--- title: "Nigeria Payments Regulation Monitor | World Payments Monitor" canonical: https://payments.gi/jurisdictions/nigeria/ source_html: /jurisdictions/nigeria/index.html description: "Nigeria payments and e-money regulation: 14 modules, 63 sourced findings, updated 2026-10-26. Licensing, safeguarding, stablecoins, AML/CFT." generated_at: 2026-10-26T19:20:26Z content_sha256: caf7c119263014b48792b9822571752e9756544f9f9fdc11d8c70e7ca9d76dde generator: "fe-fleet/md-twin@1.0" --- # Nigeria NG schema world-payments-v1 trajectory: not yet assessed Last updated 2026-10-26 · 14 modules · 63 sourced findings · 113 sources in the cumulative register Download report (PDF) Expand all 14 Modules 0 Moved this cycle 1 Key judgments 4 Open gaps 63 Findings 17 Tier-1 sources Confidence mix 8 unpopulated 6 confirmed (sums to 14 rendered modules; click to filter) No modules moved this cycle. ## Jurisdiction brief Jurisdiction lead brief 1,606 Full executive summary 678 ###### Latest update · 25 October 2026 #### Lead Signal The Central Bank of Nigeria has granted approval-in-principle for JPMorgan to establish a merchant bank in the country, following Nigeria's bank recapitalisation exercise. The approval has not yet progressed to a full licence and the capital commitment attached to the venture has not been publicly disclosed, but the event is notable as a signal of continued international institutional interest in Nigeria's reformed banking and payments sector at a moment when domestic payment institutions are absorbing a significant new compliance burden. That burden comes from a Central Bank of Nigeria payments-system circular that sets a data-localisation deadline of 1 January 2027, requiring that payment transaction data generated in Nigeria be stored and managed domestically from that date, alongside a market-structure requirement capping an institution that exceeds 25% card-issuing market share at 15% merchant-acquiring share (and vice versa), with monthly market-share returns required and full compliance due 31 December 2026, one day ahead of the data-localisation deadline itself. #### Other Developments Nigeria-China payment corridor initiative. Following an October 2026 roundtable in Beijing, the Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed an initiative to identify obstacles affecting business transactions between Nigeria and China and to explore measures improving payment-channel access between the two economies. No specific mechanism or timeline has yet been disclosed, but the initiative signals an active CBN interest in corridor-level friction reduction beyond the dollar-denominated correspondent-banking channels that currently dominate Nigeria's cross-border flows. Remittance corridor scale. Central Bank of Nigeria balance-of-payments data put personal transfers, which include workers' remittances, at $11.1 billion in the first half of 2026. These flows move through a combination of correspondent-bank and SWIFT rails and licensed International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs), underscoring the continued centrality of correspondent-banking access to Nigeria's inbound payment infrastructure even as the CBN explores new corridor arrangements such as the China initiative. #### Cross-Monitor Connections The same CBN payments circular that imposes data-localisation and market-structure obligations is separately reported to require beneficial-ownership disclosure from deposit money banks, payment service providers and other financial institutions with digital-payment footprints, an obligation tracked on the financial-integrity side. The convergence of a market-structure, data-localisation and beneficial-ownership-disclosure regime within a single instrument illustrates how payments-regulation and financial-integrity compliance planning for Nigerian institutions will need to be coordinated rather than treated as separate work-streams as the end-2026 and start-2027 deadlines approach. #### Outlook The two compliance deadlines embedded in the CBN payments circular, full market-structure compliance due 31 December 2026 and data-localisation in force from 1 January 2027, are the near-term markers to watch; both fall within the next two months of the close. Separately, whether JPMorgan's approval-in-principle progresses to a full merchant-banking licence, and on what capital terms, remains an open question for the next reporting period. The Nigeria-China payment corridor initiative is at too early a stage to assess for concrete deliverables, but its emergence alongside the India and other bilateral corridor discussions CBN has pursued elsewhere suggests corridor diversification is becoming a more active strand of Nigerian payments policy. 2 earlier updates not shown here. ###### Standing brief · as of 26 June 2026 Written before the update above. Where they differ, the update is the more recent position. #### Lead Signal This cycle establishes the full World Payments Monitor baseline for Nigeria, Africa's largest fintech market, and the dominant structural signal is unambiguous: payments and banking are converging at the corporate level even as the central bank pushes to keep them apart. Nigeria is among the few jurisdictions treating stablecoins and virtual assets as regulated securities. The Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 classifies cryptocurrencies, virtual and digital assets and tokenised investment contracts as securities and grants the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission apex jurisdiction over all virtual-asset service providers, with issuer licensing, reserve-backing and AML/KYC obligations for stablecoins that represent investment interests; the SEC Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP) is the sandbox onboarding route, with Busha and Quidax holding approvals-in-principle. This security-classification approach is paired with a payment-side reversal: on 22 December 2023 the Central Bank of Nigeria issued VASP Account Guidelines permitting banks to operate accounts for SEC-licensed crypto firms under strict compliance conditions, reversing the February 2021 ban on crypto transactions by financial institutions. Together these create a bifurcated digital-money regime — the CBN governs payment-use e-money and CBDC, while the SEC governs security-use stablecoins and virtual assets. The most commercially weighted development is the consolidation of leading non-bank fintechs into deposit-taking banking. Flutterwave acquired Nigerian open-banking startup Mono in an all-stock transaction reportedly valued between US$25m and US$40m, with exact terms not publicly disclosed, completed in December 2025 and made public in January 2026; Flutterwave then secured a Nigerian national microfinance banking licence via that acquisition in April 2026, after crossing US$40bn in lifetime payments, allowing it to hold customer deposits and lend directly. Paystack — the Stripe-owned operator valued at around US$500m — acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank in January 2026, rebranding it Paystack Microfinance Bank to offer business lending beyond its payments licence. This is the cycle's defining competitive dynamic, and it runs in direct tension with a regulatory counter-current addressed below. #### Other Developments The CBN's regulatory perimeter is widening on several fronts. The CBN's draft Guidelines for Handling Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud, an exposure draft dated 26 November 2025, would introduce mandatory reimbursement: institutions acknowledge complaints within 24 hours, investigate within 14 working days, and reimburse within 48 hours of conclusion — 16 working days end-to-end — with customers required to report within 72 hours and, where neither sending nor