The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) eNaira took off today with the sum of over N500m of the currency minted.
The Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN, Governor Godwin Emefiele said 33 banks have been fully integrated and live on the platform.
Speaking at the launch of the eNaira in Abuja on Monday, Emefiele disclosed that over 2.5 million people visit the website daily.
He said another N200 million has been issued to financial institutions.
Over 2,000 customers have been onboarded and 120 merchants have successfully registered on the eNaira platform, Emefiele stated.
immediately after the launch, Emefiele revealed that “customers who download the eNaira Speed Wallet App will be able to perform the following: onboard and create their wallet; fund their eNaira wallet from their bank account; transfer eNaira from their wallet to another wallet and make payment for purchases at registered merchant locations.”
The CBN, he said, “will continue to refine, fine-tune and upgrade the eNaira” and he assured that “Nigerians should expect to see additional functionalities in the coming months”.
Some of the additional functionalities include: accessibility and onboarding of customers without BVN and the use of the eNaira on the phone without the internet to further drive financial inclusion, making Nigeria one of the first countries in the world to deploy the CBDC via USSD on phones without relying on internet connectivity.
Another feature that will be deployed by the eNaira is the “onboarding of revenue collection agencies to increase and simplify collections and the creation of sector- specific tokens to support the Federal Government’s social programmes and distribution of targeted welfare schemes in a bid to lift millions out of poverty by 2025”.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria has said that all transactions conducted on the newly launched digital currency platform, eNaira will be free for 90 days.
The bank, however, stated that it will revert to its guide on applicable charges by banks and other financial and non-financial institutions at the end of the stated period.
The apex bank disclosed this in the framework titled, ‘eNaira Circular and Guidelines’ released on today.’
This was made known after President has launched the currency in Abuja on Monday.
The CBN said, “The charges for transactions that originate from the eNaira platform shall be free for the first 90 days commencing from October 25, 2021, and then revert to applicable charges as outlined in the Guide to Charges by Banks, Other Financial and Non-bank Financial Institutions.”
The apex bank noted that Electronic Funds Transfer below N5,000 is charged N10; N5,001 – N50,000 is charged N25 and for above N50,000, a N50 charge is associated.
The bank also said phone numbers without verified National Identification Number (Tier 0) will have a daily transaction limit of N20,000, while the maximum that the account can hold is N120,000.
For phone numbers with verified NIN or Tier 1, CBN said they have a daily transaction cap of N50,000 and a maximum balance of N300,000.
Tier Two accounts will have access to a daily transaction of N200,000, while N500,000 is the maximum balance that can be held.
The Tier 3 account holder can transact a maximum of N1m daily, while the Maximum balance it can hold is N5m.
However, the CBN noted that merchant accounts have access to unlimited transactions.
According to the Bank, merchants are duly accredited individuals and non-individual (corporates) authorized to conduct business in Nigeria.
