CBN Plans to Pay Salaries, Pensions Through eNaira Under New Roadmap

The Federal Government may soon start paying salaries, pensions and social welfare benefits via the eNaira. This is part of a new Central Bank of Nigeria roadmap to transform the digital currency into a major payment channel.

New Vision for Digital Currency

The proposal is contained in the Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028, recently released by the CBN. The document outlines plans to expand the use of the eNaira and move it from a pilot project to a core payment rail for government and private-sector transactions.

The eNaira was launched in October 2021 as Africa’s first central bank digital currency. It was introduced to deepen financial inclusion, reduce transaction and remittance costs, and promote a cashless economy. But adoption has remained low despite years of regulatory support.

Key Use Cases Identified

In the new document, the apex bank said it would revisit the existing CBDC framework to align it with market realities. The CBN stated: “Transition CBDC from pilot to core payment rail through defined use cases.”

It identified government-to-person payments, payroll processing, offline payments and micro-enterprise enablement as key domestic applications. The proposal suggests that government salaries, pensions, conditional cash transfers and other public-sector disbursements could be channelled through the eNaira platform to accelerate adoption and improve payment efficiency.

Programmable Money Features

The document also highlighted the programmable-money features of the digital currency. It noted that the eNaira could support advanced functions such as time limits on spending, purpose-specific payments, payment splitting and sub-wallet creation.

The CBN said: “The ‘programmable money’ feature of digital currency could have additional features such as time-limits, purpose-specific usage, splitting payments, sub-wallets, etc.”

The bank added that the digital currency could strengthen financial market infrastructure by supporting settlement systems, banks and tokenised financial assets, including bonds and securities. This would make transactions faster and cheaper.

Part of Broader Payment Reforms

The initiative forms part of the broader Payments System Vision 2028, which seeks to modernise Nigeria’s payment ecosystem through greater adoption of digital financial services, stronger payment infrastructure and emerging technologies.

CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso, in the foreword to the document, said the payments system vision was designed to consolidate Nigeria’s position as a leading digital payments market while improving efficiency, resilience and inclusiveness. He said: “PSV2028 sets clear strategic priorities: modernising payments infrastructure, strengthening regulatory and supervisory frameworks, accelerating the adoption of digital financial services, and fostering deeper collaboration across stakeholders.”

The document showed that the apex bank intends to deepen and scale existing initiatives, including contactless payments, open banking and the Central Bank Digital Currency.

The CBN’s Deputy Governor for Economic Policy, Dr Muhammad Abdullahi, said the vision would support the broader application of digital currencies and other innovative payment technologies within a robust regulatory framework. He stated: “The PSV2028 seeks to deepen and scale these initiatives, while also assessing and adopting new technologies capable of expanding the reach, functionality and quality of financial services.”

Challenges and Next Steps

The document acknowledged that despite recording millions of wallet registrations and transactions worth about N22 billion, the eNaira had yet to achieve widespread use in everyday economic activities. It noted that the digital currency suffers from limited merchant adoption, weak integration with banking and fintech applications, and the absence of live cross-border CBDC payment corridors.

To address these challenges, the CBN proposed repositioning the eNaira for government payments, remittances and trade settlements. It also plans to open application programming interfaces for fintech integration. The document stated that the apex bank would pursue bilateral CBDC corridor pilots with major trade and remittance partners to support cross-border transactions.

The CBN said: “Reposition eNaira for G2P, remittances, trade settlement; open APIs for Fintech integration; launch bilateral CBDC corridor pilots with priority trade/remittance partners.”

The bank also disclosed that Nigeria had already recorded millions of eNaira wallets and transactions valued at N22 billion, although it admitted that usage remained low due to limited real-economy applications and weak merchant value propositions.

The latest proposal comes as central banks across the world continue to explore digital currencies as alternatives to cash and private digital assets. According to industry estimates, more than 130 countries are currently researching, piloting or developing central bank digital currencies.