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HomeBanking & FinanceCBN okays N1m transaction limit on eNaira merchants 

CBN okays N1m transaction limit on eNaira merchants 

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has placed  N1 million  transaction limit each for sending and receiving money by eNaira merchants.

In the operating model and prototype design of digital currency codenamed eNaira, the CBN however, placed  no limit on amount the merchants can sweep to their bank accounts.  

The regulator is however , still working out the final eNaira transaction costs for digital currency users.

The Project Giant, unveiled by the CBN to banks, sets limits for eNaira transactions to be conducted by digital currency users with banks and merchants.

According to the CBN presentation,  Tier 1 consumers with no existing bank account are to conduct daily transaction sending and receiving limit of N50,000 each and cumulative daily balance of N300,000.

For Tier 2 consumers with existing account, the CBN pegged daily transaction limit for sending and receiving at N200,000 each  with N500,000 cumulative balance.

Also, for Tier 3 consumers with existing account, the apex bank pegged daily transaction limit for sending and receiving at N1 million each, and cumulative daily balance at N5 million.

For merchant, the CBN guideline  allowed N1 million sending and receiving limit each, and placed no limit on amount they can sweep to their bank accounts.  The regulator is however , still working out the eNaira transaction costs for digital currency users.

The  CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, had listed the benefits of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to include increased cross-border trade, accelerated financial inclusion, cheaper and faster remittance inflows, easier targeted social interventions, as well as improvements in monetary policy effectiveness, payment systems efficiency, and tax collection.

The CBN said it took the issue of security very seriously adding that the eNaira system will be treated as a National Critical Infrastructure even as the system will be subjected to comprehensive security checks prior to go-live.

Banks are expected to market and promote the adoption of eNaira as a digital version of cash to existing and potential customers in support of financial inclusion objective of the CBN.

According to the guidelines,  Deposit Money Banks will be allowed to invite all their customers to register for the eNaira. With pre-generated codes, the banks can send invitation codes for on-boarding to a specific list of selected customers. On-boarding will be done for customers who have a code assigned by their banks. The banks have already validated and verified these customers.

The apex bank also specified the roles to be played by monetary authority, Central Bank, Financial Institutions, Government Agencies, businesses and merchants, banked and unbanked consumers as well as how the new currency would be designed and operated.

Participants in the e-Naira programme are featured in five stages, including: Monetary Authority Suite; The Central Bank will be handing the first product component that includes issue, distribute, redeem and destroy the currency. Store data on a cloud server, monitor and analyse currency transactions.

Financial Institution Suite; licensed financial institution will be able to request currency or issue stable coins, manage digital currency across branches, Know Your Customer, identify and Anti-Money Laundering compliance capability.

In the eGovernment Suite; the government will be able to efficiently process digital payments sent to and received from citizens and businesses.

Merchants will provide low-cost payment and business management software, Point of Sale (PoS), remote payment solutions, online capabilities, transaction analysis and reconciliation.

Retail Consumer Suite features user-centred designs for a great user experience. The architecture will be expandable to enable innovation; features advanced privacy and security.

Consequently, the proposed transaction cost for the e-Naira wallet was also outlined by the CBN.

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