Share this article
Nigeria's CBDC eNaira Used for Nearly $10M Worth of Transactions Since October
The eNaira app has been downloaded 840,000 times and has 270,000 active wallets
Updated May 11, 2023, 5:00 p.m. Published Aug 19, 2022, 12:11 p.m.
Nigeria's central bank digital currency (CBDC), the eNaira, has been used to carry out transactions worth 4 billion naira ($9.3 million) since it was introduced last October, according to country's central bank governor.
In a speech on Thursday, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele described the volume and value of transactions on the platform as "remarkable," noting the eNaira app has been downloaded 840,000 times and now has about 270,000 active wallets.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Nigeria has a population of about 200 million, and it is the largest economy in Africa with a gross domestic product of about $430 billion.
It is estimated, however, that around 40% of the population doesn't have a bank account, including 59 million unbanked adults, a matter that the CBN intends to tackle with the CBDC. The bank is seeking to get 8 million more people to start using the eNaira platform in its second phase.
That phase begins next week, when both banked and unbanked Nigerians will be able to open a eNaira wallet by dialing a four-digit code on their mobile phones, Emefiele said.
Nigeria was the second country to introduce a CBDC, following the Bahamas a year earlier. In the months preceding the eNaira's inception, the CBN attempted to stave off cryptocurrency use among the public, ordering banks to close any accounts that had crypto transactions.
Read more: Colombia Explores Creating a CBDC to Combat Tax Evasion
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Key U.S. Senator on Crypto Bill, Lummis, Negotiating Dicey Points With White House
The Republican lawmaker who is among the core negotiators on the U.S. market structure bill said the White House has rejected some ethics language.
What to know:
- Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said she is negotiating with the White House on behalf of Senate Democrats trying to insert ethics provisions into Congress' market structure legislation.
- Lawmakers should reveal a new draft market structure bill by the end of the week and hold a markup hearing next week, she said.
Top Stories
