…..says 45% Nigerian adults without bank accounts
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday unveiled the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code for the eNaira, the nation’s digital currency.
The bank, in a tweet, assured that the code, *997#, would help deepen financial inclusion as all transactions can be accessed through the channel.
The CBN in the tweet further maintained that the digital currency would support poverty reduction, enable direct welfare disbursement, support a resilient payments ecosystem, improve availability usability of money, facilitate diaspora remittances, reduce the cost of processing cash & improve the efficiency of cross-border payment.
It tweeted: “CBN continues to show its commitment to inclusive and welfare-centred policies espoused in policy communication and action through various development finance initiatives under the leadership of the Governor, Godwin I. Emefiele.
“The eNaira USSD channel in time would be used as a tool for interventions and welfare disbursements to Nigerians towards enhancing economic prosperity and improving the standard of living for all Nigerians”, it added.
The bank explained that the choice of the USSD as the premium offline channel for the eNaira derived from an understanding of the peculiarities of the Nigerian economy.
This is even as it disclosed that despite the efforts to bring the unbanked into the banking net, about 45 percent of adult Nigerians had yet to open any bank account while 35.9 percent remained excluded from formal financial services.
Speaking at the unveiling of the code in Kano, the Deputy Governor of CBN (Operations), Mr. Folashodun Shonubi, stressed that the launch of the code was a significant milestone in achieving the objective of the second phase of the eNaira project.
The phase is aimed at driving financial inclusion by on-boarding un-banked and underserved users leveraging the offline channels.
Specifically, Shonubi said that the event was organized “to launch the eNaira USSD channel using *997# for onboarding and transactions”, adding that the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) Instant payment solution would be available before the end of August for eNaira transactions.
The bank’s deputy governor, Kingsley Obiora, had hinted of the move during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) African Department Speakers Series held virtually in June.
The apex bank had in October last year disclosed it minted N500 million eNaira and issued N200 million eNaira to banks.
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari launched the digital currency on October 25, 2021, thereby making Nigeria the first African country to launch a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
