The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced the adoption of an Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code, 997 for eNaira transactions.
The move will enable those who do not have a bank account to also leverage the eNaira platform.
The eNaira, according to Godfrey Bariboloka Koyor, CBN branch controller, Lagos, is the digital currency issued by the apex bank and backed by the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is the first to have been launched in Africa and globally.
“The process is very easy and it is simple for anyone to be able to benefit. eNaira is designed with the best-integrated security and management procedure that will help to mitigate the fraud so there will be no fraudulent transfers and fraudulent alerts. Nobody can deceive you with eNaira transactions,” Koyor said.
Yusuf Abdul Jelil, ENaira project representative, said this in Lagos sensitisation and activation of e-Naira Wallet event organised by the CBN in collaboration with Bizi Mobile and Oshodi Market leaders.
He disclosed that from now till next week, the CBN is going to send a message across eNaira to update their speed in order to enjoy services such as DSTV renewals, recharge card payments and air travel ticket payments, among others.
“Any moment from now, there is an update coming, you will get a message on your app directing you to update your eNaira speed wallet. Once you update, those services you are asking for will be there whereby you can pay for DSTV, buy a recharge card, pay for airfare and so on. Within this week or early next week, you will get an alert asking you to update on your app and once you update, all these will be available,” he said.
“Even if you do not have an account, we are also going to have a USSD whereby you can make transactions. The USSD code is 997. It is coming with the update”.
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He noted that the CBN is going into the second phase of the eNaira onboarding, adding that the first phase focused on people with existing bank accounts.
“But now we are focusing on people who do not have any bank accounts. So that means there will be USSD code they can use to onboard and do transactions,”
Responding to questions on whether eNaira coffers interest, he said, “What we told the banks to do is what we call steking. Let us say you have money in your wallet, which is as good as cash and you do not intend to spend it, all you quickly do is tell your bank to stek it. The bank will use it for business and give you interest. That should be on request but ordinarily, any money left in your wallet is non-interest bearing because it is as good as cash in your pocket”.
About the loan, he said, “nothing changes. eNaira is complementing what you have”.
He said the CBN has told banks and FinTechs to create investment opportunities around the eNaira.
“What this means is that we have given them the liberty but we are monitoring them. They are not doing it on their own, we are monitoring them. Before they can push out any product we would have certified that it is original.
The Fintechs and the banks will come up with interesting features that will make you keep money in your eNaira”, he said.
Speaking at the event, Obinna Ume, secretary of Oshodi market, said the eNaira is going to go a long way to save a lot of disputes that arise as a result of bad transaction networks.
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