By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem
In October 2021, Nigeria became the first country in Africa to adopt any form of official digital currency. The Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) was launched with pomp and pageantry by the then President Muhammadu Buhari.
Nigerians were told in flowery words that the e-wallet was the future that we must embrace, that digital currency will define the present and shape the future.
Nigerian youths are now beginning to see the light as the level of awareness among the youth is very impressive. To reach the largest single concentration of youths in the country and make the eNaira crusade go viral, the CBN eNaira team smartly decided to concentrate on campuses across the country. This has been working wonders and the impact is visible in the youth enrollment on the eNaira platform.
The CBN team was at the Law Ladies of the University of Lagos annual retreat last month where they convinced a large gathering of women and youths to open the e-wallet and begin to transact all their businesses with it.
From Rivers to Kaduna, Plateau, Anambra, Enugu, Osun, Lagos and Ekiti etc, the success story has been the same in every campus the team has visited.
And when they also visited the Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology (ADUST), Wudil, Kano State, a few days ago, the outcome was the same.
Delivering an address at the office of the Vice Chancellor, Alhaji Musa Tukur Yakasai, the Kano Branch Controller of the CBN, Umar Ibrahim Biu, called on the university community to adopt the new e-wallet for its payments of tuition, salaries and other transactions.
He explained the need for the university community to migrate to the cashless system for financial security and efficiency using the eNaira initiative.
“The eNaira is a trailblazer now. It is something that has come to stay and we are trying to make sure that everybody is brought onboard. That is why we are doing this intervention.
“We have done it with so many merchants, we have gone into markets, we have gone into so many places, now we are coming into the institutions.
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“We have been to the University of Nsukka, the University of Jos and now we are here in Aliko Dangote University of Science and Technology to also sell the idea of eNaira wallet to both the students and staff of the institution.
“Our target is where the students can use the facility to pay their tuition fees and other payments through the eNaira wallet.
“This will help the students a lot, it is the safest way of handling your funds. Nobody will steal it. The system will eradicate corruption. One does not need to carry a huge amount of cash. There is financial inclusion, they get included in the financial statement. And this is part of the financial literacy campaign.
In his response, the Vice Chancellor who spoke on behalf of the university gave the assurance that the institution will key into the eNaira initiative.
“We appreciate the idea of the CBN coming to launch the eNaira initiative in this institution.
“This is a University of Science and Technology where our students are e-confined already. They are doing a lot of things, some of the academic activities are done via e-platforms. So it is very easy for students to adopt this eNaira.
“Some of the questions people ask are cleared by the bank. Especially the fear of losing money to hackers and other things like that.
“We now understand the eNaira. We will call on our students and other stakeholders to key into this initiative. It makes it easier for everyone to operate without having to move with a lot of cash” the Vice Chancellor stated.
The reason the eNaira crusade sells easily in the campuses is not far-fetched. It is the reality of the existing cordial relationship between innovation and education. While the eNaira is a product of extreme creativity and innovation, the university is on the other hand the bastion of education and knowledge anywhere in the world.
By the time the CBN team covers half of the university campuses across the country, the eNaira would have completely taken over the entire gamut of money transactions in the country.
Abdulrahman Abdulraheem is the Managing Editor of PRNigeria and Economic Confidential.
