Tackling misinformation about e-Naira, cash crunch by Abdulrahman Abdulraheem
Editor's note: In this opinion, Abdulrahman Abdulraheem, writes on why misinformation about the e-Naira and cash crunch currently affecting many households in Nigeria took a new dimension.
From time immemorial, the world has placed enormous responsibilities on the shoulders of the media. Aside from the traditional functions of informing, educating and entertaining the populace, the media has metamorphosed into the most credible institution of accountability - a truth-telling watchdog whose duty it is to hold the people in positions of authority accountable to the masses.
One of America's founding fathers and its third President, Thomas Jefferson, laid the foundation for these enormous responsibilities when he famously wrote that: "If I had a choice to pick between government without the press or the press without government, I would not hesitate to pick the latter."
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But it seems the media has the added role of agenda setting which means to decide the most important issues to be put on the front burner at any point in time. In the discharge of their duties, journalists are expected to be held accountable to certain ground rules that border on truthfulness, neutrality, objectivity, fairness and balance.
Journalists must also be above board because media practitioners are regarded as properly trained professionals who exude integrity, competence, patriotism, selflessness and a huge sense of social justice. They must also possess the capacity to go beyond the surface, dig deep, carry out painstaking and thorough investigations, unearth and expose scandals, immoral or corrupt practices.
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Truth is sacred, it is unequivocal and unambiguous. In the discharge of agenda-setting duties, members of the press must not only stick to the truth at all times, they must also be seen to be truthful and credible. While it is true that journalists must never be afraid to dare the establishment and swim against the tide if that is what it requires to uphold truth and justice.
This does not presuppose that everything that has to do with government and governance is bad. Journalists must always go beyond attractive headlines, dig deep, ask the right questions from the right sources and get to know the ground-breaking ideas and events that are solving problems and moving a particular sector forward, in order to be able to inform the public from a position of adequate knowledge.
This brings me to a series of misinformation, disinformation and false alarm that have dominated some sections of the media in recent times about the country's exchange rate, cash crunch and the viability of the e-Naira to fill in the gap.
Some career doubters in recent times turned themselves to critics. The things they churn out are often devoid of depth and content even as they attempt to hoodwink the public with false tales and half-truths. They freely break all the journalistic rules of objectivity, balance and fairness in seeking to portray the e-Naira as an ineffective tool of moving Nigeria into full cashless economy.
As a curious researcher, I have for some time now been reading a lot about the e-Naira and why Nigeria needs it now being a component of the entire cashless policy of the federal government. I have attended physical and zoom meetings, technical sessions, presentations and spoken to those who should know about the workings of the currency, its expansive platform and the numerous exciting products that are meant to make life easy.
I have also been following the activities of the apex bank as they traverse the length and breadth of the country, aggressively promoting the platform. From Kano to Zamfara to Lagos, to Rivers to Bayelsa, they have been meeting and organising workshops with artisans, market women, drivers' union, motorcycle and tricycle operators to enlighten them on why e-Naira should be their preferred medium to receive payments.
CBN Director of Information Technology, Hajia Rakiya Muhammad, who practically relocated to Kano to coordinate sensitisation in the Northwest, confirmed the tricycle association has agreed for their members to start accepting e-Naira payments, saying this would favour the riders as they won't have to bother about looking for 'change' to settle passengers. The currency gives a better store of value, will drive down inflation and may bring back the spending of Kobo in the monetary system.
It will therefore be unfair to say the e-Naira is weak like some of the pseudo-intellectuals have claimed. Nigerians are the ones who are yet to see the light despite the best efforts of the CBN. The currency is very strong, robust, cheap, accessible and fast. It remains the easiest means of transaction available as it doesn't depend on the epileptic network in the country.
To start with, one of the writers accused the CBN of deliberately plunging the nation into the naira crisis , mopping up the old currencies, failing to print new ones and not giving Nigerians other transaction options. We all can attest to the fact that these allegations are false. This writer overlooked the fact that the public wanted to withdraw from banks almost the same quantum of money previously outside the banking system that has been returned.
