Nigeria is taking steps to promote the use of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the eNaira, with Acting Governor Folashodun Shonubi of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announcing Wednesday that the country is changing its eNaira model to encourage more use. The eNaira was introduced in October 2021, and since then the number of eNaira wallets has grown more than 12-fold to 13 million. To make the service more user-friendly, the CBN has upgraded its eNaira app to enable contactless payments.
Despite the growth in eNaira wallets, the number is still small for a country with a population of close to 224 million. Additionally, the value of eNaira transactions up to March this year was only 22 billion naira ($48 million at the time). This is due to the country’s large informal economy that relies heavily on cash and has too few merchants and little infrastructure for extensive eNaira use.
For many, using the eNaira isn’t straightforward, according to The Sun. The CBN has yet to provide details of the planned changes to the eNaira model.