Emefiele: eNaira will speed up rate of Nigeria’s financial inclusion

Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says the acceptance of the eNaira will speed up the rate of financial inclusion in the country.

The apex bank governor said this on Monday while receiving a delegation of executive directors from the Bank of Uganda, who were on an experience sharing tour of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), in Abuja. 

Emefiele said he is satisfied that the country’s CBDC has recorded success as seen in the rate of integration and security features.

“The CBDC would enhance the relationship between mobile banking and e-business and speed up the rate of financial inclusion,” he said.

“The eNaira, being the first of its kind for a large country like Nigeria, was attracting the interests of many countries, Uganda inclusive.

“We’ve been receiving enquiries from various Central Banks in different parts of Africa and the world, trying to understand what we are doing in the area of CBDC. We are happy that the IMF and World Bank have recognised what we are doing in the area of CBDC.

“However, the country has deepened its payment system infrastructure, and is ranked among the best in the world.”

According to Emefiele, his predecessor in office, Lamido Sanusi, laid the foundation upon which the country’s current payments system was built.

He added that Sanusi, as then CBN governor, appointed him chairman of the sub-committee of the Bankers’ Committee to lead the payments system drive in 2012, adding that the move paved the way for innovative ideas that eventually led the creation of the eNaira.

Emefiele also said he is confident that the CBN will achieve the 85 per cent financial inclusion target in a short period despite being slightly below 70 per cent.

He added that the bank was committed to accelerating the rate at which those who were financially excluded could come into the formal banking sector.

Emefiele, therefore, charged the executive directors (deputy governors equivalent) of the Bank of Uganda to strengthen the country’s payment system, adding that a strong payment system remained the bedrock for the successful take-off of a CBDC.