First Bank Accounts for 17% as eNaira Transactions Volume Cross N4 Billion

…Applauds CBN’s Initiatives

The commercial banking arm of FBN Holdings Plc, First Bank Group has said its channel currently accounts for about 17% of the total reported eNaira transaction volume.

The Chief Executive Officer of First Bank, Dr Adesola Adeduntan made this disclosure during an interview session with African Business.

Recall Business Remarks reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele,  said the transactions on CBN’s digital currency, the e-Naira platform hit N4 billion in August, since its launch in October, last year.

During the grand finale of the e-Naira Hackathon held in Abuja, Emiefiele announced that eNaira has reached 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets comprising over 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets.

Speaking on this, Adeduntan noted that First Bank currently has a whole segment of customers who have started using the eNaira.

“As the eNaira ecosystem grows and acceptance increases as a store of value and means of exchange, so will those numbers.

Click To Read: First Bank Pledges to Drive Financial Inclusion, Wealth Creation through Digital Offerings

“Additionally, the Bank has a youthful workforce with about 60% millennia population. This predominantly youthful workforce helps the Bank to better interpret the requirements and needs of the youthful market as well as better connect with them” he said.

Applauding CBN, the First Bank of Nigeria Boss said the apex bank as the regulator of the banking industry has continued to lead and drive development in the industry.

In the banking industry, he stressed that digital currency is the future and CBN is staying ahead of the curve in Africa with the eNaira introduction, given several benefits associated with the digital currency, such as safety, speed, and convenience.

“A review of events over the course of the past few years has shown that digitalisation in its different forms has been net positive for the financial services industry. The eNaira is no different, the digitisation of the naira expands upon Nigeria’s already advanced payment ecosystem; the roadmap for the eNaira over the next couple of months will reveal some exciting use cases that will further grow the ecosystem and encourage even more interaction with this new form of currency.” he posited.