By Chinwendu Obienyi
Amid increased sensitisation about the e-Naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), some Nigerians appear not convinced that the initiative was what Nigeria needs at the moment although several others have commended the apex bank
The e-Naira made its debut last year and ever since been crawling in search of acceptability despite the huge push by the CBN to improve its adoption.
Mr Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor last Tuesday, while marking the first anniversary of the e-Naira disclosed that over 700,000 eNaira transactions worth N8 billion have been recorded in the last one year of its launch.
According to him, 33 banks have been fully integrated and live on the platform, N3 billion has been successfully minted by the bank while N2.10 billion has been issued to financial institutions.
He stated that about 1.0 million customers have been onboarded, over 3,305 merchants have successfully registered on the eNaira platform across the country while adding that the digital currency will not be a one-off. “We at CBN will continue to refine, fine-tune and upgrade it and we will do our very best to make sure every Nigerian comes onboard. Nigerians should expect to see additional functionalities in the coming months”
However, investigations by Daily Sun revealed that the e-Naira still has a 3+ rating and about 500,000 downloads.
Mrs Bose Ogunsanya, who sells food items at the Ajah market in Lagos, said she does not see the usefulness of the app at a time when Nigeria is in an economic quagmire.
“I am a market woman and I prefer to use cash to pay the bills of what I get to buy at the market. At first, my kids were telling me about it. I just want to be enjoying it but they on the other hand are tech savvy.
I do not see the e-Naira to be successful unless the CBN takes sensitization to the right places like markets so that we of the old generation can understand how to use the app”, she said.
Another trader, Samson Okereke, said, he still needs more convincing to be able to use the app and added that some of his friends who had rushed to download the app as last year are not using it any longer.
Chiamaka Chigozie, a banker with one the new generation banks, lauded the initiative while adding that there is a lot of improvement that needs to be done.
“I just think some Nigerians are scared of losing their money due to incessant fraud attacks on their bank accounts and so they need convincing which is what the CBN needs to take seriously.
Recently, the CBN in collaboration with Global InfoSwift Limited, took the e-Naira sensitization to the University of Lagos (UNILAG) where it onboarded a good number of students as well lecturers on the e-Naira platform.