eNaira is a Central Bank of Nigeria-issued digital currency that provides a unique form of money denominated in Naira. eNaira serves as both a medium of exchange and a store of value, offering better payment prospects in retail transactions when compared to cash payments. eNaira has an exclusive operational structure that is both remarkable and nothing like other forms of central bank money.
There are several benefits from a central bank-issued digital currency in Nigeria, and this cuts across different sectors of, and concerns of the economy. (excerpt from eNaira website)
The main purpose for the creation of the e-naira application is a medium of exchange and store of value for better prospects in retail transactions. It has been said that organizations and individuals are seeking fast, reliable, easy, and cheap means of payment and this notion birthed the eNaira speed wallet application.
Has it really served the purpose of its creation? When we say that organizations and individuals are seeking reliable means of paym§ent, is the creation of the application a solution to the problem. Research shows that people are yet to grasp the idea behind the creation of the application. We understand that everything is moving fast to be digitized but can digital currency replace the paper currency we use for our daily transactions.
A major question to answer is can citizens enjoy the application when using it? Is the application encrypted? Are the citizens’ information secured and at what rate would it be safe to say it is protected from identity theft? We are currently experiencing cyber theft from cyber-terrorists who have been stealing people’s identities on our social media platform to steal from other people. Many citizens are victims of identity theft across the nations and till now there is no possible solution to stopping this act. What means have been put in place to prevent identity theft and online fraud from happening to the citizens using the application?
Another major concern is that people want to be assured of the durability, reliability, and permanence of the product. They want to use the product and still maintain their sanity knowing fully that their money is safe and secured.
Having heard on the news that the application that had gone live was suddenly retracted from the play store and other platforms, some questions crossed our mind at Testify Limited, as a result of this, we swung into action immediately after the app got released back to the play store and our findings brought us to a conclusion: eNaira Wallet Speed App is not safe for Nigerian users.
I am Ibironke Yekinni, a Lead Software Quality Assurance and Test engineer who has worked with various organizations over the years. I am also the Founder of Testify Limited. At Testify, we are a registered Software Technology company with a community of software testers that offers Software Quality As A Service (QAAS).
Our mission is to make sure that we provide excellent product testing services, train our clients with in-demand Software IT skills and outsource experts to Tech firms around the world while advocating for more quality products in the marketplace for Nigerians.
We run a training platform called The Testcodecamp; a platform where we train people who want to switch careers from their current field to the tech field (with or without a background in tech) as a Software Tester. We groom and mentor them to the attainable height in the industry. Thereby giving people skills to get them employed and reducing the rate of unemployment in Nigeria. We also have a forthcoming event; Hunt de’Bug Hackathon. The Hunt de’Bug Bootcamp (HuBB) is a project and a platform that will hold for three days in the city of Ibadan where we put out all the means to encourage women into joining the tech space. Our main purpose is to awaken the desire and give them the courage to launch into the tech space with certifications and internship opportunities.
From our Testcodecamp community, I decided to put 20 Software Testers to work from the 3rd November to the 5th November. We decided to do the functionality, load, and security test for the eNaira speed wallet application. All hands were on deck, working tirelessly and we were able to get some tangible results from the product test that resulted in our conclusion.
I understand that the eNaira speed wallet application is the first of its kind in the Nigerian economy system but I believe that we should have done better at the first release. Certainly, there are going to be further modifications and enhancements to the platform but the first impression of the application to the whole nation lasts longer. The impression we saw (the pulling down of the application from the play store and all other platforms after its first release) led us to test the application and we were able to discover many defects and unsecured loopholes in the application.
e-Naira speed wallet – “a wallet that is true to you” is this statement really true? The question is not to ask what can my wallet do for me? The question is, is my wallet really safe and what can be done to make my transaction safe. Hence, our report answers the above question, and below is a sneak into a few of our findings:
Report: https://bit.ly/enairaTestifyReport
Having stated some of our findings above to validate our point, we reached the conclusion that the Nigerian government should retract the application for further examination. The concept of the application is not looked down upon; it was a good move made by the government. Nigeria is the first country in Africa to develop a digital currency and we definitely applaud that. To prevent further damage than good, it would be safe to say that the application should be brought down and thoroughly reviewed for the safety of the citizens’ finances.
Many Nigerians have downloaded the application and were all eager to use the application but the reviews are bad. Reading through the application review on the play store by some Nigerians who had downloaded the application is not good enough.
Some excerpts from the application review;
- This app called eNaira is so irritating, an app with a lot of bugs, I think this app needs to be fixed in some testing platform, this app validates invalid email address input to register successfully. The app crashes simultaneously, this application should be fixed quickly in order for users to use it without any defect.
- Terrible app. Instead of you giving the contract to capable developers, you giving it to those you know through connection. Padi Padi contract. Now I cannot finish my registration, the kit is saying “Invalid Account Number”. I have done this twice but the result is the same. I will rate this app again after it has been fixed.
- A user does not see any email field, yet your application keeps saying “email cannot be empty”. Even if you are fetching the email from somewhere, perhaps. BVN, is that the best notification you can give? Why not something like,” we couldn’t fetch your email from your BVN record…”. Try again or contact bla bla bla. But wait!
- Why fetch my email from BVN when I can just enter it?
- Now it says I have tried multiple times with the same BVN, who knows if I am barred forever. Everything Nigeria is a problem.
To Spell out of a few of over ten thousand bad reviews on the application review section on play store and AppStore, sincerely, I could not point out or read out at least three good reviews. This is not encouraging at all, these issues should be dealt with very fast and be resolved to allow smooth transactions and give the users a good experience while using it.
Finally, I would suggest that the user interface should be revamped and it can be better than that. The eNaira logo app itself is not appealing to the eye, I know that as a country we can do better than this. And lots of improvements and innovations should be made to give the application a better face and be user-friendly.
