The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday unveiled *997# as the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code for e-Naira, the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
The apex bank unveiled the code in Kano State as part of efforts to ensure a cashless society.
Mr. Folashadun Adebisi Shonubi, the Deputy Governor, Operations Directorate of the CBN, who launched the USSD code in Kano, said this was another milestone in delivering digital financial services to Nigerians and enabling their participation in the global digital economy.
According to him, e-Naira offers Nigerians endless possibilities when it comes to financial services and embodied its slogan: “Same Naira, More Opportunities.”
He said “Today marks a significant milestone towards achieving the objective of the second phase of the project which is to drive financial inclusion by onboarding unbanked and underserved users leveraging the offline channels.
“Specifically, we are here to launch the eNaira USSD channel using *997# for onboarding and transactions.
“The choice of the USSD as the premium offline channel for the eNaira is founded in an understanding of the peculiarities of our economy,” Shonubi explained.
He, however, urged Nigerians to embrace e-Naira as it is safe and would help in reducing the number of the country’s unbanked population.
“Approximately, 45 per cent of adult Nigerians do not have a bank account while 35.9 per cent are excluded from formal financial services.
“However, around 81 per cent of the adult population in Nigeria (86 million out of 106 million) own mobile phones (EFInA, 2021), in addition, there are about 150 million Mobile Subscribers in Nigeria (NCC, June 2022).
“Therefore, the eNaira seeks to leverage the huge opportunity mobile telecommunications presents as a distribution channel for the offering of digital financial services to the underserved and unbanked population” he stated.
Speaking on the reason for launching in Kano first, Hajiya Rakiya Muhammad, the Director, Information Technology Department of the CBN, said the CBN chose Kano to unveil the eNaira code because of its economic significance in the country.
Muhammad said: “We believe if Kano accepts the eNaira, everyone will accept it all over the country.”
