Follow Us on Google
•Urges telcos, businesses to adopt USSD
By Chinwendu Obienyi
Amid its ongoing efforts to improve the nation’s payment infrastructure, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it is planning to create a new eNaira ecosystem and has therefore urged Nigerians and businesses to adopt the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for transactions and trade. This was even as the apex bank revealed that it is currently in talks with more telecommunications companies to help Nigerian key into USSD adoption.
The Coordinator, eNaira, CBN Rakiya Mohammed, stated this at a media parley which also had the representation of its technical partners BULLNET and Balogun Business Association (BBA) in Lagos on Thursday.
Mohammed stated that the eNaira was introduced to improve financial inclusion in Nigeria, increase cross border transactions, diaspora remittances and complement the nation’s payment infrastructure.
Represented by Project Giant Team, eNaira, Otaru Abdulkadir, she noted that the cashless policy has enormous gains in the long run and that the CBN was doing all it can to create an eNaira ecosystem.
“People have been quite receptive to the eNaira, the figure we have at the moment is a successful growing figure. However, pending when we can have more tech companies, banks, businesses, then we can have a full ecosystem or create a new eNaira ecosystem. Hence, we need to create the businesses where you can spend with the eNaira and this is what the CBN has been doing in that area to make the innovation to be successful.
We are also planning to onboard the traders at Balogun Market. Thankfully we have a representative here regardless of the type of phone they use. We have had a lot of tech firms, PoS operators come forward and we like what firms such as BULLNET is doing and we are using this opportunity to appeal to stakeholders in this transactional ecosystem which includes merchants, traders, organisations to come onboard with the eNaira project just in case they need assistance”.
She also noted eNaira transactions are currently only enabled on MTN and 9mobile users but that the CBN is currently in talks with other stakeholders to include others to widen the adoption and acceptance of the eNaira nationwide.
Whilst commending BULLNET for coming up with the *997*50# code, Mohammed said, “This corresponds with our aim of the eNaira which includes reaching out to the financially excluded and the unbanked. We had to not only do something that works on the smartphone but something that works on any feature phone and with tech companies coming on board such as BULLNET, people with limited internet services can fund their eNaira wallet and have a safe wallet to be able to transact without having to go through the difficulties of having cash at hand.
With the eNaira, we have a resilient infrastructure that can handle the requirements of the cashless policy and if we are able to drive the adoption of the eNaira efficiently, this will take away the pressure of the current cash crunch and issues with financial transactions in the country. As of today, we are able to transact on the eNaira with four methods which include scan to pay, wallet ID, USSD (*997#) and voucher. We have been working behind the scenes, identifying partner agents and sensitizing people on the eNaira. We are also speaking with government MDAs to be able to find more ways payment can be made with the eNaira. This speaks to government collections, remittances and the likes”.
Also speaking, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, BULLNET, Bayo Akintoye noted that the technology offered is completely safe and has limited downtime which would foster effectiveness in trade as transactions are done quickly and easily.
He said: “Users can also transfer eNaira from one wallet to another simply by inputting the recipient’s phone number. The service also makes it possible for users to cash out by sending the eNaira directly from their wallets to an ATM and withdrawing the cash equivalent without the need for a bank account or bank card. The user can also send eNaira to a designated bank account for savings or further transactions.”
