Nigerian CBDC Wallet Update to Enable Utility Payments, USSD Functionality to Be Added – Featured Bitcoin News

Users will soon be able to use the CBDC wallet app in Nigeria for utility payments, such as pay TV and airtime topping-up. People without bank accounts can now make payments with the CBDC by adding the Unstructured Supplemental Service Data (USSD), functionality to their wallet app.

The update process

The wallet app for Nigeria’s central bank digital currency, the e-naira, is set to undergo an update that will see users being able to pay for regular utilities like pay television and airtime top-up, an official with the bank has reportedly said.

According to a Nairametrics report that quotes the official — Yusuf Abdul Jelil — the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will initiate the upgrade process by sending a message to users asking them to update the wallet app. Designated the CBN’s e-naira presentative, Jelil made the remarks while attending an event at Kairo Market in Oshodi, Lagos.

“Any moment from now, there is an update coming, you will get a message on your app directing you to update your eNaira speed wallet. Once you update, those services you are asking for will be there whereby you can pay for DSTV, buy a recharge card, pay for airfare and so on,” the CBN representative said.

In the meantime, Jelil also is quoted in the report revealing how the CBN’s plan to add the USSD functionality to the wallet opens the door for non-account holders to use the CBDC. A blogger and financial professional claims that USSD could be the best technology to offer low-income clients mobile financial services.

USSD 997

Despite the CBN’s initial claims that the e-naira would be beneficial to the financially excluded, the central bank’s CBDC did not come with the USSD functionality. The absence of USSD functionality in the CBDC means that only those who have access to financial services can use the e-naira. The CBN has added the USSD code 997 to make it possible for people without bank accounts use the CBDC.

Meanwhile, Obinna Umeh, the secretary of the Oshodi Market Union, is quoted in the report commending the central bank’s decision to inform Nigerians about the upcoming update. He said prior to Jelil’s latest communication, traders had been inundated with fake wallet app alerts.

“The CBN couldn’t have come at a better time to educate us about e-Naira; there’s almost no day we don’t have to settle disputes about fake alerts, times that we could channel into more productive things,” Umeh is quoted explaining.

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Terence Zimwara

Terence Zimwara, a Zimbabwean journalist, writer and author who has been awarded the Zimbabwe Booker Prize. His writings have covered the economic problems of several African countries and how digital currency can offer an escape route.