The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Director of payment system management, Musa Jimoh, disclosed during an interview on Channels TV’s ‘Business Morning’ show Monday that Nigeria’s digital currency, eNaira, is a legal tender just like the naira that must be accepted by all merchants and business outlets as a form of payment in the country.
“Today, anywhere you present naira to pay, compulsorily it must be accepted because that is our fiat currency. So, the same way naira is accepted that you can’t reject it, is the same way eNaira must be accepted,” Jimoh said.
While urging Nigerians using android and iPhone mobile devices to download the eNaira wallet from October 1 from the application stores respectively, Jimoh said the CBN will bear all liabilities of the digital currency.
“The liability of the eNaira money is directly on CBN which is similar to the cash you hold. The liability of the cash you hold today rests with the CBN. So, it gives Nigerians the opportunity to bank with CBN,” Jimoh said.
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Asked if Nigeria is ready for the eNaira implementation due to the technological challenges in the country, the official said that he does not expect it to pose any serious problem.
“ENaira is a journey. We don’t expect that on October 1, all business merchants in Nigeria will accept it. We don’t even expect that come October 1, all Nigerians will have eNaira. It is a journey. It will continue to grow,” he said.
He added, “remember there was a time in this country when you had to practically beg business outlets, merchants and others to accept POS transactions. But we have come to a point where traders now beg for POS terminals.”
Jimoh noted that one of the benefits of the eNaira is that it would save the cost of printing new naira notes, and that charges incurred while transferring funds would be lower for those using the eNaira.
“Today the cost of producing the naira and coins is very high. It costs money to print naira in this country. Now, the minting of eNaira is electronic, so it reduces cost,” he said.
When asked why the CBN chose a foreign firm to collaborate with on this, Jimoh said it had to do with capacity.
He said Bitt Inc. which will handle the project, had done similar projects for other countries and already had the capacity and experience, but that the company would be registered and managed in part by Nigerians while the technological aspect would be handled by the foreign arm.
“What we did is to partner with an entity that has done it, that has that experience because we know that eventually, the system is going to run in Nigeria.”
“So, we also want to domicile some responsibilities here. So, the arrangement is such that you are going to have a Nigerian incorporated company, Bitt Nigeria, which will be running the system,” he added.
