On Monday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) unveiled the eNaira, the much awaited Nigeria’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), ushering in a new era for the country’s economy amidst cryptocurrency frenzy.
The CBN had earlier in the year, banned regulated financial institutions from carrying out crypto-related transaction, alleging that it is being used to finance terrorism and it poses a threat to Nigeria’s economic stability.
The eNaira is designed by the central bank to substitute for cryptocurrency transactions, which saw Nigeria as of its biggest markets before the ban.
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Now, following the launch of the eNaira, the application for the digital currency introduced by the CBN has become available for download, with more than 5000 downloads within hours of the launch, NAN reports.
The apex bank thus released regulatory guidelines which stipulate that charges for transactions that originate from the eNaira platform will be free in the first 90 days commencing from October 25.
After this period, applicable charges as outlined in the guide to charges by banks, other financial and non-bank financial institutions will become effective.
The eNaira speedwallet app meant for individuals had as at 4:00 p.m., seen more than 5000 downloads while the eNaira speed merchant wallet had seen close to 1,000 downloads.
According to the regulatory and issuance guidelines, banks will automatically be onboarded by the CBN while merchants will be onboarded once they download the app and individuals will have to onboard by themselves.
The guideline revealed that there would be different wallets for different stakeholders.
“The eNaira stock wallet belongs solely to the CBN and it shall warehouse all minted eNaira” the guideline stated.
It said that financial institutions were expected to maintain one treasury eNaira wallet to warehouse eNaira received from the CBN eNaira stock wallet.
“Financial Institutions (FI) may create eNaira sub-treasury wallets for branches tied to it and fund them from its single eNaira treasury wallet with the CBN and FI may create eNaira branch sub-wallets for its branches.
“The eNaira branch subwallet shall be funded from the treasury eNaira wallet.
“eNaira Merchant speed wallets shall be used solely for receiving and making eNaira payments for goods and services. eNaira speed wallets shall be available for end-users to transact on the eNaira platform,” the guide stated.
To ensure the security of funds, the eNaira is expected to have two-factor authentication and other measures.
Meanwhile, daily transaction limits for Tier 0, which is just phone number without a verified National Identity Number, was set at N20,00 with a balance limit of N120,000.
Tier 1 category, which has a verified number has a N50,000 transaction limit and N300,000 balance limit.
Tier 2 and Tier 3 categories have daily transaction limits of N200,000 and N1 million as well as a N500,000 and N5 million balance limits while merchants have no limit.
According to the CBN, the eNaira will compliment cash as a less costly, more efficient, generally acceptable safe and trusted means of payment and store of value.
The apex bank has urged Nigerians to download the apps accordingly, and use the digital currency to facilitate transactions.
Though we all assume the enaira launch is a move towards the right direction as far as cashless economy is concerned. But I took time to read through the terms and conditions for using the Enaira speed app. They are quite scary. And as it suggests you indemnify CBN for any malfunction, breakdown even loses as a result of such event. Yet they want us to use the app knowing fully well they are notorious for very poor mobile application and network. Even the reviews on Google play store are not encouraging at all.