The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) also known as the eNaira introduced last October by the Nigerian apex bank within ten months recorded a transaction value of N4 billion.
Speaking at the opening of the Grand Finale of the eNaira Hackathon in Abuja, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said the eNaira recorded over 200,000 transaction volumes valued at N4 billion since the platform was launched by President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2021.
Emefiele disclosed that effective next week, Nigerians, both banked and unbanked, would be able to open eNaira wallet and conduct transactions by simply dialing the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data code (USSD) *997# from their phones.
He added 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.
According to him, 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.
He said the world was now in the digital dispensation adding that the use of cash will soon dissipate to zero as digitisation become part of human lives.
The apex bank boss noted that the eNaira remained a journey, not a one-time event, pointing out that the, “hackathon is a continuation of that journey and the first among many to come given that the future of central banking is inextricably bound to innovation.”
The CBN governor further described the launch of the eNaira as timely and strategic in complementing the various diversification and digitisation 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.
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