The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, on Wednesday disclosed that transactions on the e-Naira platform has risen to N8 billion even as he stressed the economic benefits of the digital currency to Nigeria’s sustainable growth.
Emefiele, who made this disclosure in his address delivered at the 28th Annual Executive Seminar of the apex bank in Abuja, described the digital currency as a huge success which had attracted other countries who now seek the bank’s assistance to also introduce their own currencies.
The CBN Governor enthused: “A major turning point in the Bank’s digitisation journey in the last decade, is the launch, on 25 October 2021, of the eNaira, Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (CBDC). The eNaira was developed to broaden the payment possibilities of Nigerians, foster digital financial inclusion, with potential for fast-tracking intergovernmental and social transfers, capital flow and remittances, among other endless possibilities.
“Since its launch, a total of N8 billion, consisting over 700,000 transactions, has passed through the eNaira platform. As part of the Bank’s effort to further integrate and broaden the usage of the eNaira, it was assigned an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code, enabling payments by simply dialling ‘*997#’ on a mobile phone”, Emefiele added.
Represented at the forum by the Deputy-Governor, Financial Systems Stability, Mrs. Aisha Ahmad, the CBN Governor pointed out that the innovations introduced by the apex bank’s management team were already winning laurels, stressing that that CBN will not relent in its innovative efforts to achieve financial system stability in the country.
He further clarified: “The Bank recently received the coveted Euroknowledge Award in Washington DC, for leadership in innovation and digital transformation in Africa. This feat is the outcome of a disciplined implementation of long-standing strategies, beginning with the Bank’s vision of a cashless society and the continued modernisation of the country’s payments system and financial landscape.
“I am proud to announce to you today that the CBN-CBDC has been attracting accolades across the globe as a monumental success. Our digital currency topped the charts on retail CBDCs projects globally, as at April 2022 (PwC, 2022) and several central banks across the globe have been requesting for our success template on the eNaira. The story of the eNaira has been one of courage, persistence and commitment, by dedicated staff and Management to explore new frontiers and possibilities.”
“However, we are not resting on our oars, given our targets and the challenges earlier noted. This also underscores the importance of this seminar in our search for workable ideas and possible solutions”, he added.
According to him, as part of the apex bank’s digitization drive, the management has taken transformational steps in entrenching a culture of big data and data analytics as tools for effective policy making in the bank.
Emefiele said: “To this end, the CBN Data Architecture Project (CeDAP), code-named “Project OXYGEN” was commissioned, with the objectives of providing a repository of a variety of data from different sources; facilitating real time data analytics to drive business intelligence and support economic policy decisions; optimizing the cost of operations for data management; and improving analytics competencies of members of staff, amongst others.
“In furtherance of the project’s objective, economic dashboards were created with data from the financial system, providing insights on the Bank’s operations. Over the years, the Bank has been able to generate and aggregate high frequency and granular macroeconomic data on the economy in collaboration with external stakeholders. These data serve as input in the decision-making process, enabling data and evidence-driven policies”, he added
In his remarks, the Deputy-Governor Economic Policy, Dr. Kingsley Obiora, described the CBN Executive Seminar as an annual platform for the executive staff and other critical stakeholders to brainstorm on topical economic issues with a view to proffering monetary policy options for the apex bank management’s consideration.
Obiora said that through the past years, the seminar had provided significant inputs towards improving management’s decisions, adding that it is an important avenue to critically search for fresh solutions to emerging monetary and financial challenges confronting the country today.
