Companies in Nigeria must accept e-Naira – CBN

Nigeria’s digital currency eNaira, like the Naira, is a legal tender that must be accepted as a means of payment by all merchants and offices in the country, Musa Jimoh, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), director of payment systems management, said.

The CBN official announced this during an interview on Channels TV’s Business Morning on Monday.

“Today, wherever you present naira for payment, it must be accepted because this is our fiat currency. Just as naira is accepted so that you cannot refuse, e-naira must also be accepted, ”said Jimoh.

The CBN announced plans on Aug. 30 to launch its own digital currency on Oct. 1, after banks were ordered in February to close crypto-related accounts.

CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele said the e-naira would act as a wallet that customers could use to hold existing funds in their bank account and that the currency would accelerate financial integration, which would enable cheaper and faster remittance inflows.

E-naira must be accepted

While urging Nigerians using Android and iPhone mobile devices to download the e-Naira wallet from their respective app stores starting October 1, Jimoh said CBN will bear all of the digital currency’s liabilities.

“Responsibility for the e-naira money rests directly with CBN, similar to the cash you hold. The responsibility for the cash you hold today rests with the CBN. So it gives Nigerians the opportunity to do banking with CBN, ”said Jimoh.

When asked if Nigeria was ready to implement e-naira due to the technological challenges in the country, the official said he did not expect any serious problems.

“E-naira is a journey. We don’t expect all business dealers in Nigeria to accept it on October 1st. We don’t even expect all Nigerians to have e-naira on October 1st. It’s a journey. It will keep growing, ”he said.

He said, “Remember, there was a time in this country when you had to practically ask branches, merchants, and others to accept POS transactions. But we’ve got to a point where retailers are now begging for POS terminals. “

ALSO READ: E-Naira: CBN acquires a major stake in Bitt Inc.

Mr Jimoh pointed out that one of the benefits of e-naira is that it saves the cost of printing new naira banknotes and that the fees for transferring funds would be lower for those using e-naira.

“Today the costs of making the naira and the coins are very high. It costs money to print naira in this country. Now e-naira is minted electronically, which lowers costs, ”he said.

“Why we chose a foreign company”

In particular, when the Apex bank official was asked why the CBN chose a foreign company instead of a fintech company in Nigeria, Jimoh said it had to do with capacity.

He said that Bitt Inc., which will handle the project, has carried out similar projects for other countries and already has the capacity and experience, but that part of the company is registered and run by Nigerians, while the technological aspect is registered and run by foreigners arm would be taken over.

“The digital currency CBN is not what every country has implemented. We pave the way in Africa. Nigeria is the only country in Africa that does this. And so many advanced countries don’t, ”said Jimoh.

He said; “One can only speak of China and the Bahamas, which have tried to do something serious with the central bank digital currency. So the technology is not everywhere where you need to be very secure. You can’t use Nigeria as a testing ground and say, oh if it works, fine if it doesn’t. You have to use entities that did, that are certain of it. “

The CBN director said, “We have partnered with a company that has done this, that has this experience, because we know the system will eventually run in Nigeria.”

“That’s why we want to anchor some tasks here. So the agreement is that you have a Nigerian company, Please Nigeria, that will run the system, ”he added.