The director of payment system management in the Central Bank of Nigeria, Musa Jimoh has stated that businesses in Nigeria must accept e-Naira
He explained that Nigeria’s digital currency, eNaira, is a legal tender just like the naira that must be accepted by all merchants and business outlets as a form of payment in the country.
The CBN official disclosed this during an interview on Channels TV’s ‘Business Morning’ show on Monday.
“Today, anywhere you present naira to pay, compulsorily it must be accepted because that is our fiat currency. So, the same way naira is accepted that you can’t reject it, is the same way e-naira must be accepted,” Mr Jimoh said.
Meanwhile, the CBN on August 30 announced plans to launch its own digital currency on October 1 after instructing banks to close crypto-related accounts in February.
The CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, said the e-Naira would operate as a wallet against which customers can hold existing funds in their bank account, and that the currency would accelerate financial inclusion which will enable cheaper and faster remittance inflows.
He urged Nigerians using android and iPhone mobile devices to download the e-Naira wallet from October 1 from the application stores respectively.
When asked if Nigeria is ready for the e-naira implementation due to the technological challenges in the country, the official said that he does not expect it to pose any serious problem.
“E-Naira is a journey. We don’t expect that on October 1, all business merchants in Nigeria will accept it. We don’t even expect that come October 1, all Nigerians will have e-naira. It is a journey. It will continue to grow,” he said.
Mr Jimoh stated that one of the benefits of the e-Naira is that it would save the cost of printing new naira notes, and that charges incurred while transferring funds would be lower for those using the e-naira.
