countries’ CBDC initiatives, particularly in the developing world.
Impact Statement: This study seeks to provide evidence-based insights to guide the design and implementation of a secure and context-aware CBDC for Tanzania. Its value lies in integrating stakeholder-informed analysis with a focus on the challenges within the DFS ecosystem of Tanzania. It supports the BoT's ongoing CBDC research efforts and contributes to the broader discourse on secure and context-aware DFS, particularly in the developing economies.
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure