Kenya 
The eNaira Was Never Going to Work, and Ghana Should Not Repeat Its Mistakes
Ghana
Financial Services
Less than 0.5 percent of Nigerians had used the eNaira by late 2023. By 2025, approximately 13 million wallets had been issued and 98.5 percent had never been used, according to IMF research. The eNaira in circulation represented approximately 0.37 percent of total Nigerian currency, unchanged between early 2024 and early 2025. Ghana is now weighing whether to proceed with a full retail eCedi launch. We argue here that the eNaira's failure was not an execution problem. It was a product problem. Ghana should take the warning seriously.
When Nigeria launched the eNaira on 25 October 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria framed it as a financial inclusion breakthrough, a remittance enabler, and a cross-border payment upgrade. Four and a half years later, the eNaira is technically operational and commercially irrelevant. Fewer than one percent of Nigerians...
Read this article in full
Members read every article in full. You can also read our free to read articles without an account, marked on the Knowledge Hub.