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When the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched the eNaira in October 2021, it presented the project as a landmark step in Nigeria’s push towards a cashless economy. As Africa’s first central bank digital currency (CBDC) designed for everyday use, it was expected to make payments easier, reduce remittance costs, expand financial inclusion, and support economic growth. Nearly five years later, those ambitions remain largely unrealised. The eNaira struggled to gain widespread adoption because it offered little that existing bank apps, fintech wallets, and mobile money platforms were not already providing more conveniently. In its Payments System Vision (PSV) 2028 strategy, unveiled on June 1, the CBN signals a major rethink of the eNaira’s role. Rather than positioning it as a standalone digital wallet competing with banks, fintechs, and mobile money providers, the central bank wants the eNaira to become part of the infrastructure that underpins Nigeria’s digital payments ecosystem. The strategy places the CBDC alongside initiatives such as open banking, digital identity, cross-border payments, and emerging financial technologies. The shift reflects lessons from the eNaira’s slow adoption since its launch in 2021. As a consumer-facing payment product, it struggled to offer a compelling alternative to existing digital payment options. The eNaira’s early challenges are well documented. Access initially required a Bank Verification Number (BVN) or National Identification Number (NIN), making it difficult for many unbanked Nigerians to participate. Like most central bank digital currencies, the eNaira was designed with strict identity verification requirements to help prevent fraud, money laundering, and other illicit financial activities. However, those requirements also created barriers for many Nigerians who lacked formal identification or did not have bank accounts, limiting the CBDC’s reach among the very populations it was meant to include. For users who could access it, the platform offered few advantages over existing alternatives such as bank apps, USSD services, mobile money platforms, and fintech wallets that were already widely used and trusted. As a result, adoption remained limited. Despite subsequent efforts to introduce USSD access, merchant payment tools, and government-payment pilots, the eNaira accounted for only a small fraction of digital transactions. Its limited role during Nigeria’s 2023 cash shortage also raised questions about its practical value. Over time, the project became one of several examples frequently cited in discussions about CBDCs struggling to achieve mainstream adoption. The CBN acknowledges many of these shortcomings in PSV 2028. According to the document, the eNaira currently has “millions of wallets” and has processed about ₦22 billion ($16.02 million) in transactions. “Adoption has been slow, barriers include limited stakeholder engagement and buy-in in design and implementation, limited adoption and integration drive, limited resources and capacities for retail CBDC implementation, undertook awareness creation, onboarding, use case development, which are not core CBN functions, etc.,” the regulator stated in the document. Moving from product to infrastructure One of the clearest signals in PSV 2028 is that the CBN increasingly views payment systems as interconnected infrastructure rather than standalone products. Throughout the document, there is a strong emphasis on interoperability, digital identity, open banking, real-time payments, and regulatory innovation. The document identifies cross-border payments and CBDC integration as strategic priorities and calls for deeper collaboration with regional and global payment networks. Although the document does not provide a comprehensive roadmap for taking the eNaira beyond Nigeria, it indicates that future development of the digital currency will likely focus on supporting regional payments, remittance flows, and cross-border commerce. PSV 2028 also recognises that technology alone will not determine the eNaira’s success. Consumer trust, security, interoperability, and ease of use remain critical challenges. The strategy proposes stronger consumer-protection mechanisms, improved cybersecurity frameworks, enhanced fraud monitoring, and greater coordination across the payments ecosystem. These initiatives are intended to strengthen confidence in digital payments more broadly, creating an environment in which innovations such as the eNaira can gain greater acceptance. Whether the strategy succeeds remains uncertain. What is clear, however, is that the CBN is no longer treating the eNaira as a standalone experiment. Under PSV 2028, the digital currency is being repositioned as one element of a much larger effort to build a more connected, secure, and interoperable financial system. For a project that many had written off as a missed opportunity, that shift may offer the eNaira a second lifeline.
