Flutterwave, a top-tier African payment solutions company has announced the inclusion of the eNaira as a payment option for merchants, a move aimed at accelerating the adoption of digital currency.
The new development is expected to complement other existing payment methods on Flutterwave like cards, bank transfers, and Barter by Flutterwave among others. Flutterwave’s users can either scan QR codes or generate one-time tokens using the app to complete transactions on its platform, and merchants can enable the eNaira payment option on their dashboard for their customers’ use.
According to Olugbenga GB Agboola, founder and CEO of Flutterwave, the development would grant various payment options to merchants and their customers to ensure everyone has access to payment solutions that work for them. “Flutterwave will continue to strive to be at the forefront of innovation as we develop and implement new solutions to facilitate global payments for our customers,” he stated.
Azeez Oluwafemi, Senior Vice President, Products and Design, also emphasised that Flutterwave is the payment solution platform that allows individuals and businesses with various payment needs and requirements to do business seamlessly.
“It is a key update to Flutterwave, and we continue to look out for opportunities like this to improve our offering to our range of customers,” he explained.
What can the inclusion do for the e-Naira?
Launched on October 25th, 2021, eNaira is a Central Bank of Nigeria-issued digital currency that provides a unique form of money denominated in Naira and serves as both a medium of exchange and a store of value. Its launch made Nigeria the first African country to launch a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), and even with this vanguard status and the vast Nigerian market, expectations, especially regarding adoption, have not been mindblowing. We once discussed reasons why the e-naira is experiencing so little adoption.
Since its launch, the e-naira app has reached about 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets comprising over 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets. To scale to a larger scale adoption, the CBN is targetting 8,000,000 active users for the second phase of the eNaira project and is unrelenting in using different methods, one of which is the partnership with private institutions to reach and surpass the goal.
Hence, why the apex institution is partnering with Flutterwave. According to the fintech giant, over 1 million merchants now accept e-Naira payments from their customers, and there is an assurance of rapid growth as the company continues to innovate and expand. This is a bright prospect, and it may not be wrong to say the CBN is still testing the waters with Flutterwave. Chances are high that the CBN will extend its partnership with Flutterwave to other fintech giants in the country as time goes by.
This could happen because fintech operations in the country have intensified in recent times and they are prominent for democratizing finance and bridging the wide financial inclusion gap in the country, which is one of the integral essences of the eNaira itself. It will not be surprising to see the CBN leverage the swarming number of fintechs, their infrastructure and customer base to expedite the adoption of e-Naira in the country.
