The nation’s apex bank, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has rolled out eNaira, which is Nigeria’s first digital currency.
The digital currency has two applications which are eNaira speed wallet and eNaira merchant wallet.
The two apps were rolled out on Google playstore and Apple store, according to checks by TheCable on Monday.
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele in a conference at the beginning of the month, promised that the country would start digital Naira currency.
Emefiele had announced plans to launch Nigeria’s digital currency this year after the Nigeria government barred banks and financial institutions from dealing in or facilitating transactions in cryptocurrencies in February.
He had previously said the eNaira would operate as a wallet against which customers could hold existing funds in their bank accounts, and that this would accelerate financial inclusion and enable cheaper and faster remittance inflows.
“The CBN and other partners were working round the clock to ensure a seamless process that will be for the overall benefit of the customer,” he had said.
He said this would make Nigeria “one of the first countries in Africa, and indeed the globe, to adopt the digitisation of its national currency.”
Speaking at the launch of the eNaira in Abuja on Monday, Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor, explained that 33 banks have been fully integrated and live on the platform.
The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) known as the eNaira has taken off with over N500m of the currency minted so far.
Speaking at the launch of the digital currency in Abuja on Monday, Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor, explained that 33 banks have been fully integrated and live on the platform disclosed that over 2.5 million people visit the website daily.
He said another N200 million has been issued to financial institutions and over 2,000 customers have been onboarded and 120 merchants have successfully registered on the eNaira platform.
Immediately after the launch, Emefiele revealed that “customers who download the digital currency Speed Wallet App will be able to perform the following: 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.”
“will continue to refine, fine-tune and upgrade the eNaira” and he assured that “Nigerians should expect to see additional functionalities in the coming months”.
Some of the additional functionalities include: accessibility and onboarding of customers without BVN and the use of the eNaira on the phone without the internet to further drive financial inclusion, making Nigeria one of the first countries in the world to deploy the CBDC via USSD on phones without relying on internet connectivity.
Another feature that will be deployed by the eNaira is the “onboarding of revenue collection agencies to increase and simplify collections and the creation of sector- specific tokens to support the Federal Government’s social programmes and distribution of targeted welfare schemes in a bid to lift millions out of poverty by 2025”.
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