Banks Responsible For eNaira Failure, Emefiele Says

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele has expressed his displeasure over the near flop of the country’s digital currency, the e-Naira.

Emefiele said the banks abandoned the use of the e-Naira because it does not attract charges like normal deposits and withdrawals.

 He blamed the banks for restricting the use of the country’s digital currency because they want to lose revenue from conventional banking.

According to him, there are only 700,000 eNaira wallets since it was launched in October last year despite the presence of about 55 million bank accounts in the country.

 e-Naira undermines banks’ profit-making drive

Bloomberg report cited a Central Bank source as saying that only 700,000 customers have created an e-Naira account since it was introduced in October last year despite over 55 million bank accounts in Nigeria.

According to the report, Emefiele said that there is apathy in the banks.

He said the reason the banks have not wholly embraced the e-Naira is that it does not have any charges, unlike transfers or payments that are done using platforms owned by banks or bank portals.

The apex bank’s helmsman said that the country’s digital currency undermines the investments that the banks made in mobile banking so as to raise fees and commission-based income.

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Plans underway to create wallets for the unbanked

 Emefiele stated that the CBN is almost done with tests with telecommunication giants, MTN Group to give a channel to allow Nigerians without bank accounts to own e-Naira wallets.

According to Nairametrics, the CBN boss chided the banks and fintech operators for the slow adoption of the e-Naira.

Cryptocurrency adoption overshadows interest in e-Naira Legit.ng reported that the free-fall of the Nigerian currency, the Naira at both the official and parallel markets coupled with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s failure to pay adequate attention to Africa’s first CBDC, the e-naira has led to a majority of Nigerians abandoning the nascent digital currency

Nairametrics report from Google Trends and corroborated by Legit.ng indicates that the interest of Nigerians in the e-Naira has waned over time since it was launched on October 25, 2021. From the date of the launch to the end of October last year, interest in e-Naira grew massively, overshadowing desires for cryptocurrencies.