The Central Bank of Nigeria has hired Gluwan to advance Inaira’s credit profiles.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with Gluwa Nigeria to promote the use of the Einaira Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). Gluwa is a blockchain-based financial platform that has been operating in Nigeria for several years.

As an agent partner of CBN, Gluwa will integrate its Credal technology with the Inaira platform, according to a statement sent to Cointelegraph. It plans to enable creation of “credit reputation” for unbanked consumers, thus increasing financial inclusion. The credit profiles it creates will be “accessible across borders” and increase the effectiveness of CBDCs:

“Credal's integration is expected to streamline loan origination, management, settlement and loan review processes for local fintech lenders.”

This is the latest of several attempts by the CBN to increase the use of Enyran. Inaira is the world's second-oldest CBCC, launched in October 2021. Fewer than 1% of Nigerians with bank accounts had Einaira wallets, and less than 1.5% of wallet holders were active during the week, as of mid-2023.

Related: Central Bank of Nigeria adds NFC upgrade to eNaira for contactless payments

Credit ratings are a very sad point in Africa. Only 20-30% of Africans have a credit score, which means that the rest of the population is “invisible” to lenders. Other blockchain-based solutions offered to provide credit history to Africans use soul-linked NFTs and handle low-cost peer-to-peer transactions.

Most payment solutions in Africa, including Gluwa, are based on the use of mobile phones instead of traditional financial infrastructure.

Gluwa has been working on the tokenization of agricultural assets in Nigeria for at least 2022 in partnership with the Lagos state government. He provided a well-known voice to the Nigerian government to advise him on cryptocurrency policy in April 2023.

Binance will stop trading with the naira on March 8 after the Nigerian government's criticism of crypto exchanges emerged in February.

Glua's founder and CEO Tai Oh is also the head of the Creditcoin network, which, like Glua, is a layer-1 blockchain. Creditcoin creates a public record of credit history and on-chain credit performance.

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