The eNaira, from conception, has followed a careful thought and implementation process, beginning with understanding current realities in Nigeria’s evolving payment landscape, working with clear objectives and principles built from those realities, meticulously laying out the aspects of the architecture and infrastructure and keeping note of real-time risk management protocols. Presented are the fine details for all these processes, ensuring all eNaira participants (and all Nigerians) know what to expect on the eNaira journey and understand how the eNaira will develop over time.
The digital payments scorecard of Nigeria as at 2020 reads: 2.7 billion transactions valued at NGN162.9 trillion, which is 1.06 times larger than the size of the country’s NGN154.3 trillion 2020 GDP. eNaira aims to further increase these figures.
This policy has contributed significantly to a more digital economy and fostered the entry of new market players. Many of these new players (FinTechs) are innovating with new digital payment solutions.
In 2018, the National target for increasing access to financial services for citizens was revised to 95% by 2024. As a result, numerous market participants have emerged with business models focused on driving financial inclusion in the country.
Today, the BVN has become the standard for uniquely identifying customers in the Nigerian financial system and has been leveraged by financial technology companies in broadening their reach and scaling quickly.
SANEF is an initiative of the CBN, supported by Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Nigeria Interbank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) and Licensed Mobile Money Operators/Shared Agents set up to accelerate financial inclusion in Nigeria.
These new license categories have provided regulatory clarity to Nigeria’s evolving payment landscape and continues to enable innovation and support overall growth of the payment system.
This infrastructure connects every financial institution within Nigeria, provides real-time delivery of value for digital payments and creates efficiencies through shared-services provision.
Stability is fundamental to any payment system and at its core, the eNaira is built on this objective and brings a greater level of stability and resilience to the Nigerian payment system.
The eNaira provides a clear means for the government to send direct payments to citizens eligible for welfare programs more rapidly, ensuring accountability is achieved, and the right persons get the funds.
In Nigeria, Diaspora Remittances is a key source of foreign exchange, as in 2019, $23.8 billion came into the country. The eNaira provides a secure and cost-effective process for remittances and ultimately boosts remittance flows.
The eNaira gives Nigeria the ability to transact separately, thereby reducing the demand for correspondent banking services and SWIFT international financial messaging and payment systems for the clearing and settlement of trade.
eNaira enables households and businesses to make fast, efficient, and reliable payments, while benefiting from a resilient, innovative, inclusive, and competitive payment system.
