The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has stated that all merchants and business outlets in the country must accept the country’s first digital currency, eNaira as a form of payment for business transactions.
Speaking on Business Morning on Channels television on Monday, CBN’s director of payment system management , Musa Jimoh said eNaira is a legal tender as same as naira. He also said that the liability of the eNaira money is directly on CBN, which is similar to the cash one has at hand.
He emphasized that the eNaira is a journey and it is not expected that all Nigerians will have the eNaira by October 1 but stated that the importance of the eNaira is that it would save the cost of printing new naira notes as the cost of producing the naira is very high but the minting of e-naira is electronic and reduces cost. He also said that the charges of transferring funds would be lower for those using the eNaira.
The CBN director said that Nigeria is the only country implementing the eNaira in Africa, whereas on the foreign scene, it is China and the Bahamas that are involved in the Central bank digital currency.
He encouraged Nigerian to open eNaira wallets, which could be downloaded on mobile phones from October 1.
The e-naira is a digital currency, a digital representation of the physical naira which the CBN says will launch on October 1st. Transactions will be possible between two parties that both have an eNaira wallet, which enables storing, sending and receiving eNaira.
