President Muhammadu Buhari has officially launched the eNaira, with the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) taking off with over N500m of the currency mint so far.
The launch took place at the State House in Abuja. An earlier plan to unveil the digital currency on October 1 was shelved.
It was developed by fintech company Bitt, which is also behind the creation of CBDC in some East Caribbean countries
The Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele said during the official launching of the eNaira, stated that 33 banks have been fully integrated and live on the platform.
Speaking at the launch in Abuja on Monday, Emefiele disclosed that over 2.5 million people visit the website daily.
He said another N200 million has been issued to financial institutions.
Over 2,000 customers have been onboarded and 120 merchants have successfully registered on the eNaira platform, Emefiele stated.
Immediately after the launch, Emefiele revealed that “customers who download the eNaira 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.”
The CBN, he said, “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”.