The transactions conducted on the Central Bank of Nigeria, -CBN’s digital currency, the e-Naira, platform have hit N4billion since its introduction in October 2021.
Announcing this update at the grand finale of the e-Naira Hackathon event held in Abuja on Thursday, the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said: “Since the launch of this great initiative, the e-Naira has reached 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets comprising over 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets. “In addition, volume and value of transactions on the platform have been remarkable, reaching above 200,000 and N4 billion, respectively.”
Emefiele revealed that regardless of the commendable successes recorded in the initiative, the CBN which is the apex bank in Nigeria, would be collaborating with private sector operators, and they have started the second phase of the e-Naira.
“Regardless of this commendable progress, the second phase of the project has started and it is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding unbanked and underserved users leveraging offline channels.
“Hence, greater success is envisioned for the project with phase two expected to deliver more profits with a target of about 8,000,000 active users based on estimations using the diffusion of innovation model,” he had said.
He furthermore stated that the Central Bank remains strategic in mapping the future of the Naira by balancing innovation with the stability of the currency.