The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved a reward scheme for eNaira users, including merchants. This includes providing merchants with the required promotional materials, subsidizing the current merchant service charge by 50%, and activating a nationwide awareness campaign that early business users of eNaira can leverage to market its wider adoption.
CBN Deputy Governor for Economic Policies, Kingsley Obiora, announced the reward scheme weekend at the eNaira merchants mega event in Abuja, organized by the major bank, in collaboration with Araba Technologies LTD, PNAIL and the Chambers of Commerce and Abuja Industry (ACCI) for Nigerian Business Community.
The event was aimed at merchants, merchants, cooperative societies, business associations, supermarkets, hotels, restaurant chains, service providers, owners of private schools, carriers, small and medium-sized companies, among others, to help them understand the importance of eNaira .
As CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele recently announced, Obiora confirmed that the eNaira platform can now facilitate payments via QR codes, USSD, Wallet ID and eNaira Wallet Tag. Value-added services on the platform include branch/branch wallets, employee management, and interoperability with other business applications.
“These services are provided in a secure environment as the eNaira platform was built using a very secure security protocol,” he assured.
“CBN is expected to implement other innovative services on the eNaira platform in collaboration with financial institutions and fintechs that are already leveraging eNaira technology.”
With eNaira, the CBN seeks to enable businesses and households across the country and beyond to make fast, efficient and reliable payments.
Also Read: CBN Implements USSD Code for eNaira Transactions
Some of the expected benefits derived from the adoption of eNaira include the deepening of financial inclusion; improvement in the efficiency of the payment system; improvement of cross-border payments and remittances; Improved trade integration; a viable option for the distribution of stimulus and government interventions and a better transmission of monetary policy.
Through the evolution of offline payment channels such as agent networks, USSD, handheld devices, cards and near field communication technology, eNaira would bring access to financial services to underserved and unbanked segments of the population.
So far, eNaira has reached more than 840,000 downloads, with around 270,000 active wallets comprising more than 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets, according to official data.
The volume and value of transactions on the platform have exceeded 200 billion and N4 billion, respectively.
Obiora said eNaira adoption presents more opportunities to increase business revenue.
He explained that, for example, the availability of the eNaira payment option in the e-commerce trading platform such as Remita is expected to complement the existing digital payment system, resulting in an increase of around 50% in transactions of electronic commerce and at a lower cost.
In addition, the implementation of cross-border transactions in phase 3 of the eNaira project is expected to increase cross-border trade by approximately 30%. Lower transaction cost is also expected to increase usage, in terms of transaction volume and value of eNaira and improve revenue generation by businesses.
“Merchants such as petrol stations, supermarkets, e-commerce and other businesses not only have an important role to play in driving the adoption of eNaira, but they can also take advantage of the opportunities that eNaira offers to improve cash management and achieve significant savings in cash. operations. cost.
“More specifically, the benefits for merchants include reduced cash handling costs, elimination of failed transactions, instant settlement, increased transaction speeds, improved record keeping, and elimination of challenges associated with giving change to customers, among others. ”, emphasized the Lieutenant Governor. .
The president of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), Al-Mujtaba Abubakar, who was also speaking at the event, noted that if adopted, digital financial inclusion would help eradicate many problems related to cash transactions.
He expressed concern that despite the high expectations and excitement surrounding eNaira, the business community has yet to fully embrace it, ten months after its launch.
He listed the benefits of the CBN digital currency for the business community to include fast delivery, safe and simple trading, and transactional opportunities for customers and end users.
