eNaira

Nigeria bans ATM cash withdrawals over $225 a week to force use of CBDC

The limits set by the Central Bank of Nigeria are part of a broader push to encourage digital financial transactions.

Nigeria has drastically reduced the amount of cash individuals and businesses can withdraw as it attempts to push its “cash-less Nigeria” policy and increase the use of the eNaira — Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The Central Bank of Nigeria issued the directive to financial businesses in a Dec. 6 circular, noting that individuals and businesses would now be limited to withdrawing $45 (20,000 Nigerian nairas) per day and $225 (100,000 nairas) per week from ATMs.

Individuals and businesses will also be limited to withdrawing $225 (100,000 nairas) and $1,125 (500,000 nairas), respectively, at banks per week, with individuals hit with a 5% fee and businesses with a 10% fee for amounts above those limits.

The maximum cash withdrawal via point-of-sale terminals is also capped at $45 (20,000 nairas) per day. Announcing the changes, the director of banking supervision Haruna Mustafa noted:

“Customers should be encouraged to use alternative channels (Internet banking, mobile banking apps, USSD, cards/POS, eNaira, etc.) to conduct their banking transactions.”

The limits are cumulative limits for each withdrawal, so an individual withdrawing $45 from an ATM who then tries to withdraw cash from a bank on the same day would be hit with the 5% service fee.

The previous limits on daily cash withdrawals prior to the announcement were $338 (150,000 nairas) for individuals and $1,128 (500,000 nairas) for businesses.

Adoption rates for eNaira have been low since its launch on Oct. 25, 2021. As reported by Cointelegraph on Oct. 26, the Central Bank of Nigeria has struggled to convince its citizens to use the CBDC, with less than 0.5% of the population reported having used the eNaira as of Oct. 25, a year from its launch.

Related: The impact of CBDCs on stablecoins with Bitget’s Gracy Chen

Nigeria established its “cash-less” policy in 2012, suggesting a shift away from physical cash would make its payment system more efficient, reduce the cost of banking services and improve the effectiveness of its monetary policy.

On Oct. 26, the Governor of Nigeria’s central bank, Godwin Emefiele, noted that 85% of all Naira in circulation was held outside of banks and, as a result, it would be reissuing new banknotes in an effort to drive the shift toward digital payments.

According to a CBDC tracker from the American think-tank, Atlantic Council, Nigeria is one of 11 countries to have fully deployed a CBDC, 15 other countries have launched pilot programs with India set to join the ranks later this month.

Nigerians’ passion for crypto is stopping short at the eNaira

With less than 0.5% adoption, the central bank of Nigeria is struggling to push its eNaira CBDC to its citizens.

Nigeria’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) is not getting the warm reception expected from its crypto-savvy population.

According to a Bloomberg report, less than 0.5% of Nigeria’s 217 million population are using the government-issued digital currency — the eNaira — a year after its launch.

This comes despite Nigeria being identified by Chainalysis as the top country in Africa for crypto adoption and ranking 11th globally, while a KuCoin report found that 35% of the Nigerian population aged 18 to 60 had owned or traded cryptocurrencies this year.

Bloomberg noted that Nigerians have been confused due to a lack of clarity from the state which cracked down on crypto last year.

In February 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria banned banks from servicing crypto exchanges in an effort to sever fiat on and off ramps.

Educating people who are generally wary of the state and ruling elite has also become a challenge for the central bank, according to the report.

Furthermore, the naira has been devalued around six times since 2015, and economists expect a further 20% loss in value next year, as the economy has been further compounded by galloping inflation, which could make the push for a CBDC a hard sell to many of the country’s citizens. 

According to the director at Lagos-based emerging and frontier markets investment bank Renaissance Capital, Adesoji Solanke, “the eNaira does not address any of these basic use cases, so no surprise at its low adoption rates so far.”

The disappointing figures are now prompting the Nigerian central bank to ramp up efforts to increase its adoption, including offering a 5% discount to drivers and passengers of motorized rickshaws that ply the city streets, according to the report. 

Related: Nigeria becomes the most crypto-obsessed nation after April crash

In August, Nigerian Central Bank governor Godwin Emefiele announced the eNaira project entered its second phase in August with an adoption target of eight million users.

At the time, he added that the CBDC has had about 840,000 downloads, with about 270,000 active wallets. By August, there had been around 200,000 transactions worth 4 billion nairas — approximately  $9.5 million at the time.

According to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracker, Nigeria is one of eleven countries to have fully deployed a central bank digital currency, the other ten are in the Caribbean.

Think tank launches ‘technical sandbox’ exploring United States CBDCs

The Digital Dollar Project’s Technical Sandbox Program is set to begin in October, aiming to provide a clearer understanding of the ramifications of a United States CBDC.

A United States think tank has launched a “technical sandbox” aimed at advancing the exploration of a potential United States central bank digital currency (CBDC).

In a Wednesday Tweet from Digital Dollar Project (DDP), the organization said the new program would explore “technical and business implementation” questions revolving around a U.S. CBDC.

The organization noted that the initial participants of the sandbox include crypto-firm Ripple, financial technology company Digital Asset, software platform Knox Networks and banking solutions firm EMTECH.

The Technical Sandbox Program aims to give the federal government, policymakers and the private sector a clearer understanding of how a potential CBDC would be rolled-out.

This includes the potential implications to retail and wholesale and international use cases such as cross-border payments.

The U.S Federal Reserve has yet to decide whether or not it will implement a CBDC but has been exploring the potential risks and benefits that come with them.

On Jan. 20, it released a discussion paper examining the pros and cons of CBDCs but neglected to give any hints about its future plans.

The paper suggested that CBDCs could act as digital money free from credit and liquidity risks, improve cross-border payments, help preserve the dominance of the U.S dollar, promote financial inclusion and extend public access to safe central bank money.

Potential risks found included a changed U.S financial system, more severe bank runs for other forms of money, reducing the power of monetary policy, operational resilience and a difficult balance between transparency and safeguarding consumer privacy rights.

Meanwhile, China’s own CBDC, the digital yuan, is quickly being rolled out across the country, while the same is occurring in Nigeria with the eNaira. The Bahamas and countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union have also launched CBDCs, while Russia is set to roll out its own in 2024.

The FedNow service, an instant payment service set to be launched in mid-2023, aims to begin “technical testing” in September, according to a Monday press release. FedNow is seen as a step toward an eventual CBDC.

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP partner Alexandra Steinberg Barrage, a former FDIC policy expert, tweeted her support for the program on Wednesday. Barrage suggested that regardless of what your views are on a U.S. CBDC, pilot programs and data are essential when evaluating new tech.

The Technical Sandbox Program is set to begin in October with cross-border payments being the initial focus for the early participants.

The program is set to be released in two separate phases, including an educational phase and a pilot phase.

During the educational phase, providers and participants will seek to understand the technology from both a functional and business perspective. While in the pilot phase, the focus will be on identifying and testing specific ways in which CBDCs can be utilized.

Related: Fed and MIT’s CBDC research: Distributed ledger tech has ‘downsides’

The Digital Dollar Project is a partnership between the not-for-profit organization Digital Dollar Foundation and IT consulting firm Accenture. DDP seeks to encourage research and discussion around a U.S. CBDC and released a white paper proposing a tokenized U.S. digital dollar in May 2020.