They ignored an important component of the currency redesign policy which is to promote adoption of e-channels for transactions. This penchant for cash transactions by the public is the reason e-Naira and other electronic platforms in Nigeria seem to have failed to address new notes' scarcity, not due to their weaknesses nor unattractiveness as erroneously claimed by the writer.
Nigerians must first of all purge themselves of the obsession with cash. Nigerians believe if they have millions of naira and they are not seeing the money in their drawers and wardrobes, they are not rich enough. Aside justifiably blaming the commercial banks for hoarding the new naira notes and starving their customers of the same, we all know that the apex bank sensitised the public on the new policy using different communication channels.
The Economic Confidential recently reported that the CBN used banks and super agents to distribute the newly redesigned banknotes, deployed its staff to conduct direct cash swap in vulnerable areas and extended the initial deadline for use of old notes as legal tender, among other measures to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians.
The decision to extend the initial deadline for all old notes from January 31 to February 10 and N200 notes to April 10 shows that the federal government and the CBN are sensitive to the plight of Nigerians as the cashless policy was never meant to punish anyone.
Another critic complained of glitches in the deployment of e-Naira towards the end of 2022 and that for some time, the app was missing on Google Play. I am aware that the CBN embarked on Project Jaeger to continually upgrade the technology stack for efficiency, robustness, scalability, in-house control, cyber and operational resilience. Towards the end of 2022, the app was upgraded and alternative channels (web and USSD) through which customers can access their wallets were introduced.
Contrary to the assertion by the same writer that the currency is weak and unattractive, the reverse is the case. It has exciting features with strong fundamentals, facilitates faster, cheaper, more secured and efficient payment. A combo (for individual and business) version of e-Naira speed wallet app was developed for flexibility and ease of accessibility.
Web merchant wallets were also developed with functionalities that meet users’ requirements, including dashboard analytics for merchants, centralised account management, payment approval workflows, sub-wallets for big merchants, among others. The CBN is the first to integrate a CBDC (e-Naira) with USSD code (*997), to extend financial services at low cost, to the under-served segment of the society.
The writer committed the fallacy of false equivalence when he wrote that the adoption of the e-Naira for day-to-day transactions has been weak and unimpressive. The writer compared its performance with that of other electronic platforms that have been in existence for the past 10 years. This is an unfair comparison as the objectives, targets, maturities, legal backing, among others are not the same.
In addition, adoption is gradual and most successful platforms started slowly and grew overtime. Nigeria is not doing badly with a record of over half a million wallets within the first two months compared with other countries like India that recorded 55,000 users within the same period. Adoption may take some time in Nigeria as instant electronic payments are already in existence and popular.
The CBN has been working with PSPs to integrate e-Naira with existing payment channels to provide better services, address users’ pain points and drive adoption. Referral functionality with incentives was also introduced to encourage wallet holders to onboard potential users and drive adoption of the digital currency.
The e-Naira project is not a 100m or 200m dash. It is a marathon that will come in phases and therefore, it is too early to conclude that the it is weak when some key components and exciting products of the e-Naira project like cross-border payments and international remittances have not commenced.
The CBN already assured it would continue to improve e-Naira services, implement wholesale CBDC, facilitate government and cross border payments, deepen integration with Fintechs and agent networks, develop smart contracts and programmable payments, among other initiatives in the subsequent phases of the project.
For us journalists to be able to light the torch for others to follow, we must be able to conduct extensive research so that we can come up with stories and articles that are unquestionable. There was a time when lawyers in Nigeria and witnesses quoted media stories in courts and were accepted as credible evidence. People could go to the bank with whatever the media conveyed due to the credibility. Not anymore.
Now, people have developed the tendency to doubt or suspect journalists and not believe their stories. A lot of people are now watching the watchdog which is not healthy for the integrity of the profession. To regain its long, lost glory, the media must reinvent itself, be meticulous in research, thorough in queries, and balanced in presentations.
Source: Legit.ng
