Γεια σου,
Victoria from Techpoint here,
Here’s what I’ve got for you today:
- Crypto firms face 30% income tax
- Flutterwave eyes East African banks
- Kulipa says it’s not going bankrupt
Crypto firms face 30% income tax
Nigeria is tightening its grip on the country’s fast-growing crypto industry. Yesterday, the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) released long-awaited guidelines explaining how cryptocurrency and other virtual assets will be taxed. Under the new rules, medium and large companies that earn profits from crypto-related activities will pay up to 30% corporate income tax, while Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), including crypto exchanges, custodians, and P2P platforms, must comply with stricter tax reporting requirements. The guidelines are the clearest indication yet that the government now sees crypto as a mainstream part of Nigeria’s economy rather than an industry operating on the fringes.
Why should you care? Nigeria is one of the world’s biggest crypto markets. Per a report seen by The Guardian, two in every five Nigerians (about 40%) use digital assets for remittances, savings, cross-border payments and business transactions. The new framework introduces clearer rules around who pays tax, how virtual asset businesses should report transactions and what records they must keep. It also raises the stakes for exchanges and other service providers, with penalties, including fines of up to ₦10 million in some cases, for failing to comply with reporting obligations. The NRS has also directed crypto platforms to collect Tax Identification Numbers (Tax IDs) from customers opening new accounts, signalling a broader push to integrate crypto into Nigeria’s formal tax system.
The guidelines didn’t come out of nowhere. Nigeria has spent the last few years moving from resisting cryptocurrencies to regulating them. In February 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) barred banks from facilitating crypto transactions. But the industry continued to grow through peer-to-peer trading. By 2024, regulators had shifted towards supervision rather than outright restrictions, while the Investments and Securities Act 2025 officially recognised digital assets as securities under certain conditions. At the same time, Nigeria’s sweeping Tax Reform Acts, which took effect on January 1, 2026, expanded the country’s tax framework to cover digital assets and virtual transactions, laying the legal foundation for the NRS guidelines released this week.
The move also reflects a global trend. Governments are no longer asking whether cryptocurrencies should be taxed; they’re figuring out how. Countries across Europe, Asia and Africa have introduced clearer rules to bring digital assets into their tax systems, and Nigeria is following suit. For legitimate crypto businesses, the guidelines provide greater certainty. But they’ll also mean more compliance costs, tighter reporting standards and closer regulatory scrutiny. As the industry matures, success in Nigeria’s crypto market may increasingly depend not just on innovation but on staying compliant with an evolving regulatory landscape.
Flutterwave eyes East African banks
Flutterwave is thinking far beyond payments. Africa’s most valuable fintech is now exploring bank acquisitions across East Africa as it pushes into lending and broader banking services. Per Condia, CEO Olugbenga Agboola says the company is evaluating markets including Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Egypt, with expansion likely to happen through a mix of acquisitions, partnerships or new licences, depending on what regulators in each country allow. The move signals that Flutterwave’s next phase of growth won’t just be about helping businesses collect payments; it wants to become a financial institution in its own right.
The strategy matters because payments are becoming increasingly competitive across Africa. Processing transactions alone is no longer enough to sustain long-term growth, especially as rivals continue to emerge. By owning a bank or securing banking licences, Flutterwave can offer services such as working capital loans, trade finance, merchant banking, and liquidity management directly to businesses rather than relying on partner banks. Agboola has been clear that the company isn’t trying to become a traditional retail bank. Instead, it wants to build what he describes as a digital banking platform for African businesses. That vision has already started taking shape. In January 2026, Flutterwave acquired Nigerian open-banking startup Mono, strengthening its banking infrastructure, and in April 2026, it secured a microlending licence in Nigeria, giving it more control over lending products.