receiving bank is at fault but the customer qualifies, the two institutions share the refund equally. This functionally mirrors the UK PSR model and would materially shift fraud-liability economics onto Nigerian banks and PSPs, though it remains an exposure draft not yet in force. On operational resilience, the CBN Risk-Based Cybersecurity Framework for DMBs and PSBs (May 2024) mandates a board-level CISO, an annual self-assessment by 31 March and incident reporting within 24 hours, and a 30 March 2026 circular extended a newly deployed Cybersecurity Self-Assessment Tool to fintechs and microfinance lenders as well as banks; Nigeria has no standalone DORA-equivalent, with resilience embedded in the cybersecurity framework. The scheme and corridor layers are also in motion. On 26 January 2023 the CBN and NIBSS launched the national domestic card scheme AfriGo alongside Visa, Mastercard and the domestic Verve, to reduce dollar-denominated scheme charges that draw on Nigeria's foreign reserves. The Revised Guidelines for International Money Transfer Services (31 January 2024) confine IMTOs to inbound-only transfers with Naira payout, set a US$1m minimum capital floor, and bar banks and fintech companies from holding IMTO licences as principals; an accompanying circular removed the allowable-rate cap so payouts use prevailing market rates. Personal remittances received rose 9% to a five-year high of US$20.9bn in 2024. A 28 April 2025 CBN circular simplified PAPSS documentation for intra-African trade under AfCFTA and permitted commercial banks to source FX for PAPSS via the official market, and the CBN with NIBSS launched the Non-Resident BVN platform on 13 May 2025 to deepen diaspora flows. Working against the consolidation trend, the CBN has ordered major fintechs including OPay and Moniepoint to separate their payment-processing and banking operations within 90 days, citing market-concentration concerns and conflicts of interest. This directive rests on single-aggregator sourcing and is carried at Assessed confidence pending corroboration. Separately, Nigeria's enforcement campaign against Binance — including a February 2025 dispute, a reported US$81.5bn lawsuit, FIRS tax-evasion charges and executive detention — signals aggressive state action against unlicensed intermediation; the illicit-finance dimensions of that matter are routed to the Financial Integrity Monitor, with WPM carrying only the litigation and enforcement-precedent angle. #### Cross-Monitor Connections Three threads cross into the Financial Integrity Monitor and are carried here only for their payments impact. At the FATF Plenary held 22–24 October 2025, Nigeria was removed from the FATF grey list after completing its 19-point action plan by May 2025, with the next mutual evaluation expected in 2027 — intelligence sourced via the Sentinel feed. The payments consequence is direct: delisting reduces de-risking pressure and improves correspondent-banking, remittance and credit-access conditions, a positive structural backdrop for Nigeria's diaspora and intra-African corridors. The original financial-integrity analysis of the grey-list framework belongs to FIM. The Binance enforcement matter's FX-manipulation and sanctions-evasion dimensions are likewise flagged to FIM. Finally, a reported Ripple investment in Flutterwave's Series E round to accelerate stablecoin-based payments — unconfirmed and carried at Possible confidence — together with regulated-stablecoin cross-border settlement corridors, carries potential illicit-finance significance beyond WPM's payment-instrument-trust scope and is flagged for FIM. #### Outlook The operating environment for Nigerian payments is tightening and converging simultaneously. The fintech-into-banking trajectory will continue to test the CBN's separation directive, whose 90-day deadline falls in the third quarter of 2026 and whose enforcement remains the key uncertainty for group structure across the largest non-bank operators. The APP-fraud reimbursement regime is expected to be finalised in the second half of 2026, at which point fraud-liability economics shift onto banks and PSPs. Under the Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028, the CBN is repositioning the eNaira — Africa's first CBDC, with under 0.5% retail adoption — away from a failed retail product toward cross-border and settlement infrastructure, exploring NIP–eNaira integration and regulated-stablecoin settlement corridors against more than US$20bn in annual diaspora remittances. NIP remains the dominant real-time rail and the continent's most mature inclusive instant payment system, the settlement substrate underpinning the wider system. With the FATF delisting improving correspondent-banking access and the 2024 recapitalisation reshaping which institutions can hold international-authorisation settlement status, Nigeria's regulatory flux is best read as elevated but improving — a market becoming more bankable even as its supervisory perimeter widens. Read full brief · 1606 words ###### Latest update · 28 September 2026 #### Regulatory Status Nigeria's payments regulatory environment tightened materially in 2026 through a coordinated set of Central Bank of Nigeria reforms responding to rapid transaction-volume growth documented in the CBN's own February 2026 Fintech Policy Insight Report: the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System's Instant Payment platform processed close to 11 billion transactions in 2024, up from 5 billion in 2022. The centrepiece reform is a 15 June 2026 circular introducing symmetric market-concentration caps between card-issuing and merchant-acquiring, paired with a beneficial-ownership disclosure requirement for significant shareholders, with compliance required by 31 December 2026. Alongside structural tightening, market access continued to widen: the CBN opened Sandbox Cohort 2 with dedicated Virtual Asset Service Provider and Data-Enabled Financial Services tracks, and the SEC admitted seven fintechs to its Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme in July 2026. Consumer protection also shifted, with fintechs now able to share or fully absorb Authorised Push Payment fraud losses even where the user initiated the transaction, alongside a mandatory real-time transaction-monitoring rollout. A payments-data-localisation requirement adds a correspondent-banking and settlement dimension, though its precise compliance deadline (2026 or 2027) remains unresolved in current sourcing. #### Outlook The 31 December 2026 compliance deadline for the concentration caps and UBO disclosure is the key near-term date. The CBN's proposed Compliance-as-a-Service utility and Single Regulatory Window, along with any ECOWAS-level regulatory harmonisation engagement, are the structural developments most worth tracking in subsequent cycles, alongside resolution of the data-localisation compliance-date discrepancy. 