Fintech & digital payments rules in Nigeria (2026)

The CBN (circular BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/019/002) mandated all deposit money banks and fintechs to deploy AI-powered automated anti-money laundering systems, with 18-month deadlines for DMBs and 24 months for other financial institutions. Institutions must submit implementation roadmaps within 90 days and face sanctions for non-compliance, aligning Nigeria with FATF recommendations.

Following a sector-wide stakeholder consultation and the October 2025 CBN Fintech Roundtable, the CBN released its first comprehensive post-PSV 2025 fintech policy report, proposing a Standing Fintech Engagement Forum, a Single Regulatory Window for multi-agency licensing, and Compliance-as-a-Service (CaaS). It also calls for expanding the regulatory sandbox to cover AI, embedded finance, and cross-border payments.

The CBN launched the PSV 2028 initiative to replace the expiring PSV 2025 framework, with fresh priorities around deeper financial inclusion, payment infrastructure resilience, interoperability, and global competitiveness. It will serve as the principal strategic guide for Nigeria's payments ecosystem through 2028.

The CBN reversed its February 2021 crypto ban by issuing Guidelines on the Operation of Bank Accounts for Virtual Assets Service Providers, permitting licensed VASPs to access commercial banking services provided they hold a valid SEC licence and comply with AML/CFT requirements. This ended two years of forced peer-to-peer trading and created a dual CBN-SEC oversight structure for crypto.

The CBN published its three-year strategic blueprint targeting a cashless, inclusive, and efficient payments landscape, setting priorities across interoperability, financial inclusion, cybersecurity, and innovation. PSV 2025 became the primary governance framework coordinating all CBN payments regulation from 2022 to 2025.

Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission introduced comprehensive rules creating a capital-market licensing framework for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), Digital Asset Exchanges (DAX), Digital Asset Offering Platforms (DAOPs), and Digital Asset Custodians (DACs). By late 2024, the first provisional VASP licences were awarded to exchanges Busha and Quidax under these rules.

The CBN officially launched the eNaira, a retail CBDC pegged 1:1 to the naira on a two-tier architecture built by Bitt Inc., making Nigeria the second country globally (after The Bahamas) with a live CBDC. The eNaira was designed to deepen financial inclusion, lower remittance costs, and provide an additional monetary policy transmission tool.

The CBN published Nigeria's first open banking regulatory framework, mandating API-based data sharing across banks and non-bank financial institutions to enable third-party fintech access to consumer financial data. Implementation was repeatedly deferred (with live rollout originally planned for August 2025, then pushed to early 2026), but the framework remains the foundational legal instrument for open banking.

The CBN issued a circular prohibiting all licensed financial institutions from holding, trading, or transacting in crypto assets and ordered closure of accounts belonging to crypto exchanges — citing money-laundering and consumer-protection risks. The ban suppressed formal crypto markets and fuelled a surge in peer-to-peer trading outside the regulated system until its reversal in December 2023.

The CBN issued a framework establishing a supervised live-testing environment where fintechs can trial novel products, services, or business models for up to six months before applying for a full licence. The sandbox institutionalised CBN oversight of fintech innovation and was later earmarked for expansion to AI and embedded finance under the 2026 Fintech Report.

President Buhari signed the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 2020, repealing BOFIA 1991 and for the first time explicitly classifying digitally-operated financial entities as 'other financial institutions' subject to mandatory CBN licensing. Sections 57 and 69 specifically required fintechs and e-payment companies to be incorporated in Nigeria and hold a CBN licence, giving digital finance a statutory rather than purely guideline-based foundation.

The CBN updated its 2018 PSB guidelines, formalising a licence category that allows telecoms operators, supermarkets, and mobile money operators to offer basic deposit, transfer, and payment services to the unbanked, subject to a ₦5 billion minimum capital requirement. The revised guidelines directly enabled MTN MoMo and Airtel Money to obtain PSB licences in 2022.

The CBN introduced cash-handling limits for individuals and businesses and mandated electronic payment channels (POS, mobile, internet banking), piloting in Lagos before a phased national rollout completing in 2014. This foundational policy catalysed Nigeria's digital payments ecosystem, drove mass deployment of payment infrastructure, and set the regulatory philosophy underpinning all subsequent fintech rules.