Nigeria’s Central Bank Partners with Gluwa to Boost eNaira Amid Global Regulation Changes
Nigeria’s Central Bank teamed up with the blockchain-powered financial platform Gluwa Nigeria on March 7 to accelerate the use of eNaira, the nation’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).
This collaboration with Gluwa highlights the ongoing efforts by Nigeria’s Central Bank to overcome challenges in both financial inclusion and CBDC adoption.
Gluwa intends to provide credit profiles for unbanked individuals through integration with the eNaira. This will create a system where ratings and credit scores can be assigned digitally, enabling more Nigerians to access credit in an efficient, CBDC-compliant manner. Gluwa’s solution will also support credit management, settlement, and assessment for local fintech lenders.
In addition to loan origination, Gluwa’s credal solution will incorporate credit management, settlement, and assessment for local fintech lenders.
Since its launch in October 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria has been looking for ways to increase the adoption of the eNaira. Data from the IMF shows that only about 1% of Nigerians with bank accounts possess eNaira wallets, and over 98.5% of them are unused.
The issue of credit systems has been a longstanding barrier in Africa, and blockchain-based solutions like Gluwa seek to change that.
These solutions use tokenization to bridge the data gap that exists in traditional credit scoring, drawing from peer-to-peer transactions. Gluwa’s presence in Nigeria extends back to 2022 when they worked with Lagos State to tokenize agricultural assets using their real-world assets (RWAs) technology.
The Nigerian government has a complex relationship with cryptocurrency, despite the introduction of the eNaira in 2021. Initial bans on commercial banks working with the crypto sector