Victoria Fakiya – Senior Writer
Techpoint Digest
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The announcement also reflects a broader trend sweeping across African fintech. The continent’s biggest startups are moving beyond their original businesses and becoming financial supermarkets. Paystack entered banking through its acquisition of Ladder Microfinance Bank, while Moniepoint expanded into Kenya through the acquisition of Sumac Microfinance Bank. At the same time, traditional banks are buying fintechs to strengthen their digital offerings. The lines separating banks and fintechs are becoming increasingly blurred as both sides compete to own more of the customer relationship.
Flutterwave’s ambitions have also been years in the making. Since launching in 2016, the company has grown from a payment gateway into one of Africa’s biggest fintech firms, processing billions of dollars in transactions across more than 30 African markets. For years, there have been expectations that Flutterwave would go public, but Agboola has repeatedly insisted an IPO isn’t the immediate priority. Instead, the company is focusing on profitability, expanding its product suite and building a stronger financial services business before considering a listing. Banking now appears to be at the centre of that strategy.
If Flutterwave succeeds, it could reshape competition across Africa’s financial sector. Owning banking licences would reduce its dependence on third-party banks, speed up product launches and open new revenue streams beyond payment processing. But it will also bring greater regulatory scrutiny, capital requirements and operational complexity. Whether through acquisitions or partnerships, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: Flutterwave doesn’t just want to power African payments anymore; it wants to become one of Africa’s most influential financial institutions.
Kulipa says it’s not going bankrupt
Kulipa’s CEO is pushing back against growing speculation that the stablecoin payments startup has gone bust. Days after the company abruptly shut down its services on July 29, CEO Axel Cateland said Kulipa is “not insolvent” and “isn’t going bankrupt.” Instead, he says the company is undergoing a major corporate restructuring that he cannot fully explain because of legal restrictions. The clarification comes after the sudden shutdown left fintech partners and customers scrambling for answers, with many assuming the Paris-based startup had run out of money.
The statement matters because Kulipa had quietly become an important piece of the global stablecoin payments ecosystem. Founded in 2023, the startup built infrastructure that enabled fintechs and crypto wallets to issue payment cards funded with stablecoins, allowing users to spend digital assets anywhere traditional card networks are accepted. Earlier this year, Kulipa raised a $6.2 million seed round led by Flourish Ventures and 1kx, and by the time it suspended operations, it said it had issued more than 120,000 payment cards. Its footprint also extended to Africa, where Flutterwave partnered with the company to launch stablecoin cards in Nigeria. The abrupt shutdown therefore affected not just one startup but a network of fintech partners that relied on its infrastructure.
The confusion stems from how quickly everything unfolded. On July 29, Kulipa suddenly suspended operations with little public explanation, triggering widespread reports that the company had become insolvent. Several partners were forced to pause their card programmes almost immediately, fuelling speculation that the startup had collapsed financially. Cateland’s latest comments challenge that narrative, saying the shutdown is linked to a broader structural change rather than bankruptcy. However, because he declined to explain what that restructuring involves, questions remain unanswered. Industry observers have speculated about possibilities ranging from an acquisition to a merger or recapitalisation, but none of those scenarios has been confirmed.
The episode also highlights how fragile crypto infrastructure can be. While stablecoins and crypto cards are becoming more mainstream, many fintechs still depend on specialist infrastructure providers behind the scenes. When one of those providers runs into trouble — or even undergoes a major restructuring — the effects can ripple across multiple products and markets overnight. For startups building on third-party infrastructure, it’s a reminder that operational resilience is just as important as innovation. And for users, it’s a lesson that even when funds remain safe, the services built around them can disappear far more quickly than expected.
In case you missed them
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What I’m watching
- How Gen-Z should build WEALTH in 2026 in ‘100 mins’ | Author of Psychology of Money | Morgan Housel
- The illusion of shared reality | Anil Seth & Jonny Thomson
Opportunities
- Moniepoint is hiring for over 100 roles. Apply here.
- Follow Techpoint Africa’s WhatsApp channel to stay on top of the latest trends and news in the African tech space here.
Have a lovely Tuesday!
Victoria Fakiya for Techpoint Africa
