More than 488,000 people have downloaded the consumer wallet for Nigeria’s central bank digital currency, the eNaira, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday.
- Launched on Oct. 25, the eNaira has been used for NGN 62 million ($150,000) in transactions, according to Osita Nwanisobi, a spokesman for the central bank that the Bloomberg story cited.
- Nigeria has minted about $1.2 million eNaira, central bank Governor Godwin Emefiele said when the CBDC was launched.
- Nwanisobi said that 78,000 merchants from 160 countries have signed up for the merchant wallet.
- The eNaira was developed by Barbados-based Bitt, the fintech company that also worked on Eastern Caribbean central bank’s digital currency.
- Nigeria banned the use of cryptocurrencies in the country in February.
Read more: Nigeria’s CBDC: The Good, Bad and Ugly
