The eNaira was recently touted to be a success by Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The announcement was made during the CBN’s in-house executive seminar in Abuja, on Wednesday. The governor was represented at the event by Aishah Ahmad, CBN deputy governor in charge of financial system stability.
It was disclosed that the eNaira has garnered global recognition, and is widely considered a success. This assertion was based on the fact that transactions on the eNaira platform have hit $8 billion.
Godwin Emefiele was quoted as saying “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 dialing ‘*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.”
He noted that the currency has gained the attention of foreign financial institutions.
“It topped the charts on retail central bank digital currencys’ projects globally, as of April (PwC, 2022) and several central banks across the globe have been requesting our success template on the eNaira.”
He also noted how the eNaira initiative has created 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.
During the meeting, it was disclosed that the eNaira platform has so far recorded 927,000 downloads, and 317,560 activated consumer wallets with 33 banks fully integrated and live on the platform.
The governor of the CBN stressed the importance of the platform in bolstering financial inclusion in Nigeria.
“While cash-based transactions have declined significantly in the last decade, it is still the dominant means of payment, amidst a large informal sector,” Emefiele said.
“Nigeria boasts of one of the fastest growing FinTech ecosystems in Africa, with the industry projected to grow by 12% 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 concluded.
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