1 earlier update not shown here. ###### Standing brief · as of 26 June 2026 Written before the update above. Where they differ, the update is the more recent position. #### Regulatory Status Nigeria operates a central-bank-primary, activity-based payments regime in which only MMOs and Payment Service Banks may hold customer funds; this fund-holding versus processing-only split — anchored in the CBN's December 2020/May 2021 licensing framework under BOFIA 2020 — is the structural determinant of market entry, safeguarding and partnership models in Africa's largest fintech market. Customer-fund protection for non-bank e-money rests on nominee/trust accounts plus NDIC float insurance under the July 2021 Mobile Money Services Framework. Digital money is bifurcated: the CBN governs payment-use e-money and the eNaira CBDC, while the SEC, under ISA 2025, treats stablecoins and virtual assets as securities with issuer licensing, reserve-backing and disclosure obligations, accessed via the ARIP sandbox. The December 2023 CBN VASP Account Guidelines reversed the February 2021 banking ban, re-opening bank rails for SEC-licensed crypto firms. Operational resilience is embedded in the May 2024 Risk-Based Cybersecurity Framework — there is no standalone DORA-equivalent — with a 30 March 2026 circular extending the Cybersecurity Self-Assessment Tool to fintechs and MFBs. The card and corridor layers are active: AfriGo joined Visa, Mastercard and Verve as a sovereign domestic scheme in January 2023; the 2024 IMTO regime confined remittances to inbound-only with banks and fintechs barred as principals while removing the rate cap, against US$20.9bn in 2024 remittances; and PAPSS easing plus the NRBVN platform advanced intra-African and diaspora flows in 2025. Consumer protection is escalating via the CBN's draft APP-fraud mandatory-reimbursement guidelines (exposure draft 26 November 2025), functionally analogous to the UK PSR model but not yet in force. NIP is the dominant, mature instant rail and the NIBSS/CBN deferred-net-settlement architecture defines settlement-tier access, reshaped by the 2024 recapitalisation. The October 2025 FATF grey-list removal (Sentinel-fed) improved correspondent-banking conditions. The defining commercial dynamic is fintech consolidation into banking — Flutterwave/Mono and its MFB licence, Paystack/Ladder MFB, the Moniepoint/Visa stake — running in tension with the CBN's operations-separation directive against OPay and Moniepoint. #### Outlook Nigeria's regulatory environment is best read as elevated but improving. The FATF delisting is a positive structural backdrop for correspondent banking and corridors, while aggressive crypto-FX enforcement (Binance) and active restructuring (the operations-separation directive, the recapitalisation) maintain elevated flux. Near-term markers are the operations-separation 90-day deadline (Q3 2026) and finalisation of the APP-fraud reimbursement regime (H2 2026); the longer horizon is the Vision 2028 eNaira cross-border repositioning and the 2027 FATF mutual evaluation. Several high-impact items rest on single T3/aggregator sourcing and warrant corroboration before heavier-weight judgments. Read full brief · 678 words × 14 of 14 modules Signal Moved Judgment Gap Density Comfortable Compact Expand all sources Reset all Selections OR within a group, AND across groups. Press / to search. ### W1aLicensing, Authorisation & Market Access1 judgmentlimited signalProbableconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# CBN continues to approve new entrants into the formal financial-services space; this cycle it granted approval-in-principle to JPMorgan to establish a merchant bank in Nigeria, signalling continued post-recapitalisation international interest. Key judgment — Probable · impact ELEVATED JPMorgan's approval-in-principle to establish a merchant bank in Nigeria, following the CBN recapitalisation exercise, signals continued international institutional confidence in Nigeria's reformed banking sector despite the compliance burden of the data-localisation and UBO-disclosure regime coming into force in January 2027. claims: wpm-2026-W43-001, wpm-2026-W43-006 Horizon · 2026-Q3 (± a quarter) PSSP/Switching TMS integration deadline Adopted, not yet in force · Tier 1 source Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 270 words · last cycle 2026-10-25 #### Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access Nigeria operates a central-bank-primary, activity-based payments licensing regime. Under the CBN multi-tier activity-based PSP framework — established by the December 2020 Licence Categorisation circular and the May 2021 capital requirements under BOFIA 2020 — Switching & Processing and Mobile Money Operator (MMO) licences require ₦2bn shareholders' funds (Switching also carries a ₦2bn refundable escrow), while PTSP and PSSP licences require ₦100m plus ₦100m escrow. Only MMOs and Payment Service Banks (PSBs) may hold customer funds, and multi-licence groups must adopt a Payment Service Holding Company (PSHC) structure. No single EMI-style licence exists; activity-based categorisation is the structural anchor of the Nigerian payments regime, and the fund-holding versus processing-only split is determinative for how operators enter the market. For firm-type purposes the regime cuts cleanly: bank-PSPs and PSBs sit on the deposit/fund-holding side, while non-bank PIs/EMIs operating as PSSPs are confined to processing and must partner with a fund-holding institution. The bank-partnership exemption is the standard route by which non-bank processors access fund-holding capability. This split shapes every market-entry, safeguarding and partnership decision in Africa's largest fintech market. The convergence dynamic visible in W6 and W13 — non-bank fintechs acquiring microfinance banking licences — is in part a response to this structural division, as operators seek deposit-holding status the activity-based categorisation otherwise denies them. #### Outlook The activity-based regime is established and stable as a baseline. The live tension is between fintech consolidation into deposit-taking banking and the CBN's operations-separation directive against the largest non-bank groups; how that resolves will determine whether the PSHC structure remains the dominant grouping model or whether structural separation reshapes group architecture. Read full sub-brief · 270 words Periodic update · new data 2026-10-25 #### Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access The Central Bank of Nigeria has granted approval-in-principle to JPMorgan for the establishment of a merchant bank in Nigeria, a development reported and following on from Nigeria's broader bank recapitalisation exercise. Approval-in-principle is a preliminary regulatory stage that precedes a full operating licence; the event does not yet confirm that JPMorgan has secured final authorisation to commence merchant-banking operations, and the capital commitment attached to the venture has not been publicly disclosed. The entry is nonetheless notable as a market-access signal: it represents continued interest from a major international banking group in establishing a licensed presence in Nigeria's banking sector at a time when the broader payments regulatory perimeter, through the CBN's payments-system circular, is tightening around data-localisation and market-structure requirements for existing participants. A merchant bank licence is distinct from a payment-service-provider or commercial-banking licence, and JPMorgan's specific product scope within that licence category has not been detailed in reporting to date. #### Outlook The next marker to watch is whether JPMorgan's approval-in-principle converts into a full merchant-banking licence, and if so what capital base and product scope accompanies that conversion. No timeline for this conversion has been disclosed. 2 earlier distinct update(s) Periodic update · new data 2026-09-28 #### Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access Nigeria's market-access infrastructure continued to expand in 2026 even as the sector's structural rules tightened elsewhere. The Central Bank of Nigeria opened Cohort 2 of its Regulatory Sandbox Programme with dedicated tracks for Virtual Asset Service Providers and Data-Enabled Financial Services, continuing the supervised-testing route the CBN has maintained as part of its broader fintech-supervision infrastructure. This sandbox route provides bank and non-bank applicants alike a live-testing environment ahead of full authorisation, distinct from a final operating licence. Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission's July 2026 notice admitted seven named fintech firms into the Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme, granting Approval-in-Principle status rather than a final licence. This is a distinct market-access pathway from the CBN's banking-sector sandbox, reflecting the bank-PSP versus non-bank-PI/EMI distinction that runs through Nigeria's fintech authorisation landscape: banks and payment service banks access CBN authorisation routes, while non-bank digital-asset-adjacent firms are increasingly routed through SEC's incubation pathway. Both developments point toward an authorisation environment that is widening its intake mechanisms even as it tightens the substantive rules, such as market-concentration caps, that apply once firms are authorised. #### Outlook Watch for whether firms admitted to the SEC's ARIP progress from Approval-in-Principle to full licensing, and whether the CBN's Sandbox Cohort 2 VASP track produces graduates that move into standard authorisation. Both processes will clarify how Nigeria's parallel bank and non-bank market-access pathways converge or remain distinct. Periodic update · new data 2026-08-25 #### Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access The Central Bank of Nigeria issued a market-concentration circular on 15 June 2026 that caps any institution's simultaneous exposure across consumer-issuing and merchant-acquiring activity: an institution holding more than twenty-five percent of consumer-issuing market share cannot also hold more than fifteen percent of merchant-acquiring share, or vice versa, with divestiture or restructuring required by 31 December 2026. This is the most significant Nigerian payments market-access intervention identified this cycle, carrying a hard compliance deadline that will test both bank and non-bank payment institutions currently integrated across both sides of the payments chain, a structure the evidence describes as general industry practice prior to this circular. Alongside the concentration cap, the Central Bank revised weekly cash-withdrawal limits effective 1 January 2026, setting individual caps at 500,000 naira and corporate caps at 5,000,000 naira, with automated-teller-machine caps of 100,000 naira per day and 500,000 naira per week, while separately easing its posture toward cash deposits. Point-of-sale agent geo-fencing requirements were also revised, with the permitted operating radius widened from ten to seventy metres and the implementation deadline extended to 1 August 2026, an extension that suggests industry pushback against the original ten-metre requirement was a factor in the Central Bank's revised timeline. A lower-confidence signal from a single source describes a February 2026 Central Bank Fintech Policy Insight Report proposing digital-identity access expansion, credit-data-sharing reform, exploration of ECOWAS licence mutual recognition, and a regulatory-sandbox test-then-codify pathway; this would be Nigeria's first sector-wide policy review since the Payment Systems Vision 2025 framework, but rests on a single Tier-4 source and should be treated as a lower-confidence signal of policy direction rather than a confirmed development. Across these market-access changes, the bank-versus-non-bank distinction matters: the concentration cap applies to both bank and non-bank payment institutions, the cash-withdrawal caps bear most directly on banks, and the POS geo-fencing requirement is a non-bank payment-service-provider concern given its relevance to agent-banking networks. #### Outlook The 31 December 2026 divestiture deadline is the single most consequential date on Nigeria's payments-regulatory calendar for the remainder of 2026, and the coming cycle should clarify which institutions are affected and what divestiture or restructuring paths they pursue. The 1 August 2026 POS geo-fencing deadline is a nearer-term compliance point worth tracking for evidence of further extension or enforcement action. Evidence 5 Sources and findings (5) - T1CBN — National Payment System framework; PSP/Licensing categorisation (cbn.gov.ng) - T1CBN — Licensing framework for PSPs (SVF/PSSP/PSP) (cbn.gov.ng) - T3[https://www.tetraconsultants.com/jurisdictions/nigeria-service-provider-license/ [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]](https://www.tetraconsultants.com/jurisdictions/nigeria-service-provider-license/ [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]) - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/out/2020/ccd/approved%20reviewed%20guidelines%20for%20licensing%20and%20regulation%20of%20payment%20service%20banks%20in%20nigeria-27aug2020.pdf](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/out/2020/ccd/approved%20reviewed%20guidelines%20for%20licensing%20and%20regulation%20of%20payment%20service%20banks%20in%20nigeria-27aug2020.pdf)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/overview-regulatory-framework-payment-service-psps-avwenaghagha [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/overview-regulatory-framework-payment-service-psps-avwenaghagha [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]) ### W1bConduct, Safeguarding & Promotions1 gapProbableconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Conduct and safeguarding for Nigerian PSPs flow from the structural rule that only MMOs/PSBs hold customer funds, plus the CBN Consumer Protection Regulation 2019 and Consumer Protection Framework 2016. MMO customer balances are held in nominee/trust-style accounts and the unspent mobile-money float is insured by the NDIC up to the applicable coverage level. PSSPs and other non-fund-holding fintechs cannot hold funds, so they rely on bank/MMO partnerships. The CBN's Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion Department (CPFD) supervises conduct, and the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 adds data-protection obligations. Open gap — wpm-int-2 No financial-promotion enforcement action sourced this cycle. no under-indexing note recorded Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 177 words · last cycle 2026-08-05 #### Conduct, Safeguarding & Promotions The Nigerian safeguarding mechanism for non-bank e-money rests on a combination of trust-account segregation and deposit-insurance-style cover. Under the CBN Mobile Money Services Framework (July 2021), MMO customer mobile-money balances are held in nominee accounts on behalf of customers under CBN Payments System Management Department conditions, and the total outstanding unspent subscriber float must be insured up to the applicable NDIC coverage level. This is the functional analogue to UK and EU safeguarding regimes, relevant to any operator holding subscriber balances. The firm-type distinction is central here: this safeguarding architecture applies to non-bank PIs/EMIs operating as MMOs that hold subscriber float, whereas bank-PSPs and PSBs hold funds as deposits under the prudential regime rather than as segregated e-money float. The mechanism maps to a trust-account model, with NDIC insurance forming a secondary protective layer for non-bank e-money float. #### Outlook The safeguarding position is established. The forward conduct development to watch is the APP-fraud reimbursement draft (carried in W10), which would add a mandatory consumer-redress liability layer on top of the existing fund-protection architecture. Read full sub-brief · 177 words Periodic update · new data 2026-08-25 #### Conduct, Safeguarding & Financial Promotions Nigeria's conduct-regulation posture shifted from advisory toward mandatory this cycle. The Central Bank of Nigeria's 2026 rule package introduces authorised-push-payment fraud liability-sharing, under which fintechs may be required to reimburse fraud losses even where the underlying transaction was