The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has described the introduction of the eNaira as a monumental success as it records 700,000 transactions valued at N8 billion since its inauguration on Oct. 25, 2021.
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CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, made this known on Wednesday in Abuja at the 28th edition of the apex bank’s annual In-house Executive Seminar with the theme, ‘Digitalisation of Money and Monetary Policy in Nigeria.”
According to Emefiele, one of the major aim of the digital currency, was to broaden the payment possibilities of Nigerians and foster digital financial inclusion, with the potential for fast-tracking intergovernmental and social transfers, capital flow and remittances.
He said the eNaira had been globally acclaimed as a success story. Represented by the Deputy Governor Financial System Stability, CBN, Aisha Ahmad, the bank governor, said: “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.
“I am proud to announce to you today that the eNaira has been attracting accolades across the globe as a monumental success.
“It topped the charts on retail CBDCs projects globally, as of April (PwC, 2022), and several central banks across the globe have been requesting our success template on the eNaira.”
According to him, the story of the 21st-century currency had been one of courage, persistence and commitment to exploring new frontiers and possibilities. He added that, as part of the digitisation drive, the apex bank had taken transformational steps in entrenching a culture of “big data” and data analytics as tools for effective policy making.
“To this end, the CBN Data Architecture Project (CeDAP), code-named ‘Project OXYGEN’ was commissioned, with the objectives of providing a repository of a variety of data from different sources,” he said.
While hailing the gains recorded since the launching of the eNaira, Emefiele said at 64.0 per cent, the inclusion rate slowed down the digital transformation wheel, as all citizens must be carried along to optimise the gains of a digital economy.
“While cash-based transactions have declined significantly in the last decade, it is still the dominant means of payment, amidst a large informal sector.
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“Nigeria boasts of one of the fastest growing FinTech ecosystems in Africa, with the industry projected to grow by 12 per cent annually.
“But the technological space is still maturing, with limited market size, funding and venture capitalists, access to baseline technologies, and skills, as common features, ” he said.
