CBN says eNaira will help Nigeria tackle financial crimes if embraced

Article Summary 

• The CBN said Nigeria is bound to derive a lot of benefits, including helping to tackle financial crimes, if all Nigerians are using it.
• The apex bank also appealed to Nigerians to embrace digital currency to enhance its cashless policy.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that Nigeria has a lot to gain if all Nigerians embrace the use of the nation’s digital currency known as the eNaira.

It stated that this will help the country to fight financial crimes and money laundering, among others.

CBN’s Port Harcourt Branch Controller, Maxwell Okoroafor, stated this on Thursday at a sensitization workshop in Port Harcourt.

According to him, the use of the eNaira by all Nigerians would also help in improving the country’s monetary policies.

The workshop which was jointly organized by CBN and Zenith Bank was themed: “Road Map to eNaira Adoption: Understanding the Workability of the E-Naira and its Implications on the Cashless policy.”

Okoroafor disclosed that the workshop was aimed at providing important information about eNaira for students and lecturers of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE).

Benefits to Nigerians

While appealing to Nigerians to embrace digital currency to enhance the bank’s cashless policy, Okoroafor said:

• “The eNaira is an alternative means of financial transaction to cash and is designed to make transactions stress-free as well as improve the nation’s economy. It is cheap and comes with a lot of benefits to Nigerians in tackling financial crime, and money laundering and also gives visibility for monetary policies in the country.
• “It will also be beneficial to the institutions in the area of payment of fees while also helping them to reduce the cost of policy management.”

Okoroafor further stated that the CBN’s digital currency had the same value as the physical naira in the pockets and wallets of Nigerians.

• “The whole world is going digital, hence the CBN is also responding to the innovation by introducing a lot of cashless policies – of which one of the policies is the eNaira. Incidentally, we are the first Central Bank in Africa to introduce eNaira, and only the second in the world,” he added.

On his part, the apex bank’s Head of Information and Clients Services, Collins Onuosa, said the CBN targeted students because they were more in tune with emerging technology, as the CBN has engaged organizations, groups, institutions, and students, to ensure that everyone is brought on board with the eNaira and other digital payment platforms.

The Vice Chancellors of UNIPORT, Prof. Owunari Georgewill, and his IAUE counterpart, Prof. Okey Onuchukwu, while speaking at the event, made it known that both universities are open to working with the apex bank to drive its policies in both universities.

Nigeria in October 2021 became the first African country to introduce a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by launching the eNaira.

However, almost two years after its launch, the adoption of digital currency has remained very slow.