The Central Bank of Nigeria has released the regulatory guideline on the eNaria. This is according to a soon to be made public documents titled, “Regulatory Guidelines on Naira” According to the CBN document, the guidelines shall apply to all financial institutions and users of the eNaira. During the onboarding process, users shall have the option to disclose whether the eNaira wallet being created will be operated for self or as trustees.
The guidelines reads in part, “The Central Bank of Nigeria, under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act 2007 and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020, is empowered to issue legal tender currency, ensure financial system and promote the development of electronic payments system. The Bank, in furtherance of its mandate, hereby issues the following guidelines for the operation of the eNaira. The eNaira is the digital form of the Naira, issued by the CBN in line with Section 19 of the CBN Act. It is a direct liability of the Bank, a legal tender and will form part of the currency in circulation and will be at par with the physical Naira (that is 1:1). The eNaira shall complement traditional Naira as a less costly, more efficient, generally acceptable, safe and trusted means of payment. In addition, it will improve monetary policy effectiveness, enhance the government’s capacity to deploy targeted social interventions and boost remittances through formal channels.
“The eNaira wallet is required to access, use and hold eNaira. The eNaira will be exchangeable for other Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).” The guideline further stipulates that “The eNaira shall be administered by the CBN through the Digital Currency Management System (DCMS) to mint and issue eNaira; financial institutions shall maintain a treasury eNaira wallet for holding and managing eNaira on the DCMS; the Financial institutions (FI) Suite is the primary application used by the FIs to manage their digital currency holdings, requests, and redemption with the CBN; the eNaira stock wallet belongs solely to the CBN and it shall warehouse all minted eNaira; the two-factor authentication and other measures shall be adopted to ensure the security of the eNaira wallet; the charges for eNaira transactions shall be in line with the Guide to Charges by Banks, Other Financial and Non-bank Financial Institutions; financial Institutions are required to comply with the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 (as amended), the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2011 (as amended) and all subsisting anti-money laundering laws and regulations as may be issued by the CBN from time to time and that consumer complaints in relation to the usage of the eNaira shall be referred to Helpdesk of users’ preferred FI Helpdesk. If unresolved by the FI Helpdesk, it shall be escalated to the eNaira Helpdesk for resolution.
