MP proposes digital dinar to fix Iraq's cash shortage
Shafaq News- Baghdad
MP Saad al-Awadi, deputy head of the National Approach parliamentary bloc, proposed on Friday a plan to secure salary payments for state employees and retirees through a "digital dinar" and end Iraq's ongoing cash crisis.
In a statement, al-Awadi said the initiative represents “a comprehensive economic plan to address the liquidity crisis and ensure stable salary disbursement through the launch of a digital Iraqi dinar,” easing access to financial entitlements for employees without requiring paper cash transactions.
The plan aims directly to shield employees from the effects of salary delays and liquidity bottlenecks at banks and disbursement outlets, he explained, by depositing salaries as encrypted, protected digital currency into designated financial wallets, allowing citizens to immediately use their salaries for purchases and electronic payments without waiting for cash to become available.
“The current cash bottleneck does not stem from a lack of resources but from paper currency being withheld and hoarded outside the banking system at record rates,” al-Awadi stressed, adding that reliance on a central bank-issued digital dinar would eliminate salary delays, reduce the operational costs of printing and transporting cash, and protect citizens' purchasing power without resorting to domestic borrowing policies.
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His proposed roadmap also includes requiring service and commercial sectors to accept digital transactions, along with incentive packages and government guarantees to restore confidence in the banking sector.
Al-Awadi called on the government, the Central Bank, and the relevant parliamentary committees to hold an urgent joint session to establish the legislative and technical frameworks needed to implement the project.
Iraq still lacks official digital payment platforms or electronic trading systems, and globally circulated cryptocurrencies, most notably Bitcoin, the most widely used, remain unadopted in practice for buying, selling, and cash transactions in the country.
Read more: Delayed public salaries push Iraq’s Diyalafamilies into debt
