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The eNaira has recorded 200,000 volumes and four billion naira value of transactions since its inauguration in October 2021, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has revealed this week in Abuja.
RELATED: The eNAIRA: A Forward-Looking Digital Wallet
Emefiele spoke at the grand finale of the ‘eNaira Hackathon’ – an initiative of the CBN in collaboration with the African Fintec Foundry (AFF).
The NAN reports that the hackathon is aimed at bringing together teams of talented entrepreneurs, developers, designers, solution developers, problem-solvers and ‘code magicians’ from Africa to develop innovative solutions for improved adoption of the eNaira.
The competition was part of efforts by the CBN to drive financial inclusion, facilitate macroeconomic growth and integrate the Nigerian economy into the world-leading economies through innovation and cutting-edge emerging technologies.
With the launch of the eNaira last year by President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria made history as the first African country to launch a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Emefiele said eNaira had reached 840,000 downloads with about 270,000 active wallets comprising more than 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets since it went life.
The digital currency will enhance financial inclusion, support poverty reduction, enable direct welfare disbursement to citizens, support a resilient payments ecosystem and improve availability and usability of central bank money, said Emefiele.
His words: “The eNaira will also facilitate diaspora remittances, reduce the cost of processing cash, and also reduce cost and improve efficiency of cross-border payment.
“The eNaira will make a significant positive difference to Nigeria and Nigerians. It was also developed to provide Nigerians with a cheap, safe and trusted means of payment.
“It is unlike the offline payments channels like agent networks, USSD, wearables, cards and near field communication technology.
COVER IMAGE courtesy: NITDA
