We don’t expect all businesses to adopt e-Naira –CBN

The Central Bank of Nigeria has said it doesn’t expect merchants to accept the e-Naira on the 1^st of October. The CBN Director for Payment System Management, Mr. Musa Jimoh said in an interview on Channels Television.

The Payment System Management Director said the e-Naira must be accepted anywhere it is presented the way fiat currency is accepted.

The Central Bank had announced the e-Naira will be launched on the 1^st of October, coinciding with the nation’s Independence Day celebration. The Central Bank had revealed that the e-Naira will help to drive economic growth and financial inclusion in the country.

In the interview, Mr. Musa Jimoh said the e-Naira is a journey. It is expected that all businesses wouldn’t be able to accept it. However, all as it is a legal tender, all businesses or merchants will have to accept it. Mr. Jimoh says “(e-Naira) is a journey. It will continue to grow. “

He compared the adoption of e-Naira with that of the POS transactions saying “there was a time in this country when you had to practically beg business outlets, merchants and others to accept POS transactons. But we have come to a point where traders now beg for POS terminals.”

The cost of printing paper money Vs e-Naira

The CBN’s director spoke on the printing of paper money or bank notes. He said the adoption of e-Naira will lower the cost of print money. “Today the cost of printing the naira and coins is very high. It cost money to print naira in this country. Now, the minting of e-Naira is electronic, so it reduces cost.”

It is a known fact that the adoption of digital currency will eliminate the amount of money spent on the printing of money.

Just over a week remains for the Central Bank Digital Currency to go live. As Nigerians and the entire world await the launch of Project Giant, this entrepreneur believes the project will flop and that it will add no value to the Nigerian state.

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