Nigerian Digital Currency Approaches Nation’s Taxi Operators

• Nigeria’s Central Bank reaches out to taxi operators for the adoption of digital currency.
• Regulators scrutinize Nigerian digital currency eNaira.
• Those using e-Naira get a 5% discount for motorized rickshaw drivers and passengers.

One year after launching Nigeria’s first digital currency, eNaira, the country’s Central Bank is reaching out to Nigerian three-wheeler taxi operators to accelerate eNaira adoption.

Regulators across the globe are monitoring every move the digital currency is making, as it has proven very slow adoption in Africa’s most populated country. Moreover, as an incentive, drivers and passengers of motorized rickshaws switching to eNaira are offered a 5% discount.

However, eNaira is not the same as cryptocurrencies due to its government-backed nature. On one hand, the Central Bank is pushing eNaira, and on the other, it has restricted commercial banks from associating with crypto exchanges. The heavy promotion of Nigeria’s digital currency while barring cryptocurrency has the Nigerian citizens confused including the drivers.

A 23-year-old taxi operator named Hamed Lawan questioned

Why is it asking us to collect eNaira? I thought the government said cryptocurrency is bad

When Nigeria rolled out the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), it became the first African nation to ever do so. However, the 40 million Nigerians without a bank account that the authorities anticipated participating in the eNaira adoption, didn’t align with expectations. In turn, leading to a disappointing result for Nigeria’s multi-billion dollar remittance flows and tax base.

While Nigerians are passionate about Bitcoin and Ethereum, the same passion doesn’t extend to the distributed ledger technology based-eNaira. In fact, in the face of rising inflation and challenges faced by Africa’s biggest economy, the eNaira is being perceived as a proxy and a symbol of distrust among the elite.