Victor Ezeja
TWO days after Nigerian Government launched the Central Bank digital currency, eNaira, the wallet app has suddenly been removed from Google Playstore.
The eNaira went live with the Federal Government formally launching it on Monday at an event in Abuja where the President, Muhammadu Buhari and CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele spoke about the great potentials of the digital currency in improving economic activities in the country.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelBuhari had talked about how it would help incresse the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over time, while Emefiele highlighted the benefits in terms of facilitating transactions, revenue and tax collections and diaspora remitances.
Given these positive notes about the eNaira, Nigerians and others outside the shores had high expectations about it. The CBN Director, Corporate Communications, Nwanisobi, had in a statement said the project took many years of research work by the apex bank in determining the feasibility of the payment ecosystem offered by the digital currency.
However, the eNaira Speed wallet surprisingly disappeared from Google Playstore barely 72 hours after the app went live.
Prior to being removed from Google playstore, people who tried accessing the app complained of having hitches signing up after downloading the app. Some of the digital complications posed by the app include failure to verify Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) of customers, and other frustrating responses which made customers unable to signup and use the app for financial transactions.
Since the eNaira was launched, many who were yet to understand what it is all about have been wondering how it is going to work and of what importance it is to the economy.
As the CBN governor described it, it is like the physical paper, Naira, but in digital form, and can exist in an electronic wallet, but in a CBN controlled app linked to customer’s bank that can be used to send money to other users without bank charges.
Some customers took to social media to narrate their ordeal trying to access the app. One wrote, “I don’t even know who developed that platform. For days now the platform can’t verify BVN. It keeps prompting ‘BVN verification server down.’ I tried removing a digit from the BVN to initiate ‘Continue’ to see what the prompt will be. Then embarrassingly, it will prompt ‘Email Address Not Found’, when there is no field whatsoever for Email.
“To me I don’t think there is need for rush. Proper Q & A should have been conducted.”
Another in response wrote, “Same here, it gave me BVN error. After another try, it was successfully verified. I then went on to complete the registration. When I try to log in, it was requesting for email when in the registration process, no email address was requested. Is a flop.”
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with seven years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Master's degree in Mass Communication.
