eNaira Advocacy: Touching Base with the Grassroots

eNaira Advocacy: Touching Base with the Grassroots
By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem

When the eNaira was launched with pomp and pageantry in October 2021, both President Muhammadu Buhari and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, did not mince words in informing Nigerians that it would among other goals advance the cause of financial inclusion for the downtrodden.

The launch was also taking place a few years after the World Poverty Clock turned and Nigeria overtook India as the Poverty Capital of the world. So any idea that would reduce poverty, address rural penury and assimilate the poorest of the poor into the financial ecosystem was welcome.

Emefiele in particular told all and sundry that the eNaira was coming as a digital replacement for the physical naira. He added that the eNaira was a legal tender, a proper store of value and medium of exchange that is useful in transaction better than the physical naira and online transfer.

Emefiele’s vision was that using the eNaira platform, the federal government could expand its social intervention schemes and distribute the cash it gives to the poorest Nigerians with eNaira. That is why the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has been working with the CBN to onboard millions of its beneficiaries for the purpose of paying them via the eNaira.

To consolidate the efforts of the CBN and other MDAs, GOGETIT Investment Ltd, a private firm engaged by the apex bank to propagate the eNaira message, has also been going round the country holding workshops, seminars and trainings, spreading the eNaira gospel, onboarding people and recruiting agents, with emphasis on the grassroots.

The firm organised one of such sensitisation programmes for residents of Bwari in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, last Wednesday where tens of leaders of market women, youth groups, tribal and religious associations gathered at the palace of the Etsu of Bwari to hear the good news of eNaira.

An enthusiastic crowd dominated by women in different attires who filled the hall to full capacity listened to presentations with rapt attention.

Addressing the crowd, the MD/CEO of GOGETIT, Mr Kenneth Hembe, said they were in Bwari to enlighten the people about the benefits of enrolling on the eNaira platform which he said were far above keeping cash and saving money in their conventional accounts in commercial banks.

He informed them them that using eNaira will eradicate the chances of losing their monies to petty stealing, armed robbery and kidnapping as that physical wallet they carry around will become e-wallet which no one can steal without traces.

He noted that the being able to take advantage of the eNaira platform is not limited to those with smart phones and bank accounts, adding that there is a USSD code for eNaira which those with small phones can use.

Mr Hembe added that the eNaira platform is also available to those without bank accounts and BVN as the CBN intends to pursue the goal of financial inclusion which leaves out no one.

He noted further that there are a lot of limitations in conventional banking that are not present in the use of eNaira, adding that the long, cumbersome process of opening accounts is not there just as any child below 18 can have an eNaira wallet as far as he or she has any phone at all.

“If you want to open an account in a commercial bank now, they will say bring passport, utility bills and all that and it will take days. But with eNaira, it is a seamless process that will be done immediately without conditions as we will demonstrate to you shortly.

“Our major aim of coming here today is to teach you how eNaira works and open your own eNaira wallets for you. So, henceforth, whatever you want to buy or sell in the market, you pay with or receive money with the eNaira wallet on your phone,” he said.

Mr Hembe told the audience that the eNaira wallet works very fast with no network problems and no charges that are associated with conventional banking.

The highpoint of the session was the immediate opening of eNaira wallets for participants with smart phones while those with small phones had their details taken and the organisers promised to open the wallets for them and send their respective wallet IDs to them on the same day.

Speaking to ECONOMIC CONFIDENTIAL at the end of the session, Mr Hembe said having gotten the approval of the palace and spoken to market leaders, the organisation will now hit the markets and start one-on-one engagements with each of the market women.

He however added that GOGETIT will equally be relying on the participants to recruit as many people as possible and bring them to be enrolled into the eNaira platform as there are many incentives and rewards they will be getting from the CBN for each of the persons they bring.

The GOGETIT team was also at the expansive Kubwa Village Market on Thursday where they held a productive enlightenment session with the market leaders.

Speakers after speakers encouraged the participants to not only take advantage of the opportunities offered by the eNaira platform but also spread the message to the their respective constituents in the entire market.

The speakers told them that eNaira
is the future of financial transactions in Nigeria as the cash they are carrying now will soon be phased out and eNaira will be the only viable option to do business.

They added that traders should avoid the torture they went through during the last cash crunch so that by the end of the year when the Supreme Court ruling on availability of cash elapses, they won’t suffer if they are on eNaira. The participants were told that they have to start sending and receiving money from their respective customers using the eNaira which is seamless, easy and free.

Mr Hembe reminded the people that those who had eNaira accounts didn’t have to suffer hunger and avoidable deaths during the cash crunch, adding that they need to join the train now instead of waiting for when it will be too late and everybody will be rushing.

While GOGETIT officials ensured most of the participants got their eNaira wallets opened immediately with a promise to start doing shop to shop campaign going forward, the participants expressed deep appreciation in the gesture.

A cross-section of the participants who spoke to ECONOMIC CONFIDENTIAL said they found the experience rewarding, adding that this is what the CBN should have done before withdrawing cash from the system the last time which subjected them to untold suffering.

“Now, that the CBN has come to us to show us better ways of transacting business, we will key into this new idea and tell our people to do so since it is for our own good. This is what the CBN should have done the last time before withdrawing cash from the system. But now that they have given us this eNaira option, we will embrace it as far as it works,” one of the market leaders who declined to mention his name told Economic Confidential.

The two days spent in Bwari and Kubwa were worth it as lives were touched and people came out brimming with smile, nodding their heads with satisfaction that they learnt new things.

With Mr Hembe confiding in Economic Confidential after the session that the grassroots approach would be sustained, there is no doubting the fact that the eNaira gospel would arrive in every Nigerian home faster than projected and the cashless future we are talking about would come to pass earlier than expected.

Abdulrahman Abdulraheem is Managing Editor Economic Confidential [email protected]