ABUJA — The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is working on providing eNaira applications for persons without bank accounts to boost financial inclusion according to Bitt Inc.
Bitt Inc is the CBN’s technical partner for the eNaira project. The fintech company is based in Barbados.
Speaking at a recent interview with CoinDesk, Brian Popelka, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Bitt Inc., said the present version of the eNaira app is for people with bank accounts.
According to him, the digital currency currently has two applications, one called eNaira speed wallet (for individuals) and the other, eNaira speed merchant wallet (for businesses).
Both apps are available for download on the Google Play store for Android phones and App Store for iPhones.
“In Nigeria, it is a methodological rollout; this is our initial stage. A phone app specific for unbanked folks will be rolling out very soon, considering the fast follow-up from us.
“So that is how we see the financial inclusion question coming through. As far as interest goes, it is hard to say this early what the interest is. I imagine that the concept has a newness to it; people want to understand the inner workings of it and what to use it for.
“It is a sort of methodological rollout. We like the idea that there are stages. Nigeria has a very foursome rollout for all of the users for which we hope to get to over many years, which means that they and we, of course, are in it for the long haul.
“Post-launch though, as you can imagine, as the initial rollouts, it is just sign-ups.
“Well, the central bank has minted and disbursed digital currencies to several key financial institutions.
“And therefore, there are merchants and consumers that are just getting into the app store, downloading the app, and moving their traditional currencies into digital format at this stage,” he stated.
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