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Policy

Nigeria’s eNaira Wallet Nears 500,000 Downloads in First 3 Weeks: Report

Africa’s first CBDC launched in late October.

By Eliza Gkritsi
AccessTimeIconNov 16, 2021 at 3:00 a.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 6:36 p.m. UTC
e-naira, nigeria

e-naira, nigeria

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More than 488,000 people have downloaded the consumer wallet for Nigeria’s central bank digital currency, the eNaira, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday.

  • Launched on Oct. 25, the eNaira has been used for NGN 62 million (US$150,000) in transactions, according to Osita Nwanisobi, a spokesman for the central bank the Bloomberg story cited.
  • Nigeria has minted about $1.2 million eNaira, central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said when the CBDC was launched.
  • Nwanisobi said 78,000 merchants from 160 countries have signed up for the merchant wallet.
  • The eNaira was developed by Barbados-based Bitt, the fintech company that also worked on the Eastern Caribbean central bank’s digital currency.
  • Nigeria banned the use of cryptocurrencies in the country in February.

Read more: Nigeria’s CBDC: The Good, Bad and Ugly

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Eliza Gkritsi
Eliza Gkritsi

Eliza Gkritsi is a CoinDesk contributor focused on the intersection of crypto and AI.

Follow @egreechee on Twitter

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