Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Nigerian Central Bank, informed participants at the eNaira Hackathon that the CBDC will become more appealing and accessible due to technological advancements.
According to Nigerian Central Bank governor Godwin Emefiele, who spoke at the 2022 eNaira Hackathon in Abuja on Thursday, the eNaira, the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), would enter the second phase of its development with new technologies to increase its user base. In October 2021, the eNaira, Africa’s first CBDC, was introduced.
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), which will enable customers to create eNaira wallets simply by dialing a four-digit code on their mobile phones regardless of whether they have bank accounts, will be implemented by the central bank “by next week,” according to Emefiele. After that, customers with bank accounts will be able to transfer money instantly between bank accounts using the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIPS). There are currently apps available for the eNaira that let users pay for utilities and various other services.
Nigeria Might Get New Users On air, App Increased Features:
The eNaira platform will also be enhanced with the eNaira Hackathon platform, according to Daniel Awe, CEO of the Africa Fintech Foundry. The central bank and that organization sponsored the hackathon, which received 4,667 startup entries. Ten of them won awards totaling between one million and five million naira.
Despite the country’s “implicit prohibition” on cryptocurrencies, the naira and the eNaira are both subject to fierce competition from cryptocurrencies because of the instability of the fiat currency.
As the latest news arrives, with around 270,000 active accounts, including 252,000 consumer wallets, the CBDC has received about 840,000 downloads. Approximately 200,000 transactions totaling 4 billion nairas have taken place. It is safe to conclude that the second phase has kicked off successfully.
