About 24 hours after the e-naira wallet – a wallet designed specifically for the Nigerian central bank digital currency (CBDC) was removed from Android Google Playstore, the app is back on the store once more.
Yesterday, the e-Naira speed wallet app suddenly disappeared from the Google Playstore, after 100,000 downloads and just 48 hours after the e-Naira’s official launch. The sudden disappearance of the app was adjudged to be a result of the unending bad reviews that the app kept getting. Nigerians kept complaining of the inability to link their email accounts and BVNs.
The e-Naira wallet which initially launched alongside the e-Naira on the 25th of October, disappeared from the Google Playstore on Wednesday afternoon. The app reappeared on Thursday by 1 p.m. and is available for download again.
Although there was no explanation from the central bank as to why the app suddenly disappeared yesterday, the apex bank’s Director of Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi, in Abakaliki, on Thursday, said the app’s disappearance was only temporary as it was undergoing an important upgrade aimed at tackling glitches noticed since its launch.
As of yesterday, the e-Naira speed wallet which was still available on Apple’s App Store even with the disappearance from the Android store had been updated. The e-Naira wallet before its disappearance had a rating of 2. 6 out of 5, and on Apple’s App Store, had 2.0 out of 5.
Even with its re-emergence on Google Playstore, and the acclaimed improvement the app had received, Nigerians are still dropping bad reviews about the e-Naira wallet in the comment section.
The central bank had previously stated that it didn’t expect the level of adoption of the e-Naira to be high but expects that the numbers would pick up as time goes on. The e-Naira remains an instrument to increase financial access for all Nigerians, make foreign remittances seamless and easy, spread its welfare plan to more Nigerians, etc.
Ibhadojemu Lucky Emmanuel is a graduate of Education and Economics from the University of Benin. He has a passion for tech and business and has been writing professionally for over a period of five years. He's written across various topics and segments and knew tech-business was it when he first stumbled on it. He has a great passion for music and arts, and wants to visit as many countries as he can someday.
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