The Nigerian Naira on Friday has slightly crashed to the dollar while getting to exchange at ₦436.33 as compared with the exchange rate of ₦436.32 on Thursday.
The open indicative rate had also closed at ₦433.83 to the United States dollar on Friday.
An exchange rate of ₦437 to the dollar was the highest rate which had also recorded within the day’s trading before it had also settled at ₦436.33.
The Naira had also sold for as low as ₦425 to the dollar within the day’s trading. A total of 66.02million dollars was traded at the official Investors and Exporters window on Friday.
Meanwhile, over the past month, Nigeria’s commercial banks have openly declared reduced limits on international transactions using naira debit cards to $20 per month.
It means Nigerians would be unable to use their naira debit cards to make any transactions more than $20 in a month.
Reports reaching Africa Daily News, New York have it that, since its inception in October of last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) e-Naira virtual currency network has seen over ₦4 billion in transactions.
Mr. Godwin Emefiele who is the CBN Governor disclosed this to the public, yesterday, at e-Naira’s Hackathon grand finale, hosted in Abuja.
In his words, ‘Since the launch of this great initiative, the e-Naira has reached 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets comprising over 252,000 consumer wallets and 17,000 merchant wallets.’
‘In addition, volume and value of transactions on the platform have been remarkable, reaching above 200,000 and N4 billion, respectively.’
Godwin Emefiele revealed that even with the initiative’s proven track records, the bank has begun another round of the e-Naira in partnership with private sector executives.
He further said: ‘Notwithstanding this appreciable progress, the second phase of the project has begun and it is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding unbanked and under-served users leveraging offline channels.’
‘Hence, greater success is envisioned for the project with phase two expected to deliver more gains with a target of about 8,000,000 active users based on estimations using the diffusion of innovation model.’
Emefiele claimed the CBN maintained its corporate strategy in determining the Naira’s fate by striking a balance between currency advancement and sustainability.