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9 juin 2026 Hello , Welcome back to Francophone Weekly by TechCabal, your weekly deep dive into the tech ecosystem across French-speaking Africa. For readers who want to understand Francophone Africa beyond headlines—through markets, startups, and systems. New editions of the newsletter will land directly in your inbox every Tuesday at 12 PM WAT. By default, this newsletter is in French. If you’re reading this in your email inbox, click the “Read in English” button below to switch to the English version. If you’re reading on our website, you can either click the button below or toggle the language selector at the top right-hand side of the page to view the English edition. Read in English Kim Tran, directrice générale et co-fondatrice de Trenderz, une startup abidjanaise spécialisée dans la creator economy, passe près d’une décennie à travailler dans le marketing d’influence en Afrique francophone. Elle connaît les agences, les cycles de pricing, les clients. Quand elle a lancé Trenderz en 2024, elle construisait sur un terrain qu’elle maîtrisait bien. À la mi-2025, elle avait décidé de tout démolir. Aujourd’hui, Trenderz est une plateforme d’infrastructure de réservation et d’attribution qui trace la recommandation d’un créateur du premier clic jusqu’à la réservation confirmée et au versement d’une commission fixe. La couche agence a disparu. Le nouveau modèle est transactionnel, data-driven, et déjà déployé sur cinq marchés africains. Lina Kacyem, investment manager chez Launch Africa Ventures, s’est entretenue avec Kim Tran pour parler du pivot, de ce que trois mois avec le programme Creator Ventures de 500 Global lui ont appris, et pourquoi elle pense que l’économie de la recommandation en Afrique est cent fois plus grande que le seul marché influenceurs. 1. La création et la réorientation de Trenderz Kim Tran (à gauche) lors de l’Africa Creator Summit, Lagos, Nigeria, en janvier 2026. Source de l’image : Kim Tran. Lina Kacyem : Trenderz, c’était autre chose au départ. Peux-tu expliquer le pivot et ce qui t’a convaincue que c’était la bonne direction ? Kim Tran : Trenderz a démarré en 2024 à Abidjan, en Côte d’Ivoire, comme un modèle hybride agence et abonnement-en-tant-que-service (SaaS) pour le secteur du tourisme et des loisirs. Nous orchestrions des collaborations entre établissements et créateurs de contenu, et nous avions construit une plateforme SaaS avec une couche marketplace pour aider les hôtels, restaurants, spas et lieux d’activités à gérer leurs campagnes de marketing d’influence et à se connecter aux bons créateurs. Après un an et demi d’opérations, deux choses sont devenues claires. Premièrement, le business fonctionnait. Les établissements payaient ; la demande était réelle. Mais le modèle ne scalait pas. Chaque nouveau client demandait du temps humain, et nos unit economics étaient plafonnées par le nombre de campagnes que mon équipe pouvait orchestrer manuellement chaque mois. Deuxièmement — et c’est ce qui a tout déclenché — nous nous sommes rendu compte que nous résolvions le mauvais problème. Nos clients ne nous demandaient pas un outil de gestion d’influenceurs. Ils nous demandaient de la conversion : des réservations, des clients. Pas des impressions, pas des vues, pas des taux d’engagement. Des clients réels, attribuables au créateur qui les avait amenés. Chaque conversation avec un directeur d’hôtel finissait de la même façon : « Nous ne voulons pas voir des vues ou des likes. Nous voulons des clients — et savoir quels créateurs remplissent réellement nos chambres. » Ce signal a tout changé. Nous n’étions pas en train de construire un service marketing. Nous étions assis sur un vide beaucoup plus grand : l’infrastructure qui permet de transformer la recommandation sociale en transactions traçables et monétisées. La décision de tuer le modèle hybride agence/SaaS pour évoluer vers une infrastructure pure a été la plus difficile que nous ayons jamais prise. Elle impliquait d’arrêter une activité rentable pour tout reconstruire depuis zéro, sans aucune garantie que la nouvelle version trouverait son marché aussi vite. Mais le signal était constant. À la mi-2025, la conviction était prise. Au premier trimestre (T1) 2026, le système de réservation, la couche d’attribution et l’infrastructure de paiement créateurs sont passés en production. Aujourd’hui, chaque réservation générée par un créateur sur Trenderz est trackée de bout en bout : contenu, clic, acompte et paiement créateur — sur une seule plateforme. Kacyem : Qu’est-ce que vous avez dû abandonner en pivotant ? Et qu’est-ce que ça vous a appris sur la façon de construire dans ce