Less than 0.5% Nigerians have used the country’s CBDC e-Naira a year after its launch
Nigeria’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) e-Naira Fails Due to Low Adoption, but Government Seeks to Increase Adoption, Bloomberg News report.
E-Naira will launch in October 2021 and has been running for 14 months as of December, but adoption remains low.
Current figures show that only 1 in 200 people use e-Naira, which is less than 0.5% of the population. Within his first eight months after launch, he had only 700,000 users create e-Naira wallets.
According to the report, the government is trying to boost adoption by offering a 5% discount on e-Naira payments on Keke Napep, the country’s most widely used transport system.
Godwin Emefiere, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, said of the desired future of the e-Naira:
“As far as I am concerned, the goal is to achieve a 100% cashless economy in Nigeria.”
Meanwhile, the country’s central bank has taken a hands-off approach to cryptocurrencies. Financial institutions in Nigeria are banned from creating and managing cryptocurrency-related accounts, but trading and owning cryptocurrencies remains legal.
However, in recent events, the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission said on Dec. 19 that it is set to recognize crypto as an investment class.
