E-Naira Adds No Value To Nigeria’s Economy — Expert Faults FG

Following the debut of the much-anticipated digital currency, e-Naira, which is Africa’s first of its kind, a social justice expert has expressed worry.

On Monday, President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled the e-Naira at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

President Muhammadu Buhari previously stated that the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) and its underlying technology, blockchain, had the potential to boost Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by $29 billion over the next ten years.

According to Buhari, the e-Naira will allow the government to transmit direct payments to residents who are eligible for specific welfare programs and promote cross-border trade.

The digital currency has the potential to boost economic growth through increasing economic activity, remittances, financial inclusion, and monetary policy effectiveness.

However, Eze Onyekpere, the Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, CSJ, criticized the debut of e-Naira.

Onyekpere complained to DAILY POST that the newly introduced e-Naira offers “no remarkable value” to the economy.

The CSJ Lead Director characterized the government’s recent step as “cosmetic,” and wondered what value the digital currency would add to the economy.

He said: “I think the important thing right now is what adds value to the economy in terms of job creation, stabilizing our currency, economic growth, and reducing the run on the Naira.

“So all these, be it e-money or x-money, is not adding any spectacular value; it’s just a different format of the money available.

“For me, it’s not about having the capacity or not, of course we have it; but it’s a little bit cosmetic; what value is it adding to the economy?

“I’m yet to see any major value, is it going to create jobs for the teeming youths? Is it going to return the value of the Naira? Is it going to reduce inflation? Or it’s just one of those formal things that doesn’t hold the substance of the challenge of the Nigerian economy?”

DAILY POST observed that one of the major threats to the digital currency is fraud, and the Nigerian government launched the e-Naira at a time when the country is witnessing an escalation in advanced fee fraud popularly called Yahoo Yahoo.

Some Nigerian youths have taken to Yahoo Yahoo as a shorter route to economic empowerment, which is a direct result of the government’s inadequacies to provide jobs and ensure improvement in the quality of lives.

Recall that a Nigerian Instagram celebrity, Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi and his cronies had used financial platforms like Bitcoin to hide some of the loots they acquired from Yahoo Yahoo.

However, Onyekpere urged the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and security agents to be proactive in protecting the digital currency from fraudsters.

He said: “Everything that has an advantage must have a disadvantage. E-money does not necessarily means fraud, and as some people are planning it; there should be security measures to put in place by CBN, security agencies, and financial intelligent unit, who should work towards curtailing such, that is why we pay them.

“That people can commit fraud should not be a reason why we should not operate e-money. I think we should work towards curtailing any negative tendencies.”

Eze Onyekpere is a lawyer with specialization in development law including electricity reforms, fiscal governance, human rights and constitutional reforms. He has worked on electric power sector reforms, privatization, gender and trade policy and liberalization of education.