It has been three days since the Nigerian government launched its eNaira digital currency. The days have been characterised by complaints and displeasing experiences for users of the applications.
Mark Samuel, one of the users of the eNaira Speed wallets described the application as “an app with so many flaws.”
Samuel’s reaction is one out of thousands of negative comments in the review section of the eNaira wallet on Google Play Store where it got below a 3-star rating by users.
He said users of the eNaira wallet “can’t go past the registration stage because the app happens to send a confirmation message to an email it never requested for. So, I didn’t get any message and couldn’t register on the platform.”
The Speed Wallet and Merchant Wallet developed by the Central Bank of Nigeria for Nigerians to purchase their eNaira currencies recorded over 100,000 downloads across digital platforms on Google Playstore and Apple app store as of 3:00 am on Wednesday, October 27.
While the downloads grew, the complaints increased in numbers too. One of the users of the app told The Guardian he was only able to register after trying nine times.
eNaira app dissappears
Amid the uncertainty trailing the use of the eNaira and acceptability by Nigerians, many people who heard about Nigeria’s stride of launching Africa’s first digital currency were pumped up to share in the experience of Nigerian Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), only to discover the sudden disappearance of the application on Google Playstore.
Only the Merchant Wallet was on Play Store as of 12:07 pm (Nigerian Time) on Thursday.
A former Nigerian lawmaker Shehu Sani in a tweet on Thursday said the “eNaira app may have also been kidnapped from the Google store.”
A Nigerian Twitter user Dr Penking said, “Google Play Store has deleted the eNaira wallet due to multiple complaints and low rating.”
The app was still on Apple app store at the time of filing this report but the reasons for the ‘disappearance on Google Play Store remain unknown.
Apart from the rectifying the buggy apps, the CBN now has to also contend with fraudsters.
The bank on Wednesday warned the public against a Twitter handle (@enaira_cbdc) suggesting that it is disbursing 50 billion eNaira.
The bank said some fraudulent individuals have been posting messages relating to the currency wooing Nigerians in their criminal and illegal activities.
It said it is not in any way associated with the handle and had not been active on Twitter since the government banned the microblogging platform in Nigeria.
