eNaira is popular in Born, Sokoto, Gombe
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
eNaira takeup rate in the North is huge but Lagos, the country’s financial economic capital, is not keen on the digital currency floated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to expand financial inclusion, one of its top priorities.
Google trends show that Africa’s first central bank digital currency has its strongest interest in Northern Nigeria. Borno leads with a perfect score of 100. Next are Sokoto, Gombe, Taraba, and Zamfara.
Lagos – Nigeria’s richest state and Africa’s fifth largest economy – is not even in top 25 of eNaira takeup.
The CNB anticipates eNaira expansion to the grassroots, unbanked, underbanked, and banked to dominate the bankking market in 2022. With the launch of eNaira, the CBN has raised the bar of innovation in the past year, per Nairametrics.
eNaira is similar to the physical naira in a wallet stored electronically, except that it is digital. eNaira bills are issued and backed by the CBN like paper naira bills, but they do not bear interest.
Three months after its launch, the statistics and international attention it has attracted suggest it has been accepted in Africa’s biggest economy.
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Validation of CBN position
Nigeria’s embrace of eNaira validates the pitch by CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele that the apex bank is the custodian of the eNaira Speed Wallet and is committed to its continuous digital upgrades and protection from hackers.
eNaira Speed Wallet Account registration is simple but has inbuilt security steps that protect the information of account holders.
Most of the active consumer wallets belong to the top 10 financial brands in Africa’s most populated country.
Guaranty Trust Bank, Nigeria’s most valuable bank by market value, beats other banks by a wide margin, leading the market with 30 per cent of all active consumer wallets.
Seven banks have the highest number of consumer wallets – Access Bank, Zenith Bank, First Bank, UBA, Polaris Bank, and Ecobank.
More than 2,000 merchants wallets were active as of November 2021, with about 20 per cent domiciled with Ecobank.
Union Bank, Stanbic IBTC, and Ecobank are on the leaderboard of merchant wallet adoption, followed by Access Bank, Zenith Bank, First Bank, UBA, and Polaris Bank.
Keystone Bank, GTBank, and Wema Bank round up the top 10.