Nigeria Central Bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed at the just concluded eNaira Hackathon in Abuja, the re-launch of eNaira, Africa’s first CBDC, that Nigerians would now be able to transact on eNaira wallet through the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code on mobile phones, thereby providing more possibilities of it’s expansion to support the resilient payment eco-system.
The eNaira, a central bank digital currency, which is backed by law and issued by the CBN as a legal tender, will allow both the banked and unbanked, to open an eNaira wallet and conduct transactions by simply dialling *997# form their phones, both merchant and consumers with bank accounts can use the NIBSSinstant payment (NIP) to transfer and receive eNaira to any bank account.
This will encourage rapid financial inclusion in the country, reduce the cost of processing cash enable direct and transparent welfare intervention to citizens, and increase revenue and tax collection.
The eNaira would also facilitate diaspora remittances, reduces the cost of financial transactions and improve the efficiency of payment which will fast-track financial inclusion in the country via the digital payment infrastructure.
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