By Tolulope Oke
According to Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, Nigerians will be able to open an eNaira wallet and perform transactions by dialing the USSD code *997# from their phones.
Emefiele was speaking at the eNaira Hackathon’s Grand Finale, which, in his opinion, represents another significant step in the effort of the central bank to create a strong, long-term monetary system for the nation while also addressing new trends in the global digital economy.
In an effort to fully integrate the digital currency with the current national payment infrastructure, Emefiele said that both Merchants and Consumers with bank accounts can utilize the NIBSS Instant Payment platform to send and receive eNaira into any bank account.
Emefiele characterized the eNaira as important and opportune in terms of supporting the government’s many initiatives for diversification and digitalisation, such as the implementation of the Start-Up Bill, the Nigeria Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), and the National Broadband Strategy.
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The digital currency is anticipated to “enhance financial inclusion, support poverty reduction, enable direct welfare disbursement to citizens, support a resilient payments ecosystem, improve availability and usability of central bank money, facilitate diaspora remittances, reduce the cost of processing cash, and reduce cost and improve the efficiency of cross-borrowing,” Emefiele stressed while emphasizing that the eNaira is the same Naira with a lot more possibilities.
In contrast to offline payment methods including agent networks, USSD, wearables, cards, and near-field communication technologies, the eNaira will provide underserved and unbanked parts of the population with access to financial services.
Emefiele noted that cutting-edge goods and services created on the eNaira would increase Nigerians’ engagement in the digital economy and encourage further growth of a budding Fintech industry.
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