…….to subsidize merchant service charge by 50%
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Saturday advised Nigerians and foreigners engaging in business and other transactions to adopt the eNaira, the just launched nation’s digital currency, as a preferred transaction platform in view of the multidimensional benefits to users and the economy.
The CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, who gave the advice at an eNaira Merchant Mega event organised by the CBN in collaboration with Arabatech and the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) in Abuja, said that the eNaira had potential to increase Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by $29 billion over the next 10 years and also eliminate failed transactions.
The governor, who was represented at the event by the bank’s deputy governor, Economic Policies, Dr. Kingsley Obiora, explained that the event was organized to bring together regulators, partners, merchants and other key stakeholders to further deepen the adoption of the eNaira and enhance Nigeria’s quest for economic development driven by a world-class payment system infrastructure.
He promised that the apex bank would continue to innovate and upgrade the eNaira platform by partnering with Fintechs and putting in place a functionally efficient Help Desk to provide support for merchants and other users towards ensuring seamless adoption of the eNaira.
Emefiele expatiated: “More specifically, benefits to the merchants include reduced cash handling costs, elimination of failed transactions, instant settlement, increased speed of transactions, improvement in records keeping and elimination of challenges associated with giving change to customers, amongst others.
“The availability of eNaira payment options on e-Commerce merchant platforms such as Remita is expected to complement the existing digital payment system, translating to about a 50 per cent increment in e-commerce transactions and at a lower cost. Also, the implementation of cross-border transactions in phase three of the eNaira project is expected to increase cross-border trade by about 30 per cent.
“Furthermore, lower transaction cost is expected to increase the usage (transaction volume and value) of eNaira and improve income generation by businesses. In this vein, I am pleased to inform you that the bank recently approved a reward scheme for merchants and other users of the eNaira.
“This reward scheme includes providing merchants with the required promotional (marketing) materials, subsidizing the current Merchant Service Charge by 50 per cent and activation of a nationwide sensitization which early business adopters of eNaira can leverage on to market its wider adoption.
“It is imperative to note that the eNaira platform can now facilitate payments using QR Codes, USSD, Wallet ID and eNaira Wallet tag. Value added services on the platform include branch/sub wallets, employee management (i.e., roles and permissions) as well as interoperability with other enterprise applications. These services are provided in a secure environment as the eNaira platform was built using a very secure security protocol”, the apex bank governor added.
In his remarks at the event, the President, ACCI, Dr. Al-Mujtaba Abubakar, said: “This eNaira event comes at a good time to educate the business community on its benefits and importance because despite the high expectations and hype around the CBN digital currency, the eNaira, the business community is yet to embrace it fully. Newspaper research recently revealed that major retailers and vendors in the country are yet to adopt it about 10 months after the launch.
“If fully embraced, there are several benefits attached to it for the business community. Some of the benefits include; speedy delivery, safe, and simple trading and transactional opportunities to customers and end-users”, the OPS group leader added.
