CBN preaches eNaira to Kaduna traders

By Sani Idris

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in collaboration with a technical partner, Project GIANT, on Thursday in Kaduna, called on traders of Kawo and Sheik Gumi markets to embrace eNaira as an alternative means of financial transactions.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this was part of the efforts by the apex bank to create awareness on the various alternative electronic channels that could be used in place of cash.

Speaking with newsmen during the sensitisation, a Deputy Director with CBN, Mr Muhammad Musa, said that the bank initiated the eNaira payment platforms as an alternative to cash, in its bid to make life easier for traders and Nigerians in general.

He said that the most important thing that Nigerians should know was that eNaira was not an alternative to their bank accounts but an equivalent to the cash in their physical wallet which offered efficiency and improved security.

Describing eNaira as another representation of cash, Musa explained that it complemented cash and addressed robbery, destruction by fire and other forms of insecurity associated with cash.

“The eNaira is even better and more efficient than physical cash.

“It will help to deepen payment options in the financial market and you can use your basic telephone that is not even smart to carry out the transaction with a USSD code.

“It is designed to take care of every citizen, irrespective of what he or she has, even if one does not have a phone, the eNaira is there for you.

“We have different mediums that will also help people use the eNaira, including places where there is no GSM network,” he said.

Musa further stated that the sensitisation was to deepen the awareness in the open markets so that traders’ associations could replicate the eNaira objectives and aims to others.

The deputy director noted that CBN could not create the awareness and sensitisation all alone, hence the need to partner other stakeholders, including National Orientation Agency (NOA), to achieve the aim.

“We are not only engaging the public directly, but we are also engaging government agencies. We are hoping that in no time, eNaira will become a means of transaction,” he said.

On his part, the District Head of Kawo, Alhaji Jibril Magaji, called on the traders to take advantage of the eNaira, noting that if e-currency could work in other parts of the world, it could also work in Nigeria, if Nigerians were adequately sensitised.

Describing Kawo as a business area, Magaji commended CBN for taking the awareness to the area, adding that most of the traders were not aware of the eNaira until now.

He called on the traders to embrace the e-currency, stressing that it was an easy and trusted way of transacting businesses.

The district head also called on CBN to double its awareness and sensitisation, especially at the grassroots and with the traditional institution for a multiplier effect.

“I have been seeing this eNaira but I didn’t know what it was; the coming of CBN to sensitise our traders has now made me to understand what it is all about,” he said.

(NAN)