The eNaira, has recorded over 700,000 transactions worth N8 billion after one year of its launch, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the CBN has said.
Emefiele made the revelation at the first anniversary of the eNaira launch in Lagos, Tuesday.
eNaira was formally launched by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Aso Villa on Monday 25 October 2021.
According to him, the eNaira is expected to enhance financial inclusion, support poverty reduction, enable direct welfare disbursement to citizens, support a resilient payments ecosystem, improve the availability and usability of central bank money, facilitate diaspora remittances, reduce the cost of processing cash, and reduce cost and improve efficiency of cross-border payment among others.
The eNaira is designed to provide Nigerians with a cheap, safe and trusted means of payment within the domestic and global economy, he said.
After one year of its launch, over 3,305 merchants have successfully registered on the eNaira platform across the country including Shoprite, Sahad Stores, A.A. Rano fuelling stations, Fraser Suites, November Cubes, among others.
Other milestones achievement of the eNaira show that 33 banks are fully integrated it on their platform, N3.00 billion has been successfully minted by the Central Bank, and N2.10 billion has been issued to financial institutions.
” There are over 2.5 million daily visits to the eNaira website,” said Emefiele.
“We celebrate the successes achieved so far by the CBN and all Nigerians, it must be acknowledged that the journey is iterative and today is just another step and not the destination. Therefore, the team continues to work fastidiously to bring enhanced features and improved user experience to the eNaira. To this end, the coverage of collaboration was enlarged in a bid to further drive adoption.”
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As with most digital revolutions, he said the eNaira is a journey that started five years ago, precisely 2017. It is not a one-off event, but a journey of possibilities.
Emefiele said the Bank will continue to refine, fine-tune and upgrade it.
He said Nigerians should expect to see additional functionalities in the coming months, including, onboarding of revenue collection agencies to increase and simplify collections, collaborating with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs through 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.
“The CBN acknowledges the daunting task ahead. We therefore call on all relevant stakeholders, including the Financial Institutions, NIBSS, FinTech groups, Telcos and merchants to collaborate, innovate, deepen and enhance the value of eNaira to Nigerians and to Nigeria. It is the Bank’s hope that the eNaira will drive the digital economy agenda and foster a more prosperous Nigeria,” Emefiele said.
