The Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code for its eNaira has been unveiled by the Central Bank of Nigeria, a move aimed at promoting financial inclusion in the nation.
Foladun Shinobi, Deputy Governor, Operations, at the event, Thursday, said the introduction of the code was termed another milestone in providing digital financial services to Nigerians and enabling their participation in the global digital economy.
He further explained that the eNaira presents an opportunity to offer Nigerians endless possibilities in using financial services, which is captured by the slogan “Same Naira, More Opportunities”.
“Today marks a significant milestone towards achieving the objective of the project’s second phase, which is to drive financial inclusion by onboarding unbanked and underserved users leveraging the offline channels.
“Specifically, we are here to launch the eNaira USSD channel using *997# for onboarding and transactions.
“The choice of the USSD as the premium offline channel for the eNaira is founded on an understanding of the peculiarities of our economy.
He further explained the need for the eNaira to be unveiled describing it in terms of reaching out to 150 million Nigerians who own mobile phones.
“Approximately, 45 percent of adult Nigerians do not have a bank account while 35.9 percent are excluded from formal financial services.
“However, around 81 percent of the adult population in Nigeria (86 million out of 106 million) own mobile phones (EFInA, 2021), in addition, there are about 150 million Mobile Subscribers in Nigeria (NCC, June 2022).
“Therefore, the eNaira seeks to leverage the huge opportunity mobile telecommunications presents as a distribution channel for the offering of digital financial services to the underserved and unbanked population” he stated.
