On Monday, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, disclosed that the e-naira circulation rose to N401.82 million after the transaction volume rose from over N4 billion to N5 billion.
DAILY POST learnt this when the CBN’s Director of Information and Technology, Hajiya Rakiya Mohammed, was speaking at the Second Edition of the Africa Cashless Payment Conference.
Rakiya Mohammed revealed that transaction on e-naira does not attract any charges, saying Nigeria’s financial ecosystem is large to accommodate everyone.
She explained that onboarding into the e-naira is simple as the Apex bank pushes to achieve the financial inclusiveness of Nigerians.
She stressed that the primary goal of the e-naira is to reduce the amount of cash in circulation, thereby downsizing the cost of producing paper currency, increase in revenue and direct disbursement to citizens.
She says, “Currently, 401.82 million is in circulation, with transactions of over N3.5 billion.
“Both banked and unbanked can use it, and it can be done through USSD *997#. We have integrated it with telecoms and NIBBS instant payments plus integration with money transfer operations so you can use e-naira for cross border.”
On October 25, 2021, Nigeria pioneered the first digital currency in Africa, the e-naira.