The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has revealed it is set to introduce the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code as a mode to help over 30 percent of Nigerians who are yet to get into the financial system.

The Deputy Governor of the CBN, Kingsley Obiora, explained this at the IMF African Department Speakers Series held virtually on Friday.

“We have made serious progress in the last seven to eight years because when the current governor resumed in 2014, one of the pillars of his vision was to significantly improve financial inclusion.

“So at the time, we were at 48 percent of our population within the financial system, and given several policies that he conceived and implemented, we are almost at 70 percent.

“That still leaves us with about 30 percent of our population out of the financial system and we believe the CBDC can help reduce that number even more.

“A lot of people might not have smartphones but that is essentially the next step of our improvement in the CBDC, to introduce the USSD code, so those that do not have smartphones can still transact,” Mr. Obiora said.

Accordingly, the CBN deputy governor explained that the eNaira platform has a low obstacle, making it easy for anyone with a Bank Verification Number (BVN) to be logged into the eNaira platform in a matter of minutes.

He said that the country’s digital payments had increased in value from $324 billion in 2008 to almost $2.4 trillion now and that Nigerians are now accustomed to using them.

“As you know, within the continent we have one of the largest Fintech companies, Futterwave, Paystack, etc,” he stated.

The CBN opted to introduce the CBDC because it offered enormous benefits for Nigeria, he added.

Mr Obiora claimed a number of advantages, including increased financial inclusion, lower cash processing costs, direct welfare payments to citizens, and a reduction in the informal sector.

Others include increasing tax collection, enhancing cross-border trade and remittances, lowering payment costs and increasing efficiency, and just promoting economic growth in general.

Investors King gathered that the eNaira, being Africa’s first digital currency, has risen to the top of the global retail CBDC rankings, with app downloads increasing to 756,000 from 700,000 in December 2021.

Likewise, eNaira was given a retail index rating of 95 in the survey, and the country was also placed first in Africa. The index is based on research from the BIS, the World Bank, and PwC.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has on Saturday, refuted rumours that it planned to replace the Naira notes in circulation with digital currency, otherwise known as the eNaira, in due course. 

The apex bank, through its CBN Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, said the statement released, supposedly during the stakeholders’ engagement on eNaira adoption in Asaba, Delta was “misconstrued” and therefore called on the public to completely disregard it.

Nwanisobi said: “The digital version of the naira is meant to complement the existing currency notes and therefore, will circulate simultaneously as means of exchange and store of value.

“The digital legal tender aside from the safety and speedy features, it will also ensure greater access to financial services by the underbanked and unbanked populace thereby enhancing financial inclusion”. 

He therefore urged members of the public and business owners to embrace the digital currency, the eNaira as it offers more possibilities. 

Investors King recalls that in the early hours of Saturday, the Delta State Branch Controller of CBN, Mr Godwin Okafor, had revealed that the Paper currency (Naira) will soon be out of circulation, urging citizens to patronise e-Naira.

Godwin had explained that the bank is the market to further educate the people on the use and importance of the digital currency which is fully backed by the apex bank, unlike Bitcoin which has no legal backing.

He had made the statement at the popular Ogbogonogo market, Delta, during the market sensitisation on e-Naira.

“Paper currency will soon be out of circulation because CBN spent money to print money and people abuse the currency in the market, spraying at the occasion, payment of Okada/tricycle and others and CBN is losing”, he had revealed.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said the adoption of its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) known as eNaira will deepen financial inclusion, ease the nation’s payment bottleneck and support transborder transactions across Africa and beyond.

Godwin Emefile, the governor of the apex bank disclosed this on Monday while receiving Bank of Uganda delegates, who were on an experience sharing tour of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), in Abuja.

He said, “the CBDC would enhance the relationship between mobile banking and e-business and speed up the rate of financial inclusion.”

“The eNaira, being the first of its kind for a large country like Nigeria, was attracting the interests of many countries, Uganda inclusive.

“We’ve been receiving enquiries from various Central Banks in different parts of Africa and the world, trying to understand what we are doing in the area of CBDC. We are happy that the IMF and World Bank have recognised what we are doing in the area of CBDC.

“However, the country has deepened its payment system infrastructure, and is ranked among the best in the world.”

What it is

Earlier in October 2021, Investors king reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria launched the eNaira, after over 20 days of supposed launch.

The eNaira is a Central Bank Digital Currency backed by law and issued by the CBN as a legal tender. It is the digital form of the Naira used as cash.

The Digital currency was introduced to provide high‐value and time‐critical payment services to financial institutions, and ultimately serves as the backbone for every electronic payment in Nigeria,” President Muhammadu Buhari said.

Nigeria became the first country in Africa and one of the first in the world to introduce a digital currency to our citizens, according to Investors king.