Eniola Olorundare
The official website of the upcoming Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) digital currency, the eNaira, has gone live, exactly one week to the planned launch of the initiative.
The website has already recorded over a million hits barely 24 hours after going live.
This is a reflection of the level of interest in the proposed digital currency. The website promises easier financial transactions for users of eNaira, offers opportunity for peer-to-peer payments which allows users to send money to one another through a linked bank account or card; allows customers to move money from their bank account to their eNaira wallet with ease; can monitor their eNaira wallet, check balances and view transaction history; and make in-store payment using their eNaira wallet by scanning QR codes.
SEE ALSO: CBN announces Bitt Inc. as Tech. Partner for its eNaira
CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, in a discourse with foreign investors in New York, said that activities surrounding the country’s Independence celebration on October 1, the earlier planned launch of the eNaira on same date would likely be rescheduled to October 4, 2021.
“The central bank would not want the event to take the shine away from the Independence celebration,
“We are going to be the first country in Africa to launch a digital currency,” he said.
The e-Naira will be a digit representative of the paper Naira currency issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
eNaira, will be a legal tender just like the naira that must be accepted by all merchants and business outlets as a form of payment in the country, Musa Jimoh, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) director of payment system management, has said.
The CBN has made it mandatory as a form of exchange between businesses and companies.
The e-Naira can be the ECOWAS currency as this means a trader banking with UBA in Burkina Faso can settle his import bills from the Gambia using e-Naira. This will be the next level of the rollout according to CBN.
The risk of malicious actors attempting to hack or gain access to the data is very low as steps are been taken to control the development.
OPINION: It is very instrumental that the government tries to put it’s microeconomic policies under control as this will directly or indirectly affect the digital currency in the long run.
