Governor Godwin Emefiele of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Thursday, August 18, 2022, introduced the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code for its digital currency, eNaira.

Newsrand recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari, in October 2021, launched eNaira as Africa’s first Central Bank Digital Currency. However, while the first phase of the launch was focused on banked users, the second phase borders on financial inclusion.

Talking about eNaira, Emefiele stated that “as captured in the design paper released, eNaira is a journey, not a one-time event. This hackathon event is a continuation of that journey and the first among many to come given that the future of central banking is inextricably bound in innovation.

“We don’t have a choice but to live with the fact that we are now in a digital economy. In a digital space where the use of cash will dissipate to almost zero and the use of digital currency will increase and will now become part of our lives.“

“The second phase of the project has begun and is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding the unbanked and the underserved users leveraging offline channels. Hence greater success is envisioned for the project with phase two expected to deliver more gains with the target of eight million users based on estimation using the diffusion of innovation model.”

Tips to use USSD code for eNaira

First, it is important to note that the USSD code is usually programmed into Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards or cell phones to transact easily and faster.

But to use the USSD code for eNaira, dial *997# on your mobile phone and follow the instruction.

Dollar to naira, on Tuesday, August 16, 2022, opened at (undisclosed) at the Investors & Exporters FX window ( I&E FX Window), where the currencies officially trade.

According to the data at the FMDQ Security Exchange where forex is traded officially, the dollar to naira exchange rate stood at (undisclosed).

This would mean that the Nigerian currency either gained or lose in value against the United States dollar, as foreign exchange (forex) trading closed at N419.39 per $1 on Friday, August 13.

How much is the dollar to naira at the black market today?

Going by sources at the Bureau De Change (BDC) in Lagos, dollar to naira is currently selling for N670, and being bought for N665 in the black market in the state.

It is however pertinent to note that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) does not recognise the parallel market (black market), as it has directed individuals who want to engage in forex to approach their respective banks.

Nigeria’s inflation surged to 19.64% in July 2022 from 18.60% in the previous month. This is according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The figure, which is also 2.27% points higher compared to the rate recorded in July 2021, is the highest recorded since 2005.

“On a month-on-month basis, the Headline inflation rate in July 2022 was 1.817 %, which was 0.001% higher than the rate recorded in June 2022 (1.816 %),” the report reads “The percentage change in the average CPI for the twelve months period ending July 2022 over the average of the CPI for the previous twelve months period was 16.75%, showing a 0.46% increase compared to 16.30% recorded in July 2021.”