Nigeria digital currency transactions jump 63% on cash shortages
Nigeria’s once faltering digital currency is seeing its fortunes revived by the country’s demonetization policy that has left many citizens scrambling for alternative payment channels.
The value of eNaira transactions is up 63% to 22 billion naira ($47.7 million) since its introduction while the number of wallets jumped by more than 12 times to 13 million when compared with the data in October, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria said on Tuesday.
Currency in circulation in Africa’s largest economy dropped to about a trillion naira from 3.2 trillion naira in September, Emefiele told reporters at a monetary policy committee press conference, in Abuja, the capital.
An acute cash shortage crisis hit the West African nation late last year after the central bank began replacing old 200-, 500- and 1,000-naira notes with new ones in a bid to mop up excess cash, rein in inflation and curb rising insecurity. Cash accounts for about 90% of transactions in Nigeria’s informal economy.
More than 10 billion naira of the digital currency has been minted so far, with about 3.4 billion naira in circulation, Emefiele said. eNaira adoption was also boosted by its use by the government to pay poor Nigerians under a social scheme. The scheme contributed 4 million new wallets to the total, Emefiele said.
“The eNaira has emerged as the electronic payment channel of choice for financial inclusion and executing social interventions.”
