eNaira Platform Has Come To Stay,CBN Insists

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says the eNaira application has so far recorded a total digital transaction valued at about N8billion as at the end of October, 2022.

The eNaira platform was launched on the 25th of October, 2021 by President Muhammad Buhari.

The Director of Information Technology of CBN, Hajiya Rakiyat Mohammed,disclosed this  in Abuja at the Presentation and Unboarding of e-Naira session, during the Second Africa Payment Systems Conference.

 According to her, customers who are currently on the eNaira platform will at the moment continue to enjoy seamless peer to peer transactions at no charge.

Represented by Abayomi Oyeleke, Deputy Director, Information Technology of CBN, the IT specialist 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 explained 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 said 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.

She added that  eNaira also opens  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 said 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 speech, Director General of Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Inuwa Kashifu Abdullahi said that the future of cash is now become bleak on daily basis.

He said that investing into cashless infrastructure will not only reduce the cost implication of cash maintenance, curb insecurity, reduce corruption, reduce financial losses but more importantly lead to more investment in financial infrastructure, job creation and ensure that financial services are available in all parts of the country.