More Nigerians Embraces E-Naira Mobile Application, Nears 1 Million Downloads

E-Naira Mobile Application has so far recorded 905,588 downloads, with 282,600 active users. 

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefile declared yesterday at the CBN headquarters in Abuja. The CBN governor said more Nigerians are gradually embracing the eNaira wallet. 

It could be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched eNaira in October 2021 as a digital form of Naira which can be used just like cash. The eNaira is equal in value to the paper naira.

E-Naira clearly differs from cryptocurrency because it is issued by a central authority, regulated and subject to banking laws. 

According to the CBN governor, about 1.5 million transactions worth over N3.484 billion has been carried out on eNaira wallets. 

A partial breakdown shows that customers-to-banks transactions have reached 78,115 transactions with a monetary worth of about N1 billion while banks to customers transactions stood at 90,760 with monetary worth of N945 million. 

Furthermore, customers-to-customers transactions stood at 35,800 with a capital value of N480 million while customer-to-merchant transactions have reached 171,000 transactions with a worth of more than N387 million.

Meanwhile, the CBN governor added that the introduction of the USSD short code to access eNaira has further driven its adoption. In August 2022, the central bank introduced a short code *997# as a supplementary service for the eNaira. 

Emefiele stated that 13,136 e-Naira wallets have been created through the unstructured supplementary service data (USSD). He declared that the apex bank is happy with the growth of eNaira while the bank expects the number to rise exponentially in the coming months. 

Nigeria is the first country in Africa to launch a digital currency. According to the Central Bank, a digital naira is aimed to drive inclusion, digital economy and the cashless policy of the central bank. 

Investors King learnt that other countries which have a digital currency include China, Bahamas and Jamaica.