Nigeria's eNaira Wallet Use, Transactions Climb Amid Cash Shortages: Bloomberg

Nigerians have been turning to the country's central bank digital currency amid cash shortages, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The number of eNaira wallets has jumped more than 12-fold to 13 million since October, and the value of transactions has climbed 63% to 22 billion naira ($48 million) this year, Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, told reporters at a press conference. The CBDC was introduced in October 2021.

Nigeria has been struggling with a crippling cash shortage since the central bank started replacing old naira notes with new ones late last year. Currency in circulation has slumped to about 1 trillion naira from 3.2 trillion naira in September, Emefiele said, according to Bloomberg. The shortage of notes has left many people in the country of about 218 million struggling to pay for basic needs.

Even so, the eNaira isn't a straightforward alternative. The country has a $220 billion informal economy that thrives on cash and too few merchants and too little infrastructure for extensive eNaira use.

Read more: Why Nigerians Aren't Turning to the eNaira Despite Crippling Cash Shortages