marché ? Tran : Trois choses, chacune douloureuse à sa manière. Premièrement, nous avons abandonné un modèle de revenu qui marchait. La couche agence générait du chiffre d’affaires mensuel avec des marges correctes et des clients qui revenaient. La tuer, c’était accepter zéro revenu pendant toute la durée de la reconstruction, tout en continuant à payer l’équipe et à livrer le nouveau produit. Sans les 250 000 dollars de pré-seed apportés par Digital Africa, GIZ et un pool d’angels stratégiques, ce trou de trésorerie aurait été impossible à combler. Deuxièmement, nous avons renoncé à un terrain que nous connaissions bien. J’ai pratiqué le marketing d’influence en Afrique francophone pendant huit ans avant Trenderz. Je connaissais les agences, les clients, les cycles de pricing, les cycles de vente. Passer à un modèle d’infrastructure, c’était entrer dans un métier différent : développement produit beaucoup plus long, conversations commerciales plus complexes, investissement initial plus lourd. Mais c’est aussi un métier où ce qu’on construit reste — alors qu’en agence, chaque campagne se revend à zéro. Le troisième renoncement a été le plus contre-intuitif. Nous avons accepté de sortir d’une catégorie existante. Quand vous êtes une agence ou un SaaS, les acheteurs vous comprennent en cinq secondes. Quand vous êtes une infrastructure de réservation boostée par la creator economy, vous devez expliquer ce que vous faites à chaque conversation, parce que la catégorie n’existe pas encore. Plus difficile à vendre, plus difficile à pitcher aux investisseurs, plus difficile même à expliquer à votre propre équipe — jusqu’à ce que les premiers chiffres commencent à valider la thèse. Ce marché m’a appris trois choses.
Read MoreKenya’s Finance Bill 2026 has proposed a series of tax changes that could raise the cost of locally assembled smartphones while making imported handsets cheaper, threatening the viability of local plants built by M-KOPA and Sun King. The Bill removes the zero-rated VAT status enjoyed by locally assembled phones, imposes a 25% excise duty on domestically manufactured devices, and exempts imported finished phones from the Import Declaration Fee and the Railway Development Levy. A Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) position paper, seen by TechCabal, said the measures will erase the competitive advantage that attracted investment into local assembly. The proposals have raised concerns that Kenya could undermine an industry it deliberately nurtured through the Finance Act 2022, which introduced zero-rated VAT on locally assembled phones to attract manufacturers and lower smartphone prices. “The foundational tax structure underpinning the creation, growth, and sustainability of the industry will be eroded,” the position paper said, warning that the proposals could lead to factory closures, job losses, and undermine Kenya’s digital economy ambitions. M-KOPA, one of the largest local assemblers, employs an estimated 500 workers at its assembly plant, which has a monthly production capacity of 300,000 smartphones. Since launching local production in 2023, the company has manufactured more than 3.5 million devices, supplying Kenya and regional markets through its pay-as-you-go financing model. Sun King also invested in local manufacturing; it opened a Nairobi assembly plant in October 2025 as it expanded beyond solar products into smartphone production, betting on Kenya’s ambition to become a regional electronics manufacturing hub. According to the position paper, the proposed VAT changes will prevent local assemblers from recovering tax paid on components, spare parts, electricity, and other production inputs. Those costs could be passed on to consumers, raising device prices. The changes to VAT will also require companies to reverse previously claimed input VAT on inventory already in stock, potentially putting pressure on working capital. The 25% increase in excise duty on locally manufactured phones will likely raise device prices by KES 2,500 ($20). Exempting imported finished phones from the Import Declaration Fee and the Railway Development Levy, without extending similar relief to imported components, will leave local manufacturers facing higher production costs than their foreign competitors, according to industry submissions to Parliament. Since 2023, the local assembly has created hundreds of manufacturing jobs, expanded access to affordable smartphones, and positioned Kenya as an emerging electronics production hub serving East Africa. Companies like M-KOPA are already exporting locally assembled devices to neighbouring markets.
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