In an effort to further its goal of transforming Africa’s largest economy into a cashless society and saving the nation foreign transaction fees, Nigeria’s central bank has launched a domestic card programme to compete with foreign cards like Mastercard and Visa.
Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), made the announcement on Thursday. The CBN had previously introduced the e-naira, Africa’s first digital currency, in October 2021.
Emefiele stated during the virtual launch of the AfriGo card programme that even though card payments have become more prevalent in Nigeria over time, many people are still left out.
“The challenges that have limited the inclusion of Nigerians include the high cost of card services as a result of foreign exchange requirements of international card schemes and the fact that existing card products do not address local peculiarities of the Nigerian market,” he said.
Emefiele said Nigeria was joining China, Russia, India and Turkey in launching a domestic card scheme. AfriGo is owned by CBN and Nigerian banks.
The operations of international card service providers like Mastercard and Visa would not end, he said, as AfriGo is meant to provide more options for domestic consumers in a “cost-effective and competitive manner”.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, has more than 200 million people and the majority still use cash because they live in rural areas where there are no banks.
To promote “financial inclusion” in remote areas, the central bank announced last week the launch of a cash swap programme introducing a redesigned version of the local currency, the naira.