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•Says 25m Nigerians have eNaira wallets
By Chinwendu Obienyi
Apparently worried about the low adoption of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) otherwise known as the eNaira, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it is currently reviewing the eNaira model and assured volume of adoption will increase before the end of the year.
This is even as the apex bank revealed that over 20 or 25 million people who are registered and have wallets , noting that it intends to leverage on the recent reforms to attract Diaspora remittances to help moderate exchange rate pressures.
The Acting Governor, CBN, Folashodun Shonubi, stated this while fielding questions from newsmen after the 2-day Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting which ended in Abuja on Tuesday.
Whilst stating that the apex bank will continue to learn, tweak and change the model, Shonubi expressed his concern over the level of activity.
“We have over 20 or 25 million people who are registered and have wallets but we have not seen the level of activity that commensurate with that number of people. So we continue to talk to them. The volumes increase, and we learn with each passing day. We are reviewing the model and we think soon definitely before the end of the year you will see significant growth and changes because the feedback we have gotten from the public and the marketplace has been distilled and we are listening to them. We believe it is going to have an impact on the adoption and then maybe we would have less new Naira notes to print”, Shonubi said.
He further explained that the apex bank was not trying to unify rates but encourage the markets to be more efficient and to be more effective which takes a bit of time. According to him, some of the volatility seen in the FX market is due to the pent-up demand.
“Some of the volatility you have seen over the period has been driven by that same fact that the market needs to find its level and also the reality that there is a pent up demand which current supply may not be sufficient for and as we ease and satisfy the pent up demand we will begin to see more efficient markets that runs.”
So we expect that over time, sooner rather than later. The volatility will normalize. The role of the central bank is to intervene and keep the market at a fairly stable level. We have our views as to what that level is and as the market continues to oscillate around that level, if there is a need for us to intervene either by buying or selling, that is the role of the Central bank”, the acting CBN Governor said.
He noted that Committee also recognized the several measures put in place by the apex bank to boost foreign exchange liquidity and added that members of the MPC were of the view that the recent policy on foreign exchange market reform would increase market transparency and encourage more foreign capital inflows.
Shonubi also revealed that the members urged the bank to leverage on effective policies to attract remittances from diaspora to help moderate exchange rate pressures.
