The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has introduced Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code for its digital currency, eNaira.
Governor Godwin Emefiele of the apex bank, on Thursday, August 18, 2022, introduced the new product to members of the public during the eNaira Hackathon grand finale in Abuja.
BizWatch Nigeria recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari floated eNaira last year’s October, as Africa’s first Central Bank Digital Currency. However, while the first phase of the launch was focused on banked users, the second phase borders on financial inclusion.
Talking about eNaira, Emefiele stated that “as captured in the design paper released, eNaira is a journey, not a one-time event. This hackathon event is a continuation of that journey and the first among many to come given that the future of central banking is inextricably bound in innovation.
“We don’t have a choice but to live with the fact that we are now in a digital economy. In a digital space where the use of cash will dissipate to almost zero and the use of digital currency will increase and will now become part of our lives.
“The second phase of the project has begun and is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding the unbanked and the underserved users leveraging offline channels. Hence greater success is envisioned for the project with phase two expected to deliver more gains with the target of eight million users based on estimation using the diffusion of innovation model.”
Using eNaira with USSD code
First, it is pertinent to understand that the USSD code is usually programmed into Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards or cell phones to make certain actions easy and faster.
However, to conduct any transaction with eNaira using the USSD code, one is advised to dial *997# on his or her phone. Note that this code works on all networks, including MTN, Airtel, Etisalat, and Glo.
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