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In August, the volume of eNaira in circulation witnessed a notable surge of 284.6%, reaching N9.78 billion, as reported by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The data was disclosed in the CBN’s latest ‘Economic Report’ for August 2023, which also highlighted a 14% decline in the volume of notes and coins to N2.65 trillion during the same period.
Despite the substantial increase in eNaira circulation, the CBN emphasized that the proportion of eNaira to Currency-in-Circulation (CIC) remained insignificant, accounting for 0.37%, in contrast to the dominance of notes and coins at 99.63%. The CBN stated, “There was a substantial increase in the eNaira, which rose by 284.6 per cent to N9.78 billion, although the ratio of eNaira to CIC at 0.37 per cent remained insignificant, compared with notes and coins which accounted for 99.63 per cent.”
Discussing the overall currency in circulation, the CBN noted an 11.7% decline to N2.66 trillion in August. This reduction was attributed to the growing adoption of alternative payment channels, with more individuals opting for electronic transfer payments and various electronic platforms.
The CBN’s report also touched on the slow adoption of the eNaira since its launch in 2021. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), approximately 98.5% of eNaira wallets have remained unused one year after the digital currency’s introduction. The IMF’s report, titled ‘Nigeria’s eNaira, One Year After,’ revealed that both households and merchants have shown sluggish and low adoption rates.
The report stated, “The retail wallet downloads saw a few weeks of initial surge before tapering off. More specially, it only took 25 days for the number of downloaded wallets to reach 500,000 units—but going from there to 600,000 units took another 63 days; and to 700,000 units yet another 143 days. As of end-November 2021, the total number of retail eNaira wallets amounted to about 860,000. This is just 0.8 per cent of Nigeria’s active bank accounts. Merchant wallet download has reached about 100,000 in end-June, which is about one eleventh of the number of merchants with Point-of-Sales (POS) terminals—which enables credit or debit card payments.”
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