The total balances represented in Nigeria’s central bank digital currency, eNaira surged to N2.5 billion in 2022.
This compares to N940 million reported in 2022 representing a 2.65-fold increase year on year.
This is according to data contained in the 2022 audited financial statement of the apex bank released on Thursday.
The CBN launched the eNaira in 2021 as part of its efforts to promote financial inclusion, innovation and efficiency in the Nigerian economy.
The eNaira is a legal tender that can be used for various transactions such as payments, remittances, savings and investments.
The eNaira is also designed to complement the existing naira notes and coins, and to facilitate cross-border trade and remittances.
The CBN has partnered with several banks, fintech companies and merchants to enable the adoption and usage of the eNaira.
The eNaira platform allows users to create wallets, transfer funds, make payments and access other financial services through their mobile phones or computers.
The eNaira transactions are fast, secure and transparent, as they are recorded on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) system.
The CBN has also implemented various incentives and regulations to encourage the uptake of eNaira.
For instance, the CBN has waived transaction fees for eNaira users until 2023 and has set a minimum capital requirement of N50 million for eNaira service providers.
The CBN has also issued guidelines on the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) measures for the eNaira ecosystem.
Meanwhile, the central bank recently introduced the use of its digital currency as a payment option to recipients of diaspora remittances.
The apex bank said the move was part of its efforts to liberalize the payout of diaspora remittance.
The IMF also recently scored the enaira low on adoption citing slow growth in eNaira wallet downloads among retail users.
Peh
Talk about creating something that nobody needed or asked for! I don’t see why the Central Bank should be competing with commercial banks for retail transactions…..unless of course there is something else going on here that they are not telling us.
Let me explain this with my small brain as I get I. Nigerians don’t understand forex everything is scam and somethings are not scam especially important things and when it have to do with international reputations so I feel this needs to be explained as majority of Nigerian funds are questionable. Might not make sense but get the point if there’s any
The whole enaira idea is something I don’t understand. The idea of having a centralized alternative to the Crypto that is being accepted because it’s decentralized. The power of Crypto is The ability to perform transactions without any central institution