Nigeria has taken another step towards building a more coordinated regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, with President Bola Tinubu signing the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026. This creates a new framework to harmonise how government agencies oversee virtual assets, blockchain technology, and related digital financial services.
The move comes as regulators grapple with an industry that increasingly cuts across banking, securities, taxation, anti-money laundering, and payment systems.
According to a statement signed by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the executive order establishes a Virtual Asset Council that will bring together key financial, revenue, and security agencies to improve regulatory coordination while supporting responsible innovation. The council will be chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with its secretariat housed within the apex bank.
“With relevant agencies operating in silos,” the statement reads, “overlapping in some areas and leaving gaps in others, the country has been exposed to risks, including money laundering, terrorism financing, cybersecurity and data privacy threats, fraud, and revenue losses.”
A bid to end fragmented oversight
The executive order which takes effect immediately addresses a longstanding challenge in Nigeria’s digital asset ecosystem: overlapping regulatory responsibilities.
Until now, different agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and law enforcement bodies, have exercised varying degrees of oversight over different aspects of the industry.
As crypto assets increasingly serve as payment instruments, investment products, and digital commodities, the lack of a unified framework has created uncertainty for businesses and investors alike.
The Presidency said the new order seeks to strengthen collaboration among these agencies, improve policy consistency, and create clearer regulatory pathways for operators while protecting consumers and the broader financial system.
“Too often, unregistered and fraudulent operators have exploited these gaps to prey on unsuspecting Nigerians, costing families their savings.”
Victoria Fakiya – Senior Writer
Techpoint Digest
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Balancing innovation with enforcement
Officials say the order is designed to achieve two objectives that have often appeared to be at odds: encouraging innovation while strengthening oversight.
Beyond improving coordination, the framework is expected to help combat fraud, money laundering, terrorism financing, and tax evasion. These risks have increasingly attracted regulatory attention as crypto adoption grows in Nigeria.
“The Order is designed to close these gaps through supervisory coordination, without introducing new layers of regulation or displacing the mandates of existing agencies.”
The Presidency also said the executive order reflects the need for a regulatory system that recognises how virtual assets now blur the traditional boundaries between currencies, securities, commodities, and payment systems.
For startups and other virtual asset service providers (VASPs), a more coordinated regulatory environment could reduce uncertainty, particularly where businesses previously had to navigate multiple regulators with overlapping mandates.
Another milestone in Nigeria’s crypto journey
In recent years, Nigeria has moved from restrictive policies, including the CBN’s 2021 directive limiting banks’ involvement with cryptocurrency businesses, to a more structured regulatory approach.
Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also recently admitted two more Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) into its Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP), the latest step in its efforts to bring the country’s growing crypto industry under formal regulatory oversight.
The executive order complements these efforts by focusing on coordination rather than replacing the statutory responsibilities of existing regulators.
What it means for the ecosystem
For Nigeria’s rapidly growing digital asset industry, the immediate impact may be less about new rules and more about how existing regulations are implemented.
A coordinated approach could lead to faster policy decisions, more consistent enforcement, and clearer guidance for businesses operating across payments, blockchain infrastructure, tokenised assets, and cryptocurrency services.
However, much will depend on how the newly established council operates in practice and whether it succeeds in aligning agencies that have historically worked independently.
For founders, investors, and licensed virtual asset providers, greater regulatory clarity could improve confidence in a market that remains one of the world’s most active for cryptocurrency adoption.
If effectively implemented, the executive order may mark another step in Nigeria’s transition to a more predictable regulatory environment, one that protects consumers without slowing down innovation in one of Africa’s fastest-growing technology sectors.
