CBN seeks e-Naira onboarding by Nigerians at Lagos Trade Fair

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has urged participants at the ongoing Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF) to be part of history by joining the over one million Nigerians who have downloaded the e-Naira Speed Wallet.

Taking this position at the ‘CBN Special Day’ at the LITF, the apex bank’s Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mr Osita Nwanisobi, said, “The world is fast-moving to a digitised economy and Nigeria cannot be found lagging. Hence, the introduction of the Central Bank Digital Currency, the e-Naira, the first of its kind in Africa ranking amongst the best in the world.”

He added, “While the CBN will continue to refine, fine-tune and upgrade the platform with additional functionalities in the near term, the e-Naira has recorded over 700,000 transactions worth about N8 billion within its first year (October 2022).

“Thirty-three banks have been fully integrated and live on the platform. In addition to the foregoing, over 1.0 million customers have been onboarded while over 3,305 merchants have successfully registered on the e-Naira platform across the country. I enjoin you to be part of history by downloading your e-Naira Speed Wallet and getting on boarded today if you have not.”

Highlighting the benefits of the e-Naira, Nwanisobi, who was represented by Mr Sam Okogbue, a top executive in the department said, “The payment platform, with the slogan ‘same Naira, more possibilities,’ aims at enhancing financial inclusion: supporting Nigeria’s strong, stable, and resilient payment ecosystem; reducing the cost of processing cash and enabling direct and transparent welfare intervention to citizens.

“Other benefits derivable from the policy include, but not limited to, increasing revenue and tax collection; facilitating diaspora remittances and reducing the cost of transaction as well as improving the efficiency of payments.”

Also speaking, the President, LCCI, Dr Michael Olawale-Cole, said the country today is facing an extremely challenging environment where inflation is being driven by a range of different shocks.

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However, amid heightened economic uncertainties, it is important to note that the Nigerian financial market has remained resilient and stable with Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) and the Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 13.4 per cent and 40.1 per cent,respectively which are above the prudential limits.

Also, Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) improved slightly at 4.8 per cent below the five per cent regulatory threshold, he observed.

Olawale-Cole urged the monetary authorities to maintain a stern look at all the crucial indicators  to mitigate risks and threats facing the economy.

He further noted that in challenging times like this, the CBN has remained loyal to its mandate – to ensure price stability. Though, the decisions to bring inflation back may be difficult but the consequences of letting too high inflation become entrenched would be much worse for everyone, Olawale-Cole added.