E-naira will aid monetary policy – CBN
Ini Billie, Uyo
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has said the e-naira will aid monetary policy decision-making and urged Nigerians to embrace its usage.
Speaking on Thursday in Uyo during the introduction of the e-naira platform campaign and sensitisation to staff and students of the University of Uyo, Branch Controller of CBN, Uyo, Mercy Itohan Ogbomonpaul said the sensitisation programme was to educate the University community on the system and encourage them to key into it.
While interacting with the Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof. Nyaudoh Ndaeyo, Ogbomonpaul stated that though the e-naira platform started in 2021, it has not received wide publicity and usage as it should.
Ogbomonpaul who was represented by Assistant Director, CBN, Elder Isang Agbomi Enya, said Nigeria was the seventh nation to introduce the e-naira, adding that other countries have gone beyond the physical cash payment and are now using the e-payment system.
“We are here to partner with you on the e-naira. Globally, the economy is now going to e-payment and not cash payment as it is known in our environment. The Central Bank in its wisdom, in line with best practices adopted the e-naira platform.
“The e-naira is expected to help us to be on par with what other countries are doing. The unfolding trend now is that we use e-payment rather than physical cash. The e-naira is an initiative of the Central Bank that would work on par with the physical cash.
“It is the semblance of the naira that we could use in transactions rather than the physical cash because the naira as we know is very difficult and costly to replace.
“The e-naira would help us to handle those deficiencies that are noticed and experienced in the use of cash. The e-naira would also help us in our policy-making, in terms of monetary policy decisions because decisions are made based on information we have.
“If we are all in the e-naira platform, the Central bank would be able to ascertain how much has been transacted in the e-naira platform and able to make policy decisions for our monetary policy in the country,” she stated.
Explaining that the e-naira system was more viable, simple, and easy to use, Ogbomonpaul said it would ease the payment of revenue and was in line with what is tenable in other advanced nations.
“The enaira would make our payment system more viable and bring in more people into the system. It is simple, it is easy and will allow the government to get its revenues in terms of payment very easily.
“Other countries have gone beyond the physical cash payment and are now using e-payment and that is why Central Bank has introduced the initiative to ensure that everybody is able to do a business transaction without necessarily looking for cash in view of the cost of managing cash.
“The initiative allows for tiers of implementation. As little as N20,000 you can key into the tier one system of the enaira. It is not until you have so much money or you have what to do before you can key into the system.
“The system allows for you to enter into the system even without a NIM, which we know is very key in every banking operation. With this initiative, we are going to see a lot of people key into the system,” the controller stated.
In his response, the Vice Chancellor at the University of Uyo, Prof. Nyaudoh Ndaeyo said the institution was happy to be a part of the initiative and would partner with CBN on the e-naira.
Ndaeyo who stated that the University was also willing to partner with the CBN in the area of agriculture encouraged the apex bank to go beyond the shores of the University, into the communities to sensitise people on the e-naira.