self-initiated by the user, with liability split between sending and receiving institutions and full-loss exposure attaching where an institution fails to flag a suspicious account. This is paired with a mandatory real-time transaction-monitoring requirement for regulated payment institutions, to be rolled out in phases and accompanied by audit requirements. Together these two obligations represent a materially higher compliance-cost baseline for regulated payment-service providers than previously existed, and industry-side evidence corroborates the burden: a survey reported that 87.5 percent of surveyed Nigerian fintechs say compliance costs are actively limiting their ability to innovate. This is a directional signal of industry strain rather than a confirmed market-wide metric, but it is consistent with the scale of the conduct obligations introduced alongside the market-concentration measures covered elsewhere this cycle. The shift from advisory guidance to binding liability-sharing and monitoring obligations is more structurally significant than the compliance-cost survey itself: it changes the default allocation of authorised-push-payment fraud risk in Nigeria's payments market, with direct implications for how non-bank payment institutions in particular price and resource their fraud-control functions. #### Outlook Whether the compliance-cost strain reported by surveyed fintechs translates into consolidation, exit, or M&A activity among smaller non-bank payment-service providers ahead of the December 2026 divestiture deadline is the key development to watch, alongside the phased rollout timeline for mandatory real-time transaction monitoring. Evidence 4 Sources and findings (4) - T3[https://www.goldsmithsllp.com/the-new-central-bank-of-nigeria-regulatory-framework-and-guidelines-for-mobile-money-services-in-nigeria/ [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]](https://www.goldsmithsllp.com/the-new-central-bank-of-nigeria-regulatory-framework-and-guidelines-for-mobile-money-services-in-nigeria/ [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]) - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2021/CCD/Framework%20and%20Guidelines%20on%20Mobile%20Money%20Services%20in%20Nigeria%20-%20July%202021.pdf](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2021/CCD/Framework%20and%20Guidelines%20on%20Mobile%20Money%20Services%20in%20Nigeria%20-%20July%202021.pdf)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.nigerianjournalsonline.com/index.php/COOUJPPL/article/download/3959/3849 [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]](https://www.nigerianjournalsonline.com/index.php/COOUJPPL/article/download/3959/3849 [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]) - T3[https://manifieldsolicitors.com/licensing-in-nigerias-fintech-industry-understanding-the-cbns-framework/ [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]](https://manifieldsolicitors.com/licensing-in-nigerias-fintech-industry-understanding-the-cbns-framework/ [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]) ### W2Stablecoins & Digital MoneyConfirmedconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Nigeria's digital-money regime is bifurcated. E-money/payment digital balances sit under the CBN (MMO/PSB framework and the eNaira CBDC), while crypto and stablecoins fall to the SEC under the Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025, enacted 31 March 2025, which classifies virtual/digital assets as securities and makes the SEC the apex regulator for VASPs. Stablecoins are treated as securities where they represent investment interests, with issuer licensing, reserve backing and AML/KYC obligations; the SEC's Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Program (ARIP) is the sandbox/onboarding route. This reverses the CBN's 2021 banking ban, lifted via the December 2023 VASP account guidelines. Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 270 words #### Stablecoins & Digital Money Nigeria has a bifurcated digital-money regime. The Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 classifies cryptocurrencies, virtual and digital assets and tokenised investment contracts as securities and grants the SEC apex jurisdiction over all VASPs, covering registration, licensing, disclosure and anti-fraud. Stablecoins — excluding CBDC — are treated as securities where they represent investment interests, carrying issuer licensing, reserve-backing and AML/KYC obligations; the SEC Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP) is the sandbox and onboarding route, with Busha and Quidax holding approvals-in-principle. This places Nigeria among the few jurisdictions regulating stablecoins as financial instruments with reserve and disclosure obligations. On the payment-use side, on 22 December 2023 the CBN issued VASP Account Guidelines permitting banks to operate accounts for and service SEC-licensed crypto firms under strict compliance conditions, reversing the February 2021 ban on crypto transactions by financial institutions. Bank account access for SEC-licensed VASPs is the operational precondition for compliant crypto and stablecoin payment flows, and the December 2023 reversal re-opened banking rails closed since 2021. The combined picture is a CBN/SEC division of labour: the CBN governs payment-use e-money and CBDC; the SEC governs security-use stablecoins and virtual assets. A note on dates: research records the ISA 2025 enactment as 31 March 2025, but multiple sources confirm the signing date as 25 March 2025. The substantive security-classification position is unaffected by this discrepancy. No standalone fiat-backed national stablecoin instrument is yet in force; stablecoins are regulated by function. #### Outlook The stablecoin framework is escalating. Formal stablecoin definitions remain emerging, and the regulated-stablecoin cross-border settlement corridors contemplated under Vision 2028 (see W9) are the principal forward vector. Read full sub-brief · 270 words no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief Evidence 5 Sources and findings (5) - T1Investments and Securities Act 2025 (signed 29 Mar 2025); SEC Nigeria as digital-asset regulator (sec.gov.ng) - T1SEC Nigeria — Amended Digital Assets Rules (publ. 16 Dec 2024, eff. 30 Jun 2025) (sec.gov.ng) - T1SEC Nigeria — ARIP Framework for onboarding VASPs (12-month AIP) (sec.gov.ng) - T3[https://practiceguides.chambers.com/practice-guides/fintech-2026/nigeria/trends-and-developments [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]](https://practiceguides.chambers.com/practice-guides/fintech-2026/nigeria/trends-and-developments [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]) - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/AboutCBN/Reforms.html](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/AboutCBN/Reforms.html)retrieved 2026-06-23 ### W3Operational Resilience & Critical Infrastructurelimited signalConfirmedconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Operational resilience is governed primarily by the CBN Risk-Based Cybersecurity Framework, first effective 1 January 2019 for DMBs/PSPs and replaced by a May 2024 version for DMBs and Payment Service Banks (with a separate 2022 OFI framework), structured around governance/oversight, risk management, operational resilience, metrics/monitoring/reporting and statutory compliance. It mandates a board-level CISO, annual cybersecurity self-assessment by 31 March, and incident reporting to the CBN within 24 hours. The financial sector is designated Critical National Information Infrastructure, and the framework reads with BOFIA 2020 and NDPA 2023. Kept on Dataprotection.gi, not restated here: data and cloud switching obligations on service providers, including notice periods and charges. [Open