*The Africa Fintech Foundry says it is collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria to support 10 start-ups, innovators and entrepreneurs to enhance adoption of eNaira in the country

Gbenga Kayode | 绿帽献妻

As part of measures aimed at increasing adoption of the eNaira in the West African country, the Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) has said it is collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to support 10 start-ups, innovators and entrepreneurs.

Mr. Daniel Awe, Head of AFF, disclosed this development at the weekend in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, in Lagos.

Awe spoke on the sideline of the Semi-Final Pitching of the eNaira Hackathon 2022.

The Head of AFF noted that the 10 top start-ups, innovators, entrepreneurs, were part of the over 5,000 startups that registered for the eNaira Hackathon.

There is the need to increase the adoption of eNaira in the country, as it enhances financial inclusion, supports digital economy and improves economic activities, said he.

Awe also stated: “eNaira was introduced by CBN in 2021 as a digital currency, and a lot of people have asked the question, what is actually the usefulness of this eNaira?

“A lot of people have also criticised eNaira, that they prefer cryptocurrency.

“But the truth is that eNaira is going to be a successful product when there are use cases, when people are able to see problems it is going to be solving.”

According to him, AFF and CBN are collaborating on the hackathon in order to increase the adoption of eNaira.

He further noted: “So, the hackathon is a platform where innovators, developers, entrepreneurs, coders come together, to solve problems, to create innovative ideas.

“When we layer that on eNaira, it means we brought in different players within the ecosystem 鈥� developers, coders, innovators, entrepreneurs, to come up with different ideas, different use cases, that they can leverage on eNaira,

Awe stated: “This is so that the consumers of eNaira will now see the benefit of eNaira, they will have the opportunity to see the problem that eNaira will solve.”

Judges at the Semi Final Pitching of eNaira Hackathon 2022 in Lagos聽 聽 Photo: NAN

The AFF Chief as well stressed that the CBN role is just to create the platform for Financial Technology (FinTech) start-ups and entrepreneurs the ecosystem to leverage to create solutions that would benefit the entire financial services space.

Selection of 1o top potential businesses

He revealed that about 5,000 players within the FinTech ecosystem applied for the hackathon this year.

They were reduced to about 175 teams, and eventually 70 for the quarter final pitching, he noted.

Awe said that the semi-final would see 20 teams being selected for the finals, of which the top 10 would be assisted to boost eNaira adoption in the country.

“Now, this top 10 potential businesses when they come out of the final of the hackathon, there is a cash prize for them.

“I think number one is going to get 5 million eNaira.

“Number two is getting 3 million eNaira. Number three, 2 million and the remaining, the next ten will get 1 million eNaira,” he stated.

Awe also said “afterwards, those top 10 will resume in the AFF accelerator programme, whereby some of them will get some funding to start up their businesses on their ideas.”

The finalists would be guided by CBN and AFF, he said.

According to him, by the time they come up with good business with their innovations, employment would be created and they would increase the adoption of eNaira.

There is a possibility of wealth that would be created by these start-ups,聽 Awe added.