eNaira, Nigeria’s digital coin, seems to be having a good impact on the fiat version of Nigeria’s currency. On Wednesday, November 3, 2021, $1USD was NGN557 as against NGN565/$1 a month ago.
Recall that eNaira which was scheduled for launch on October 1 to commemorate Nigeria’s Independence, but was postponed and eventually launched by President Muhammadu Buhari on October 25
Since the launch, the dollar to naira at the parallel market has continued to crash, meaning the naira has been showing a sluggish gain against the US dollar at the foreign exchange market.
As of 15:23, $1 was NGN557 (to sell) and NGN565/$1 (to buy) at the parallel market, it was between NGN570 to NGN575 before the launch of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
CBN rate
At the official rate, 1USD was NGN411.21, 1GBP was 561.6, while 1EURO was NGN475 at the time of this report. While the commercial banks are expected to sell at the official rate to Nigerians who need forex for genuine needs, some banks sell above the official rate.
Final thought:
eNaira has the same value as the fiat, but with the recent happenings in the foreign exchange market, the digital coin could reduce the pressure on the fiat if Nigeria’s apex bank can properly monitor the commercials banks who are now in charge of FX sales.
Individuals and merchants are expected to benefit massively from the Nigeria’s digital coin, the CBN also needs to make the digital coin app user-friendly and address some of the challenges prospective users face.
For instance, Yusuf Jamiu who downloaded the app in his review on the app store said he couldn’t receive the OTP to activate his account.
“This app is entirely useless! I tried to sign up and I received the OTP, after entering the necessary KYC details, I clicked continue and they are telling me ‘invalid account ‘. And after few more attempts, I got another error response that ‘you’ve made too many attempts with same BVN’.
Another user, Olorunkunmi described the app as poor, saying it failed to provide solutions to some of the complaints faced by interested users who wish to use the app
Very bad app, not user-friendly i tried to sign up with my bank and I was told to input my first name and last name which I did after inputting my bvn and phone number.the programming was so poor that it can’t references my name to the name on bvn.. worst of it is , I was told to contact support centre for help but no email, phone number, or Google contacts form available for support… the worst financial institutions is the one that can’t provide immediate solution to financial problems.
At a time, the enaira app was removed from the Google store for unknown reasons, after it was marred with bad reviews.