The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has revealed that the eNaira application has so far recorded a total digital transaction valued at about N8 billion as at the end of October, 2022.
Recall that the eNaira was launched on the 25th of October, 2021 by President Muhammadu Buhari, under the slogan: “Same Naira, More Possibilities” thereby listing Nigeria as the first country in Africa and one of the pioneer countries in the world to develop an official digital currency.
The Director of Information Technology, CBN Hajiya Rakiyat Mohammed who made the disclosure on Monday at the Presentation and Unboarding of e-Naira session during the Second Africa Payment Systems Conference in Abuja went further to state that customers who are currently on the eNaira platform will at the moment continue to enjoy seamless peer to peer transactions are at no charge.
Represented by the Deputy Director Information Technology of CBN, Abayomi Oyeleke, said that Nigerians who buy into the e-naira platform stand to gain a lot benefits including real-time transactions on a secured digital wallet with zero down time adding that the project is supported with a very resilient blockchain technology.
She said that the eNaira was developed to broaden payment platforms in Nigeria, foster digital financial inclusion with a potential for fast-tracking intergovernmental and social transfers, capital flow and remittances.
She averred that the introduction of the eNaira has changed the business ecosystem, reduced cash transactions, eliminated the risks associated with cash transactions and opened more digital financial frontiers for bank customers.
According to her, eNaira also opened business opportunities, enhanced financial inclusion as the teeming unemployed youths in Nigeria can cash into the opportunities by provide financial services to bank customers in remote, unbanked, and underbanked parts of the country.
She explained that the eNaira platform will be expanded in the nearest future to include more financial products. She further hinted that several layers of security and transaction limits have been consciously put in place to ensure that the wallet of eNaira customers are not compromised.
“Since its launch, a total of N8 billion, consisting of over 700,000 transactions has passed through the eNaira platform.
“As part of the CBN’s effort to further integrate and broaden the usage of the eNaira, it was assigned an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code, enabling payments by simply dialling *997# on a mobile phone” she said.
In his concluding remarks, Oyeleke humorously explained how easy it is to get on the eNaira platform. He simplified it thus: “Get it, Fund it and Use it”.
