eNaira now accessible to Nigerians through USSD

The Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has disclosed that from next week, Nigerians would be able to conduct transactions on eNaira wallet through the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data code on mobile phones.

The eNaira is a central bank digital currency backed by law and issued by the CBN as a legal tender. It is the digital form of the Naira in cash. Asides transacting, Emefiele said Nigerians can also open an eNaira wallet on any mobile phone of their choice through the designated USSD code.

According to him, this process will involve Nigerians dialing *997# from their phones to carry out transactions on their phones. The CBN governor announced the news at the Grand Finale of the 2022 eNaira Hackathon in Abuja on Thursday.

“Nigerians, both banked and unbanked, will be able to open an eNaira wallet and conduct transactions by simply dialling *997 from their phones.” “Shortly after this, both merchants and consumers with bank accounts can use the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) to transfer and receive eNaira to any bank account.”

“This will further deepen the integration of the eNaira with the existing national payment infrastructure. The CBN will increase the level of Financial Inclusion in the Country because just like the Naira, the eNaira is expected to be accessible to all Nigerians, and would provide more possibilities to bring in the unbanked into the digital economy.”

According to reports from May 11 2022, Emefiele said central banks across Africa and other parts of the world are trying to study Nigeria’s eNaira project.

Emefiele said, “We feel delighted with what we are doing in the area of the Central Bank Digital Currency, CBDC. What we are doing in the area of eNaira is attracting the interest of different countries in the world,” Emefiele said during an experience-sharing tour of the CBN’s CBDC (eNaira) by officials of the Bank of Uganda in Abuja.

He noted that the CBN had been receiving a lot of enquiries from central banks in Africa and different parts of the world who were trying to understand what the bank was doing.