The Central Bank of Nigeria has unveiled the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code for its eNaira, stressing that the initiative will engender financial inclusion in the country.
The apex bank also said the choice of the USSD as the premium offline channel for the eNaira was founded in an understanding of the peculiarities of our economy, noting that as of today, about 45 percent of adult Nigerians do not have a bank account while 35.9 per cent are excluded from formal financial services.
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Delivering the keynote address at the official unveiling ceremony held in Kano on Thursday, the Deputy Governor of CBN (Operations), Mr. Folashadun Adebisi Shonubi, noted that the launch of the code was a significant milestone in achieving the objective of the second phase of the eNaira project 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,” he said.
He added that the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS) Instant payment solution would be available before the of August.
Daily Trust reports that the President Muhammadu Buhari launched the eNaira October 25, 2021, making Nigeria the first African country to launch a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
