Naira's Digitization Via The E-Naira: Beyond Financial Inclusion

Introduction:

Nigeria's monetary system has seen considerable reforms in the past years. In carrying out its supervisory functions, the Central Bank of Nigeria ("CBN") has developed various monetary policies to ensure the system's effectiveness, including ensuring the use of emerging technologies in advancing its goal of closing the access gap to financial services. The development of safe, robust, and efficient payment systems is critical to the promotion and maintenance of financial stability, and emphasis has been placed on the need to strengthen payment systems by developing internationally acceptable standards and practices for their design and operations.¹

Payment systems play a crucial role in any economy and represent the major channel through which financial resources flow from one segment of the economy to the other. Essentially, payment systems play three pivotal roles: the Monetary Policy role, the Financial Stability Role and, the overall Economic