November 02, (THEWILL) – eNaira has recorded 700,000 transactions valued at N8 billion since its inauguration on October 25, 2021, Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele, said on Wednesday.
Emefiele spoke at the 28th edition of the apex bank’s annual In-house Executive Seminar in Abuja.
Represented by Aisha Ahmad, the Bank’s Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Emefiele said eNaira was developed to broaden the payment possibilities of Nigerians, to foster digital financial inclusion with the potential for fast-tracking intergovernmental and social transfers, capital flow and remittances.
Emefiele, who disclosed that the eNaira had been globally acclaimed as a success story, 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 for our success template on the eNaira.”
He said that the story of the eNaira had been one of courage, persistence and commitment to exploring new frontiers and possibilities.
Emefiele said 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 objective of providing a repository of a variety of data from different sources”, he said.
The CBN governor said that considerable gains had been achieved in boosting financial inclusion in Nigeria.
He added that at 64.0 percent, 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.
“Nigeria boasts of one of the fastest growing FinTech ecosystems in Africa, with the industry projected to grow by 12 percent 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.
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