The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday, disclosed that eNaira has recorded over 200,000 transaction volumes worth N4 billion since the country’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) was launched last October.
The eNaira was created to give Nigerians alternative to cryptocurrency that swept through the country as an asset and means of payment. Since 2021, the CBN has been seeking ways to increase the use of the eNaira by eliminating barriers to its adoption.
Part of the efforts to promote eNaira’s adoption is the proposed introduction of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data code (USSD) made earlier in the year. Emefiele said effective next week, Nigerians, both banked and unbanked, would be able to open eNaira wallet and conduct transactions by simply dialing *997# (USSD) code from their phones.
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Emefiele was speaking at the opening of the Grand Finale of the eNaira Hackathon in Abuja. He said the world was now in the digital dispensation and that the use of cash will soon dissipate to zero as digitization becomes part of human lives. The governor revealed that since the launch of the initiative, the eNaira has reached 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets comprising over 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets.
He said both merchants and consumers with bank accounts can use the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) to transfer and receive eNaira to any bank account, adding that this will further deepen the integration of the eNaira with the existing national payment infrastructure.
The CBN has been pushing for further financial inclusion in Nigeria, a cause it said the eNaira will help to attain. The CBN Deputy Governor, Economic Policy Directorate, Dr. Kingsley Obiora, said the value of e-business transactions had grown from N39.3 billion in 2014, to about N2.4 trillion in 2022.
The apex bank is apparently building on the progress of the digital finance adoption to expand the use of eNaira. Emefiele said efforts toward building the future monetary system of the country is in response to the emerging trends and developments in the global digital space.
“Pursuant to achieving its mandate of preserving monetary and financial stability, the CBN is, strategic in charting the future of Nigeria’s legal tender, be it in its traditional or digital form as the economy transits to a digital one as well as charting the course for innovation in the financial sector and in the infrastructure underpinning financial markets,” he said.
The CBN governor further said the eNaira is timely and strategic in complementing the various diversification and digitization initiatives of the federal government including the launch of the Nigeria Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), the National Broadband Strategy, as well as the introduction of the Start-Up Bill and a host of others.
“Innovative products and services built on the eNaira would enhance Nigerians’ participation in the digital economy and promote further development of a burgeoning Fintech ecosystem.
“To achieve these set-out objectives, the project adopted a phased- approach with the first phase focusing on banked users, while the policy objective of the second phase borders around financial inclusion.
“In addition, the eNaira platform possesses an innovation layer for products and services to be built with the aim of enhancing Nigerians’ participation in the digital economy and promoting further development of a burgeoning Fintech ecosystem,” he said.
The CBN said the eNaira Hackathon, which was embraced by tech experts and stakeholders in the financial industry, is evidence of the CBDC’s growth potential. A total of 4,667, made up of 4,082 male and 582 female young applicants, registered for the eNaira hackathon.
“Therefore, today’s event is targeted at providing an engagement with critical stakeholders in the financial technology space to deepen the link between eNaira and Fintechs.
“From the presentations made over the course of this eNaira Hackathon, I am confident that it will unravel a pool of talents that would fuel the transformation of Nigeria into a world-class digital economy and beyond,” Emefiele said.