Nigeria Reports The Use Of eNaira, Millions Of People Using It, Bright Prospects For Digital Currency

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele (photo:

JAKARTA - Nigeria's central bank digital currency (CBDC), eNaira, is about to enter the second phase of expansion with new technologies to increase its user base. This was stated by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday, August 18 while speaking at the eNaira Hackathon 2022 in Abuja. The digital currency eNaira, is the first CBDC in Africa, to be launched in October 2021.

“eNaira is a journey, not a one-time event,” said Emefiele as quoted by Cointelegraph. "We have no choice but to live with the fact that we are now in a digital economy, in a digital space, where cash users will disappear to almost zero."

“The second phase of the project has started and is intended to encourage financial inclusion by including unbanked and underserved users with a target of around 8 million active users,” said Emefiele.

This CBDC has approximately 840.000 downloads, with approximately 270.000 active wallets, including 252.000 consumer wallets. There were about 200.000 transactions worth 4 billion naira (approximately IDR 142 billion according to the official exchange rate).

“The central bank is introducing Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) “next week,” said Emefiele, to allow users to create an eNaira wallet by pressing a four-digit code on their phone, regardless of whether or not they have a bank account.

After that, users with bank accounts will be able to use the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIPS) instant payment system to make transfers between bank accounts. eNaira already has an app that allows users to pay for utilities and a number of other services.

“In addition, the eNaira Hackathon platform will be layered onto the eNaira platform to provide more functionality,” said Daniel Awe, head of Africa Fintech Foundry.

The organization and the central bank were co-sponsors of the hackathon, which was attended by 4.667 startups. Of these, ten received prizes, ranging from 1 million to 5 million naira.

Due to the volatility of fiat currencies, both naira and eNaira face strong competition from cryptocurrencies, despite an “implicit ban” on cryptocurrencies in the country.