A zero balance in a bank’s eNaira float caused a web integration retest to fail, illustrating a hurdle for Nigeria’s digital currency, backend engineer Olukowi Oladimeji Ayodeji wrote Monday in BusinessDay.
Ayodeji said a team at First City Monument Bank Limited (FCMB) put a mobile eNaira integration into service in March 2022. His web version reached a pilot stage but did not enter production because use was limited. When the team tested it again later, the bank’s eNaira float account held no balance and the retest failed, he wrote.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) documented limited use in its review of the eNaira’s first year. It calculated an average of about 14,000 transactions a week since launch and said 98.5% of wallets were unused in any given week. Total transactions since launch were about 802,000, fewer than the number of wallets.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) guidelines require participating financial institutions to maintain eNaira treasury wallets and connect their banking systems to its Digital Currency Management System. The currency remains a liability of the CBN. Under that arrangement, a bank needs both an integrated service and eNaira available in its wallet to move the currency.
The CBN launched the eNaira on Oct. 25, 2021, with broader financial access and more efficient payments among its goals. Its launch-era rules set individual wallet balance limits ranging from ₦120,000 at Tier 0 to ₦5 million at Tier 3.
The IMF linked slow adoption partly to the initial rollout, which required users to have bank accounts and confined transactions to Nigeria. It also cited limited acceptance by merchants and other users. Customers already had more widely accepted payment options, including debit cards and mobile banking apps.
The bank-account requirement limited the eNaira’s initial reach among people outside the banking system, even as the CBN sought to extend financial access. The IMF’s transaction figures cover the currency’s first year, not its current use.
