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ENaira Records 200,000 users, N4bn Transactions Value – Emefiele

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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), digital currency, eNaira has recorded 200,000 volumes and four billion Naira value of transactions since its inauguration in 2021.

Mr Godwin Emefiele, the CBN Governor said this on Thursday in Abuja at the grand finale of the “eNaira Hackathon”.

Newsmen report that the hackathon is a CBN’s collaborative initiative with the African Fintec Foundry (AFF).

it is aimed at bringing together teams of talented entrepreneurs, developers, designers, solution developers, problem-solvers and ‘code magicians’ from Africa to develop innovative solutions for improved adoption of the eNaira.

The competition was part of efforts by the CBN to drive financial inclusion, facilitate macroeconomic growth and integrate the Nigerian economy into the world-leading economies through innovation and cutting-edge emerging technologies.

The eNaira was inaugurated on Oct. 25, 2021 by President Muhammadu Buhari, making Nigeria the first African country to launch a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

Emefiele said since its inauguration, eNaira had reached 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets comprising more than 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets.

According to him, the digital currency will enhance financial inclusion, support poverty reduction, enable direct welfare disbursement to citizens, support a resilient payments ecosystem and improve availability and usability of central bank money.

“The eNaira will also facilitate diaspora remittances, reduce the cost of processing cash, and also reduce cost and improve efficiency of cross-border payment,” he said.

The apex bank governor, however, said that the eNaira was the same Naira with far more possibilities.

“The eNaira will make a significant positive difference to Nigeria and Nigerians. It was also developed to provide Nigerians with a cheap, safe and trusted means of payment.

“It is unlike the offline payments channels like agent networks, USSD, wearables, cards and near field communication technology.

“The eNaira would give access to financial services to underserved and unbanked segments of the population,” he said.

He said that innovative products and services built on the eNaira would enhance Nigerians’ participation in the digital economy and promote further development of a burgeoning Fintech ecosystem.

“To achieve these set out objectives, the project adopted a phased- approach with the first phase focusing on banked users, while the policy objective of the second phase borders around financial inclusion.

“In addition, the eNaira platform possesses an innovation layer for products and services to be built with the aim of enhancing Nigerians’ participation in the digital economy,” he said.

According to Emefiele, the second phase of the project has begun and is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding unbanked and underserved users leveraging offline channels.

He said that the CBN was now ready to accommodate unbanked Nigerians in the eNaira platform

“Greater success is envisioned for the project with phase two expected to deliver more gains with a target of about eight million active users based on estimations using the diffusion of innovation model.

“When we launched the eNaira, we promised to increase the level of financial inclusion in the Country because just like the Naira, the eNaira is expected to be accessible to all Nigerians .

“It will provide more possibilities to bring in the unbanked into the digital economy.

” I am pleased to inform you that by next week, Nigerians, both banked and unbanked, will be able to open an eNaira wallet and conduct transactions by simply dialling *997 from their phones,” he said.

According to Mr kingsley Obiora, CBN’s Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, the use of physical cash is gradually getting out of fashion across the globe due to the growth of digital currencies.

“In south Korea, 77 per cent no longer use cash to do payment, while in the Philippines it is 30 per cent.

“In Nigeria, we are also seeing the same decline in the use of cash, the minting of currencies in the CBN has been reducing in the last couple of years.

“So alongside this reduction in the use of cash has also been an explosion in e-business and we have seen the value of e-business grow from 393 billion dollars in 2014 to about 2.4 trillion dollars now.

“If you look at this movement, you will realise that the central banks in the world are responding to yearnings of citizens.

“That is why 96 per cent of central banks in the world are either working on digital currencies or they have done so already,” he said.

Daniel Awe, the Group head, AFF, said that the CBN had transformed from traditional regulator to a smart regulator.

Awe said that the Hackathon was a platform that brings entrepreneurs, coders and product managers together to solve problems and build new business model.

“All over the world, there has been disagreement between innovators and regulators.

“This is because regulators usually look at impact on financial stability, impact of those innovators on consumers as well as the risk, while the innovators look at the opportunity in their ideas.

“However, this CBN is different as it has over the years partnered with innovators that will create jobs and bring value,” he said. (NAN)

Economy

Investors Gain N183bn on NGX

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The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.

Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.

The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.

68, against 98,206.
97 recorded on Tuesday.

Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.

74 per cent.

Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.

Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.

On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.

Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.

On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.

Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.

Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.

A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.

Meanwhile, ETranzact led the  activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)

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Economy

Yuan Weakens to 7.1870 Against Dollar

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The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.

The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day.
(Xinhua/NAN)

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Economy

Bring Kaduna Refinery Back into Operation, Youth Group Urges NNPCL

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Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged  Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL)  to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.

National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.

Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.

He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.

“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.

“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.

“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.

Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.

According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.

He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)

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