The Central Bank of Nigeria has released the regulatory guideline on the eNaria.
This is according to documents seen by Nairametrics, titled, “REGULATORY GUIDELINES ON THE eNAIRA”.
The document, the guidelines shall apply to all financial institutions and users of the eNaira. During the onboarding process, users shall have the option to disclose whether the eNaira wallet being created will be operated for self or as trustees.
The document reads, “The Central Bank of Nigeria, under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act 2007 and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, is empowered to issue legal tender currency, ensure financial system and promote the development of electronic payments system. The Bank, in furtherance of its mandate, hereby issues the following guidelines for the operation of the eNaira.
“The eNaira is the digital form of the Naira, issued by the CBN in line with Section 19 of the CBN Act. It is a direct liability of the Bank, a legal tender and will form part of the currency in circulation and will be at par with the physical Naira (that is 1:1).
“The eNaira shall complement traditional Naira as a less costly, more efficient, generally acceptable, safe and trusted means of payment. In addition, it will improve monetary policy effectiveness, enhance the government’s capacity to deploy targeted social interventions and boost remittances through formal channels.
“The eNaira wallet is required to access, use and hold eNaira. The eNaira will be exchangeable for other Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).”
Key highlights of the guidelines
- The eNaira shall be administered by the CBN through the Digital Currency Management System (DCMS) to mint and issue eNaira.
- Financial institutions shall maintain a treasury eNaira wallet for holding and managing eNaira on the DCMS.
- The Financial institutions (FI) Suite is the primary application used by the FIs to manage their digital currency holdings, requests, and redemption with the CBN.
- The eNaira stock wallet belongs solely to the CBN and it shall warehouse all minted eNaira.
- The two-factor authentication and other measures shall be adopted to ensure the security of the eNaira wallet.
- The charges for eNaira transactions shall be in line with the Guide to Charges by Banks, Other Financial and Non-bank Financial Institutions.
- Financial Institutions are required to comply with the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 (as amended), the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2011 (as amended) and all subsisting anti-money laundering laws and regulations as may be issued by the CBN from time to time.
- Consumer Complaints in relation to the usage of the eNaira shall be referred to Helpdesk of users’ preferred FI Helpdesk. If unresolved by the FI Helpdesk, it shall be escalated to the eNaira Helpdesk via 0800myeNaira (0800 6936 2472) or [email protected] for resolution.
In case you missed it
The CBN’s Director of Communication, Mr Osita Nwanisobi announced a postponement of the launch of Nigeria’s digital currency, the eNaira, previously scheduled to hold on October 1, 2021.
However, Nairametrics in an exclusive report, uncovered that the unanticipated surge in visits on the website of the Central Bank’s eNaira initiative led to the sudden postponement of the launch.
Amid heated litigation over its trademark infringement on the name “eNiara,” a Federal High Court in Abuja has given the nod for the Central Bank of Nigeria’s rollout of its digital currency.
It’s a very welcome development as long as it has the value addition as obtainable in the blockchain. In that way, holders of the enaira wallet will be on advantage to Trade with their coins in the wallet and make more money after all. Thanks
This is not good news at all. We have waited for such a long time not to hear this. The CBN need to wake up. God bless Nigeria
This is a great idea and I pray the enaira shouldn’t devalue…… Bcus what I read about this enaira on nairaalert.com.ng blog was scares me.
Thank you so much my dear friend
Thanks so much God may help our leaders
and if only ase, since this is about money the next thing after God in life of a man, we need more enlightenment maybe in the language we can understand so that the man in the street can benefit. Thank God for the initiative and if only it will strengthen the value of fiat Naira.
eNaira you are welcome. More ease of doing business and easy checks on would be financial cheaters.
Digital assest can be classified I to CBDC and Non CBDC that is central bank backed digital currencies and decentralized digital currencies.. Bitcoin , Ethereum and altcoins and truelwy decentralized and run based on Demand and supply, usability, Scalability and efficiency. Digital assets of a centralized nature are not autonomous but a representation of the government. The fact is our enaira is at beat a digital naira. It is not a Stablecoins because it is not pegged to any decentralized currency. Let us wait and see what it’s impact on the econsystem will be. But I doubt much
Also it is not adding anything innovative to the demant for decentralized digital products in a world where the Blockchain has evolved into defi (decentralized finance) and is rapidly expanding into a more than $1trn dollar industry.
We are at least 2 generation behind. What we need is a robust ecoysytem that supports cryptocurrency trading and education not regulations
A very good end brought towards us to visualize and yet awaiting us to be on-field to set commentaries to ascertain the values of the use of a digital currency. Listen to the guidelines is of course an out of the box delay alignment with postponement but does it goes a long way to tell us if the cut1 permutations had or will have cross boundary for international exchange,bank transfers in transit transactions? Luanching the enaira doesn’t have to go through the opinion of the masses rather improvement of other plugin and sockets that will encounter local buy and sell trade phenomenon is all that is needed.Amongst other disadvantage, it is very unsupportive for a country like Nigeria.,especially taken into cognizance of how Nigerian government usually hold budget and projects crashing. I am very afraid and worried who the handlers lies with?
This enaira strategy of currency management system needs a wake up remark on the local communities.Thank you all.
How does a common man benefit from this in the face of bankruptcy of awareness, non availability of power supply, huge communication gap, inequitable distribution of resources, high cost in the standard of living and many more