“Nigerians have continued to gradually adopt eNaira as a fast and reliable means of exchange.”- CBN Governor

The eNaira, was issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), as part of its central bank digital currency (CBCD) programme and is projected to be running on about 10,000 downloads per day, dpd, in the second quarter of this year, Q2’22. This projection by a source in one of the commercial banks leading in the eNaira platform, follows the 7,300 dpd recorded in the first quarter of the year, Q1’22.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has stated that the eNaira transactions recorded range from P2P; Person to Merchant, P2M; Bank to Person; Person to Bank and Bank to Merchants and Merchants to Bank.

Consumer wallet downloads have also been far predominant over merchant wallet, a situation analysts believe has to do with lack of awareness by businesses as well as restrictions regarding Bank Verification Numbers, BVN, and other Know Your Customer, KYC, requirements.

It showed that the app has been downloaded in Europe, Asia and almost all the countries in Africa demonstrating global usage.

The eNaira, which is Africa’s first digital currency is equivalent of the physical naira. As the tagline simply encapsulates, the eNaira is the same naira with far more possibilities, according to the apex bank

Godwin Emefiele , CBN Governor, said in January that the present rollout of the eNaira was intended for banked Nigerians..

He stated: “Since its launch about three months ago, Nigerians have continued to gradually adopt eNaira as a fast and reliable means of exchange.”

“The Person to Bank and Bank to Person constitute 90% of what we see in the market, and as you will observe, we spent the last three months observing and monitoring the system and addressing issues mostly around initial onboarding,” he added.

He said “We feel that you must have a BVN and you must have an account to be able to access it, And we also find that this has created some kind of constraints on people about onboarding with BVN and the rest of them. But again, we believe that what we do by the use of the BVN is the best so as to avoid fraudsters from hacking into the system.

“Most of the complaints received were mainly around the inability of prospective users to onboard and activate the E wallet due to a mismatch of BVN enrollment records.”

CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications, Mr Osita Nwanisiobi, while Highlighting the benefits of the digital currency said, “The e-Naira is expected to deepen financial inclusion by bringing more people into the financial space, support a resilient payment ecosystem, reduce the cost of processing cash, enable direct and transparent welfare intervention to citizens, increase transparency in revenue and tax collections, facilitate diaspora remittances, reduce the cost of financial transactions and improve the efficiency of payments.”

Noting that there have been encouraging responses to the e-Naira, Osita, added, “Customers who download the eNaira Speed Wallet App will be able to onboard and create their wallet; fund their eNaira wallet from their bank account; transfer eNaira from their wallet to another wallet and make payment for purchases at registered merchant locations.

“I, therefore, appeal to Nigerians to embrace the eNaira just like our physical Naira – our pride.”