- According to some observers, Nigeria’s eNaira has been a failure.
- Only 0.5% of Nigeria’s population uses eNaira.
- However, Nigerian Central Bank Governer has claimed eNaira is a success.
According to a recent tweet from geopolitical expert Nick Giambruno, Nigeria’s “the eNaira has been a massive failure.” Giambruno’s comments followed a Bloomberg report revealing that the central bank digital currency was being used by just 0.5% of the nation’s population.
Bloomberg’s research suggested that Nigerians do not know the difference between Bitcoin and the country’s official digital currency, the e-Naira. This comes after the government offered a 5% rebate to encourage adoption among motorized rickshaw owners.
The report cited Babatunde Obrimah, COO of the Fintech Association of Nigeria, as saying, “They [Younger Generation] see the regulator as hostile to them and therefore have no interest in anything it introduces.”
A similar argument is made by Giambruno, who claims that Nigeria has been acting as a “petri dish” for central bankers, academics, and politicians, for more than a hundred other nations. According to him, the eNaira has failed miserably, with just 1 out of every 200 individuals utilizing it. This surprised the governing elites, he added.
According to Giambruno, this was a victory for freedom, he noted:
The failure of CBDCs in Nigeria could throw sand in the gears of the elites’ plan to implement them worldwide. That would be a big positive for human freedom.
However, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, hailed eNaira as a success. His comments were based on the fact that $8 billion has been transacted on the eNaira platform.
He noted that the currency had gained the attention of foreign financial institutions, highlighting that “it topped the charts on retail central bank digital currencys’ projects globally, as of April (PwC, 2022).”
He also added that several central banks were supposedly “requesting [their] success template on the eNaira.”
To aid the unbanked in Africa’s most populous nation, the eNaira CBDC was introduced in October 2021. However, its acceptance among the 218 million population has been impeded by widespread uncertainty and a general mistrust of the ruling class.
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