CBN Targets 100% Cashless Economy

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it will be taking decisive steps to ensure that the country operates on a 100 per cent cashless economy as the enaira records over N8 billion in transactions in its first year of operation.

Speaking at the first-year anniversary of the enaira, the country’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in Lagos yesterday, the Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele said the goal of the apex bank is to make Nigeria 100 per cent cashless.

He noted that all infrastructure that is needed to ensure this such as the CBDC, online banking, Payment System Banks (PSBs), point of sale terminals (POS) agent banking, mobile banking and ATMs have since been deployed to ensure the smooth operations of a cashless economy.

To this effect, Emefiele said the CBN will from today, Wednesday October 26, 2022 begin to issue pronouncements that is directed at ensuring a 100 per cent cashless economy. “The destination as far as I am concerned is to achieve 100 per cent cashless economy in Nigeria. I know that those who doubt us will say that 100 per cent cashless is unattainable. Yes it is true, but Nigeria must move from being a predominantly cash economy to a predominantly cashless economy.

“At this time, I can say from what I have read from online banking to POS to ATM, mobile banking working and collaborating with the I want to say we have provided all the needed infrastructure that will enable us make cashless a nationwide journey. It is not something that some of us will like but we would in the coming weeks and months make pronouncements that must make cashless go nationwide.

“I believe part of those pronouncements will begin from  tomorrow and there will be some breaking news tomorrow.  Even the bankers committee will hold a special bankers committee meeting to morrow to deliberate on this, so let us expect the news.”

Meanwhile, he stated that in the one year since the enaira was launched, 33 banks in the country are fully integrated and live on the platform. Also, he revealed that N3.00 billion has been successfully minted by the CBN with N2.10 billion issued to financial institutions.

Asides this he said about 919,000 customers have been onboarded, while over 3,305 merchants have successfully registered on the eNaira platform across the country including Shoprite, Sahad Stores, A.A. Rano fuelling stations, Fraser Suites, November Cubes, among others.

Emefiele also revealed that over 700,000 transactions amounting to about N8.00 billion have been recorded on the platform, while over 2.5 million daily visits to the eNaira website. “As we celebrate the successes achieved so far by the CBN and all Nigerians, it must be acknowledged that the journey is iterative and today is just another step and not the destination.

“Therefore, the team continues to work fastidiously to bring enhanced features and improved user experience to the eNaira. To this end, the coverage of collaboration was enlarged in a bid to further drive adoption.

“Specifically, the Bank engaged Partner agents, which are corporate entities  to sensitize users, promote the eNaira and facilitate the onboarding of large number of new eNaira users, in collaboration with the project team.”

He furthered that the CBN would continue to refine, fine-tune and upgrade the enaira saying “Nigerians should expect to see additional functionalities in the coming months, including onboarding of revenue collection agencies to increase and simplify collections.

“Nigerians should also expect collaboration with the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs through 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.”