ENaira Gains Traction, Records Average Of 20,000 Downloads Per Day Since Launch

MONEY MARKET
By Chima Nwokoji

AS of November 29, 2021, about a month after eNaira went live, 589,000 downloads had been recorded for the digital currency across the iOS and Android app stores, translating into an average of 20,000 downloads per day since launch.

In October, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) unveiled the very first Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in Africa with a lot of national and international interest on how well the electronic currency will perform and what problems it would solve in the banking and finance space on the continent.

A breakdown of the data showed that of the 589,000 downloads, 461,000 have been from the Android side of the market, while iOS downloads stood at only 128,000 downloads. Most of the downloads on both platforms happened in the first few days after the currency went live.

According to reports by TheCable online, the magic number is 114,900. As of November 29, 2021, there were at least 114,900 activated wallets. These wallets are broken down into two types: consumer wallets and merchant wallets. Consumer wallets stood at about 112,870 activated wallets. Merchant wallets were just a little over 2,000 wallets.

A majority of the consumer wallets activated have been activated by users from the top 10 financial institutions in the country.

Adipolo

Adipolo
Findings show that of this bunch, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) is in the lead — and by a mile. As far as consumer wallets go, GTB has more than 30 per cent of the total activated consumer wallets held by all banks in Nigeria.

Access Bank, Zenith Bank, First Bank, UBA, Polaris Bank, and Ecobank make up the top seven banks with the highest number of activated consumer wallets. Union Bank, Stanbic IBTC and Ecobank lead merchant adoption as more than 2,000 merchant wallets were active at the end of November 2021, and about 20 per cent were domiciled with Ecobank.

Access Bank, Zenith Bank, Union Bank, First Bank, UBA, and Polaris Bank make up the top seven in merchant adoption. Keystone Bank, GTB, and Wema Bank complete the top 10 banks — in this order.

Total Transactions: A total of about 37,810 transactions were carried out using eNaira, bringing the total value of transactions to about N208.91 million in a little over a month after activation began. As of November 29, 2021, the stock of eNaira in circulation stood at N62.46 million.

The eNaira went live on October 25, 2021, after initial delays due to the country’s independence anniversary celebration. Both merchant wallets and consumer wallets went live on the same day, but as expected, more consumer wallets have been activated.

With over 500,000 downloads in the first month and 114,900 active wallets trading via the platform, the CBN, Payment Service Banks (PSBs), and other financial institutions are expecting to see more adoption in 2022.

eNaira gains traction, records average of 20,000 downloads per day since launch