This is the beginning of the rise of eNaira, and I commend the Central Bank of Nigeria for understanding the economics of digital business. Yes, in the mobile internet space, supply does not offer the full leverage because that ecosystem is governed by the construct of abundance.
In other words, there are many alternatives to any digital service and because of that ubiquitous nature of service supply, winning moves to platforms which control demand: “Today, the empire builders are those that control demand. This is possible because digital supply is unbounded and unconstrained, making it largely not a factor.” Indeed, the most important feature in LinkedIn or Facebook is that we’re all here – and if you go and create a clone, without the demand, the service offers not much.
In Nigeria today, Flutterwave is the category-king. It has the merchants and users and can use those to deepen most products and services. Now that it has brought eNaira into its mega universe, many merchants will adopt the digital currency. The friction is gone and CBN can now expect higher adoption.
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Africa’s leading fintech, Flutterwave, has announced the onboarding of Nigeria’s Central Bank Digital Currency, eNaira, onto its platform. The payment company said merchants on its platform can now accept eNaira payments.
Flutterwave offers a series of services using different methods which include bank transfer, cards and Barter by Flutterwave. The company has been adding other payment services as it grows. Earlier, fintech announced that it has secured a Switching and Processing license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to offer transaction switching and card processing services to customers. Other services include agency banking and payment gateway services.
Of course, this does not mean that it is automatic. As in all products, there needs to be a value proposition which eNaira has to offer to me. I am not sure I have seen it yet. Indeed, whether it is paper Naira, momo Naira, Naira in wallet, or eNaira, most people are more concerned on how to make more Nairas than the form of Naira they have.
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The value of a product is better measured by number of people using it, because without strong demand, even a product with great potential utilities will still collapse.
As for adoption, sometimes the success and failure lie with proper matching or lack thereof, when it comes to agency. Without the commercial banks, the fiat currency wouldn’t fly, and for a digital currency to fly, the adoption must be premised on digital natives; you cannot scale it via commercial banks, because that is not where the demand is.
At the end of the day, enaira still needs to make its own case as to why it matters, for now that aspect remains largely a moot point.