Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele on Thursday, unveiled an African Central Bank-led National Domestic Card Scheme (AfriGO) to address local peculiarities.

At the event, which was monitored virtually, Emefiele said the new card would be accessible to all Nigerians and is expected to strengthen the national payments system and deepen the usage of electronic platforms in Nigeria.

According to him, the new card scheme aimed at providing more options for domestic consumers while also promoting the delivery of services in a more innovative, cost-effective and competitive manner.

He said that CBN’s cash-less policy had created value, engendered competition and attracted investment into the Nigerian banking and payments ecosystem.

The CBN governor assured Nigerians that the card scheme would open more opportunities for the Nigerian economy to integrate the informal segment of the economy, reduce shadow banking and bring more Nigerians into formal financial services.

He commended the Nigerian banking community for rising to the challenge of strengthening the national payments system by implementing AfriGo.

Mr Emefiele also assured international service providers that the new scheme was not designed to prevent them from operating in Nigeria.

“This effort is not a quest to prevent international service providers from continuing to provide services in Nigeria. It is aimed at providing more options for domestic consumers whilst also promoting the delivery of services in a more innovative, cost-effective and competitive manner,” said the CBN boss.

Mr Emefiele stressed CBN’s commitment to a robust, efficient and safe national payments system, welcoming innovation from both domestic firms and foreign investors. 

“We can no longer neglect the vast majority of Nigerians whose daily payments needs are micropayments,” the CBN governor said. “We need to capture them in national statistics to further understand their transaction dynamics and properly target interventions in that sector of the economy.”

(NAN)