Nigeria Establishes Governance for Virtual Assets

On July 17, 2026, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, establishing a Virtual Asset Council to oversee digital assets in Nigeria. This marked a significant shift from the Central Bank of Nigeria's previous directive in February 2021, which restricted banks from facilitating cryptocurrency transactions due to concerns over volatility and illicit finance.

The new order recognizes virtual assets as an integral part of Nigeria's economy, aiming to replace fragmented supervision with a coherent governance system. Data from Chainalysis, cited by the International Monetary Fund, indicates that Nigeria's crypto-asset inflows reached approximately US$59 billion between July 2023 and June 2024.

Nigeria ranked second in the 2024 Global Crypto Adoption Index and has accounted for about 60% of stablecoin inflows into sub-Saharan Africa since 2019, reflecting the growing importance of virtual assets in the financial lives of Nigerians.