The Central Bank of Nigeria has said it wants players in the country’s payment industry to develop and help introduce products based on its central bank digital currency, the e-naira.
Suggestions are welcome at the Central Bank
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in an effort to increase the use of the electronic currency, has requested payment service providers and financial institutions to create and offer products that were based on the digital currency.
According to a report by the Vanguard, this plea was made by Rakiya Mohammed — the CBN’s director of the information technology department — when she addressed financial institutions and fintech companies that attended the central bank’s one-day engagement session.
Mohammed, according to some reports, reassured the participants at the meeting that they are not competing with other financial institutions. Mohammed stated that the CBN welcomes suggestions and ideas to improve the user experience or add value to the electronic currency.
Further, Mohammed is also reported to have urged the country’s payment service providers to find more innovative ways to support members of the public with the onboarding process. Her encouragement to service providers was also for them to find solutions that can support offline enaira functions, such as cards, wearables, and USSD among other things.
CBN’s Financial Inclusion Objective
Meanwhile, reports that the CBN is encouraging players in Nigeria’s payment industry to support the CBDC come as the bank’s anti-cryptocurrency governor, Godwin Emefiele, is quoted by another publication claiming that more people are downloading the e-naira wallet application. He said almost 600,000 of the digital currency’s wallet apps have been downloaded since the CBDC’s launch over a month ago.
However, Emefiele — just like the bank’s information technology director — suggested that support from the financial industry will be critical if the CBN is to achieve its goal of hastening the adoption of the e-naira by Nigerians who lack smartphones.
Do you agree that the e-naira’s success hinges on it getting support from financial institutions? Comment below to share your thoughts.
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