Seriki Adinoyi in Jos
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Zenith Bank Plc, have taken the eNaira sensitization drive to the University (UNIJOS).
The initiative is to promote adoption of e-Naira, the country’s CBDC to the management, staff and students of the university.
The head of the sensitisation team and Branch Controller of CBN, Jos, Mrs. Tinat Esther Catherine, said a committee was working on making government disbursements and salaries receivable via the e-Naira platform.
She added that the e-Naira could be used for a number of transactions including payment of school fees as payments on its platform are seamless, and the settlement instant.
She said, “Students are the targets of the CBN’s engagement, and the best place to engage students is the university because they will take it round.”
The team, which also paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor of the university, said it would promote the adoption of e-Naira to the entire university community “because we want school fees to be paid via e-Naira.”
She observed that the whole world was going digital, hence the CBN was responding appropriately to the innovation by introducing a lot of cashless policies, of which e-Naira is one, noting that the Central Bank in Nigeria is the first to introduce e-Naira in Africa and only the second in the world.
Also speaking, an official of Zenith Bank, Mr. Agai Joseph, said the eNaira was not different from the regular cash in hand.
According to him, the eNaira was a way to improve the payment system to make it more robust and intended to widen the opportunities for people to make their payments.
He added that the eNaira was designed specially to facilitate transactions.
Noting that it was faster and cheaper to use students as ambassadors to drive the policy, Agai maintained that the sensitisation and training would make it easier for the students to create the awareness since they are within the ecosystem.
On his part, a consultant with the CBN, Mr. Godson Izuchukwu, said the excuse of unreliable network for e-payment had been resolved as over 20 million Nigerians have keyed into the system.
Responding, the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Tanko Ishaya, urged the team to work on making e-Naira accessible to Nigerians abroad as it could help facilitate easier international transactions.
He said the university would consider adopting it if the platform would help ease payments in the university, improve financial inclusion, and provide a source of income for the students.
