The Nigerian central bank digital currency (CBDC) wallet app is set for an update that will see users given the ability to pay for utilities like pay television and for topping up airtime. The addition of the unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) functionality to the wallet app means people without bank accounts will be able to make payments using the CBDC.
Despite the CBN’s initial claims that the e-naira would be beneficial to the financially excluded, the central bank’s CBDC did not come with the USSD functionality. Having no USSD functionality means the e-naira is being used by those with access to financial services already. However, by adding the USSD code 997, the CBN is making it possible for those without bank accounts to use the CBDC.
Meanwhile, Obinna Umeh, the secretary of the Oshodi Market Union, is quoted in the report commending the central bank’s decision to inform Nigerians about the upcoming update. He said prior to Jelil’s latest communication, traders had been inundated with fake wallet app alerts.
“The CBN couldn’t have come at a better time to educate us about e-Naira; there’s almost no day we don’t have to settle disputes about fake alerts, times that we could channel into more productive things,” Umeh is quoted explaining.
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