this jurisdiction's page on Dataprotection.gi →](https://dataprotection.gi/jurisdictions/nigeria/) Horizon · 2027-01-01 (± a quarter) CBN payments-circular data-localisation deadline Adopted, not yet in force · Tier 3 source Horizon · 2026-12-31 (± a quarter) CBN payments-circular market-structure-return full compliance deadline Adopted, not yet in force · Tier 3 source Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 215 words · last cycle 2026-10-25 #### Operational Resilience & Critical Infrastructure Nigeria has no standalone DORA-equivalent; operational resilience is embedded in its cybersecurity regime. The CBN Risk-Based Cybersecurity Framework for DMBs and PSBs (May 2024) replaces the October 2018 guidelines, applies to commercial, merchant and non-interest banks and PSBs as Supervised Financial Institutions, incorporates BOFIA 2020 and the NDPA 2023, mandates a board-level CISO, an annual cybersecurity self-assessment by 31 March, and incident reporting to the CBN within 24 hours. The financial sector is designated National Critical Information Infrastructure under Part 7.5 of the National Cybersecurity Policy. The 24-hour incident-reporting clock, mandatory CISO and 31 March self-assessment define the compliance burden for banks and PSBs and increasingly for fintechs. That perimeter is widening. In a 30 March 2026 circular the CBN mandated DMBs, PSBs, microfinance lenders, fintechs and other institutions to complete a newly deployed Cybersecurity Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT) capturing governance, third-party exposures, incident response and operational resilience, reflecting data as of 31 December 2025. This extends formal third-party-exposure and resilience self-assessment beyond banks to fintechs and MFBs, signalling a widening operational-resilience supervisory perimeter. #### Outlook Resilience supervision is escalating. The CSAT extension to non-bank operators is the clearest signal that the supervisory perimeter is broadening; absent a dedicated DORA-equivalent, the cybersecurity framework remains the vehicle through which operational-resilience expectations are imposed. Read full sub-brief · 215 words Periodic update · new data 2026-10-25 #### Operational Resilience & Critical Infrastructure A Central Bank of Nigeria payments-system circular continues to anchor operational-resilience compliance planning across Nigeria's banking and payments sector. The circular requires that payment transaction data generated in Nigeria be stored and managed domestically from 1 January 2027, a data-localisation obligation that industry commentary describes as placing pressure on banks and fintechs to complete cloud-migration and data-residency work ahead of that date. The same circular imposes a market-structure requirement: an institution exceeding 25% card-issuing market share is capped at 15% merchant-acquiring share, and vice versa, with monthly market-share returns required of affected institutions. Full compliance with the market-structure cap and reporting requirement is due 31 December 2026, one day ahead of the data-localisation deadline, meaning the two obligations land on affected institutions in immediate succession at the turn of the year. The circular's own text has not been directly retrieved; the findings above rest on secondary legal and industry commentary describing its provisions. #### Outlook The two deadlines, 31 December 2026 for market-structure compliance and 1 January 2027 for data-localisation, are the concrete markers to track into the next reporting period, as is whether the circular's primary text becomes available for direct verification of its exact provisions. Evidence 4 Sources and findings (4) - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2024/BSD/CBN%20Risk-Based%20Cybersecurity%20Framework%20for%20DMBs%20and%20PSBs_2024.pdf](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2024/BSD/CBN%20Risk-Based%20Cybersecurity%20Framework%20for%20DMBs%20and%20PSBs_2024.pdf)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.cyberkach.com/2020/04/25/cbn-framework [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]](https://www.cyberkach.com/2020/04/25/cbn-framework [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]) - T3[https://businessday.ng/news/article/cbn-gives-banks-three-weeks-to-deploy-cybersecurity-self-assessment-tools/ [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]](https://businessday.ng/news/article/cbn-gives-banks-three-weeks-to-deploy-cybersecurity-self-assessment-tools/ [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]) - T3[https://tnp.com.ng/insights/dissecting-the-central-bank-of-nigeria-risk-based-cybersecurity-frameworks-and-guidelines-for-deposit-money-banks-and-payment-service-providers [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]](https://tnp.com.ng/insights/dissecting-the-central-bank-of-nigeria-risk-based-cybersecurity-frameworks-and-guidelines-for-deposit-money-banks-and-payment-service-providers [CAVEAT: Tier 3 secondary source — Assessed; verify vs primary pre-publication]) ### W4Scheme & Network ComplianceConfirmedconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Card and POS rails are governed by the CBN Guidelines on Operations of Electronic Payment Channels in Nigeria (2020), the POS Card Acceptance Guidelines, the Card Issuance & Usage Guidelines and the 2016 Interchange Fee circular, all enforced by the CBN with NIBSS as the central infrastructure operator. Three main card schemes operate (Visa, Mastercard and the domestic Verve by Interswitch), now joined by the CBN/NIBSS-backed national domestic scheme AfriGo (launched January 2023) to cut FX leakage. Only CBN-licensed institutions may be acquirers; PCI DSS, EMV chip-and-PIN and PA-DSS are mandated; and merchants are prohibited from surcharging cardholders. NIBSS was sole Payment Terminal Service Aggregator until Unified Payments was licensed as a second PTSA in April 2024. Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 241 words #### Scheme & Network Compliance Nigeria's card-scheme landscape now spans four schemes after the CBN and NIBSS launched the national domestic scheme AfriGo on 26 January 2023, alongside Visa, Mastercard and the domestic Verve by Interswitch, to reduce dollar-denominated scheme charges that draw on Nigeria's foreign reserves. AfriGo is an FX-leakage-driven sovereign-scheme play competing directly with Visa and Mastercard on Nigerian card rails, with cost and reserve implications for issuers and acquirers. The rules layer is detailed and prescriptive. CBN Guidelines on Operations of Electronic Payment Channels (2020) and the POS Card Acceptance Guidelines require only CBN-licensed institutions to act as acquirers, mandate PCI DSS / PA-DSS / P2PE compliance and EMV chip-and-PIN, bar card schemes (or entities they own 20% or more of) from acquiring, prohibit merchant surcharging, and require disputed POS transactions to be resolved within five working days. A September 2024 circular requires all PSPs to route POS operations through one of two licensed PTSAs — NIBSS since 2011 and Unified Payment Services as the second PTSA from April 2024. The April 2024 second-PTSA licensing breaks NIBSS's 13-year monopoly, a notable infrastructure shift. These rules apply to bank-PSP acquirers; the acquirer-licensing restriction is the firm-type gate. #### Outlook Scheme and network compliance is escalating, driven by AfriGo's competitive entry and the breaking of the NIBSS PTSA monopoly. The cross-current to watch is incumbent-scheme interest in Nigerian rails even as a sovereign scheme competes domestically (see the Visa–Moniepoint stake in W13). Read full sub-brief · 241 words no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief Evidence 5 Sources and findings (5) - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/out/2020/ccd/reviewed%20and%20approved%20guidelines%20on%20operations%20of%20electronic%20payment%20channels%20in%20nigeria%202020.pdf](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/out/2020/ccd/reviewed%20and%20approved%20guidelines%20on%20operations%20of%20electronic%20payment%20channels%20in%20nigeria%202020.pdf)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/cashless/POS_GUIDELINES_August2011_FINAL_FINAL%20(2).pdf](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/cashless/POS_GUIDELINES_August2011_FINAL_FINAL%20(2).pdf)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://pavestoneslegal.com/regulatory-update-the-central-bank-of-nigerias-national-domestic-card-scheme/](https://pavestoneslegal.com/regulatory-update-the-central-bank-of-nigerias-national-domestic-card-scheme/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://pavestoneslegal.com/fintech-regulation-in-nigeria-cbn-directives-on-payment-terminal-services/](https://pavestoneslegal.com/fintech-regulation-in-nigeria-cbn-directives-on-payment-terminal-services/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/PaymentsSystem/](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/PaymentsSystem/)retrieved 2026-06-23 ### W5Payment Corridor Dynamicslimited signalConfirmedconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Nigeria's principal corridors are diaspora inbound remittances (≈US$20.9bn in 2024) governed by the Revised IMTS Guidelines (31 January 2024), and intra-African trade via the Pan-African Payment & Settlement System (PAPSS) under AfCFTA. The 2024 IMTO regime confines IMTOs to inbound-only transfers, payout in Naira via cash/bank accounts, sets a US$1m minimum capital, bars banks and fintechs from holding IMTO licences (banks may act as agents), and removed the -2.5%/+2.5% allowable-rate cap so payouts use prevailing market rates. The CBN has eased PAPSS documentation (April 2025), allowed commercial banks to source FX for PAPSS via the official market, and launched the Non-Resident BVN (NRBVN) platform (May 2025) to deepen diaspora flows. Domestically NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) is the dominant real-time rail. Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 228 words · last cycle 2026-10-25 #### Payment Corridor Dynamics Nigeria's diaspora-inbound remittance corridor is the country's most commercially significant payment corridor, and it was restructured by the Revised Guidelines for International Money Transfer Services (31 January 2024). These confine IMTOs to inbound-only transfers with Naira payout (cash capped at $200 equivalent), set a US$1m minimum capital floor (Naira equivalent for indigenous IMTOs), and prohibit banks and fintech companies from holding IMTO licences — though banks may act as agents. An accompanying circular removed the −2.5%/+2.5% allowable-rate cap so payouts use prevailing market rates. Personal remittances received rose 9% to a five-year high of US$20.9bn in 2024. The firm-type distinction is explicit: IMTO principals are a distinct non-bank category, banks and fintechs are barred as principals, and banks may participate only as agents. The intra-African corridor is also being eased. A 28 April 2025 CBN circular simplified PAPSS transaction documentation for intra-African trade under AfCFTA and permitted commercial banks to source FX for PAPSS via the official market, while the CBN with NIBSS launched the Non-Resident BVN (NRBVN) platform on 13 May 2025 to deepen diaspora flows. Together these lower friction on intra-African and diaspora corridors and advance AfCFTA settlement integration. #### Outlook Both the diaspora-inbound and PAPSS intra-African corridors are escalating. The rate-cap removal and NRBVN onboarding rail are the principal near-term enablers; the Vision 2028 cross-border settlement repositioning (W9) is the longer-horizon corridor vector. Read full sub-brief · 228 words Periodic update · new data 2026-10-25 #### Payment Corridor Dynamics Two corridor-relevant developments were sourced. First, following an October 2026 roundtable held in Beijing, the Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed an initiative aimed at identifying obstacles affecting business transactions between Nigeria and China and exploring measures to improve payment-channel access between the two economies. No specific mechanism, whether a local-currency settlement arrangement, a correspondent-banking enhancement, or another structure, has yet been disclosed, and the initiative appears to be at an early, exploratory stage. Second, Central Bank of Nigeria balance-of-payments data place inbound personal transfers, a category that includes workers' remittances, at $11.1 billion for the first half of 2026. These remittance flows continue to move into Nigeria via a combination of correspondent-bank and SWIFT rails and licensed International Money Transfer Operators, underscoring that correspondent-banking access remains the structural backbone of Nigeria's inbound payment corridor even as the central bank explores corridor diversification through initiatives such as the China roundtable. #### Outlook The Nigeria-China initiative is too early-stage to assess for concrete deliverables; the next marker will be whether a specific payment mechanism or working group emerges from the stated exploratory process. On remittances, continued CBN balance-of-payments reporting will show whether the $11.1 billion H1 2026 figure represents a trend change from prior periods. 1 earlier distinct update(s) Periodic update · new data 2026-08-25 #### Payment Corridor Dynamics Nigeria's cross-border payment-corridor dynamics registered a structural shift this cycle with the launch of Africa's first wallet-based outbound cross-border payment pilot. On 3 February 2026, Onafriq and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System launched an instant naira-to-cedi corridor between Nigeria and Ghana, approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria as a six-month pilot operating without US-dollar or euro intermediation. The pilot explicitly targets reducing cross-border transfer costs from the historical seven-to-twelve-percent range toward the G20's three-percent target by 2027, and is described as formalising previously informal intra-African trade-settlement flows for Nigerian small and medium enterprises. The corridor's structural significance lies in its settlement mechanism rather than its initial six-month scope: PAPSS, which as of 2026 covers eighteen to nineteen African countries including Nigeria, settles intra-African payments in local currency via central-bank netting, removing the correspondent-banking and dollar-intermediation dependency that has historically driven the elevated cost of Nigeria-Ghana and comparable West African corridors. If the pilot is judged successful at its review point, the same wallet-based, PAPSS-settled model is a plausible template for further Nigerian corridors beyond the Ghana pairing, though no evidence this cycle described specific plans to extend the model to additional corridors. #### Outlook The pilot's six-month mark falls around August 2026, at which point a scale-or-terminate decision is expected; the outcome of that review, and whether the reported cost-reduction trajectory toward the G20 three-percent target is evidenced in practice rather than stated as an aspiration, are the two developments most likely to determine whether this corridor becomes a template for further PAPSS-settled Nigerian trade corridors. Evidence 4 Sources and findings (4) - T3[https://www.aluko-oyebode.com/insights/cbn-issues-new-guidelines-on-international-money-transfer-services/](https://www.aluko-oyebode.com/insights/cbn-issues-new-guidelines-on-international-money-transfer-services/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://pavestoneslegal.com/revised-cbn-guidelines-on-international-money-transfer-services-in-nigeria/](https://pavestoneslegal.com/revised-cbn-guidelines-on-international-money-transfer-services-in-nigeria/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/AboutCBN/Reforms.html](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/AboutCBN/Reforms.html)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.globallegalinsights.com/practice-areas/fintech-laws-and-regulations/nigeria/](https://www.globallegalinsights.com/practice-areas/fintech-laws-and-regulations/nigeria/)retrieved 2026-06-23 ### W6Industry Structure & CommercialProbableconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Nigeria is Africa's largest fintech market, hosting ~28% of African fintech firms and ~430+ companies, with e-payment transaction volumes of 44.8bn (up 16% YoY) and values of ₦3.1 quadrillion (~US$2.03tn) in 2024. The market is dominated by non-bank fintechs — Moniepoint, OPay, PalmPay, Flutterwave and Paystack — competing with commercial banks; Moniepoint is one of the largest merchant acquirers. A clear 2025–2026 structural shift is fintech consolidation into banking via microfinance-bank acquisitions/upgrades, and a CBN move toward more coordinated nationwide fintech licensing, including a directive to separate payment-processing and banking operations. Horizon · 2026-Q3 (± a quarter) CBN fintech operations-separation directive (OPay/Moniepoint) 90-day deadline Adopted, not yet in force · Tier 3 source Horizon · 2026-12 (± a quarter) Payments-sector restructuring deadline (UBO/ownership concentration) Adopted, not yet in force · Tier 3 source Horizon · 2027-01 (± a quarter) Payments data-localisation deadline Adopted, not yet in force · Tier 3 source Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 222 words · last cycle 2026-10-18 #### Industry Structure & Commercial Nigeria is Africa's largest fintech market — roughly 28% of African fintech firms, 430-plus companies and around 36% of African fintech funding across 2020–H1 2024 — with 2024 e-payment volumes of 44.8bn (up 16% year on year) and values of ₦3.1 quadrillion (about US$2.03tn, up 39%); fintech funding fell 17.1% to US$331m in 2024. The market is dominated by non-bank fintechs including Moniepoint, OPay, PalmPay, Flutterwave and Paystack; Moniepoint serves over 10m businesses, processes more than 1bn transactions monthly with TPV above US$22bn, and reached unicorn status in October 2024. This structural picture is carried at Assessed confidence pending more institutional data anchors. The defining 2025–2026 dynamic is the structural shift of non-bank fintechs into banking, running in direct tension with the CBN's directive ordering major fintechs including OPay and Moniepoint to separate their payment-processing and banking operations within 90 days, citing market-concentration concerns and conflicts of interest. That directive rests on single-aggregator sourcing and is carried at Assessed confidence; discrete deals behind the consolidation trend are routed to W13. #### Outlook Industry structure is escalating. The unresolved question is whether the separation directive — its 90-day deadline falling in Q3 2026 — will force group restructuring against the consolidation-into-banking trend. Both the consolidation cluster and the directive merit targeted follow-up sourcing before heavier-weight judgments are built on them. Read full sub-brief · 222 words Periodic update · new data 2026-09-28 #### Industry Structure & Commercial Dynamics The defining industry-structure development in Nigeria this cycle is the Central Bank of Nigeria's 15 June 2026 circular introducing market-concentration caps: any institution holding more than 25 per cent of the consumer card-issuing market is restricted to no more than 15 per cent of merchant-acquiring market share, and the reverse cap applies symmetrically. This is a direct structural intervention responding to rapid fintech consolidation, and affected firms must submit monthly market-share reports demonstrating compliance ahead of the 31 December 2026 deadline. The same circular pairs the concentration caps with a beneficial-ownership disclosure requirement, under which any institution holding more than 25 per cent market share in consumer issuing faces disclosure obligations for significant shareholders. Reading the caps and the disclosure requirement together, the CBN is treating market concentration and ownership opacity as related structural risks addressed through a single regulatory instrument, rather than as separate policy problems. The broader growth context that appears to be driving this tightening cycle is documented in the CBN's own February 2026 Fintech Policy Insight Report: the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System's Instant Payment platform processed close to 11 billion transactions in 2024, more than double the 5 billion processed in 2022. A payments ecosystem growing at that pace, concentrated among a small number of dominant issuers and acquirers, is the structural condition the concentration caps are designed to address before consolidation proceeds further. #### Outlook The 31 December 2026 compliance deadline is the key date to track, alongside the monthly market-share reports the CBN circular requires, which should begin to reveal the actual concentration levels among Nigeria's card-issuing and merchant-acquiring institutions. Whether the caps produce genuine market fragmentation or prompt corporate restructuring by affected dominant players remains to be seen. Evidence 4 Sources and findings (4) - T3[https://fintechnews.africa/45002/fintech-nigeria/top-fintechs-in-nigeria/](https://fintechnews.africa/45002/fintech-nigeria/top-fintechs-in-nigeria/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://fintechnews.africa/45002/fintech-nigeria/top-fintechs-in-nigeria/](https://fintechnews.africa/45002/fintech-nigeria/top-fintechs-in-nigeria/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.agustoresearch.com/report/2025-fintech-industry-report/](https://www.agustoresearch.com/report/2025-fintech-industry-report/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.paymentsafrica.news/](https://www.paymentsafrica.news/)retrieved 2026-06-23 ### W7Legal & LitigationProbableconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# The headline payments-adjacent litigation is the Nigerian state's enforcement campaign against Binance: a February 2025 dispute and FIRS tax-evasion charges, the detention of Binance executives over alleged FX manipulation, and Binance's subsequent disabling of naira services. ISA 2025 expanded SEC enforcement powers (administrative cautions, liens on bank accounts, asset seizure and forfeiture for illegal capital-market operations). The CBN has historically used court-ordered account freezes against fintechs over FX/crypto activity, and BOFIA 2020 criminalises conducting financial business without authorisation. Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 157 words #### Legal & Litigation The dominant litigation thread is Nigeria's enforcement campaign against Binance, which includes a February 2025 dispute and a reported US$81.5bn lawsuit over alleged currency devaluation, FIRS tax-evasion charges over unpaid VAT and corporate income tax, detention of Binance executives over alleged FX manipulation, and Binance's subsequent disabling of naira services. ISA 2025 expanded SEC enforcement powers to include administrative cautions, liens on bank accounts, and asset seizure and forfeiture. The campaign signals aggressive state action against unlicensed crypto and FX intermediation, and the new enforcement powers raise the stakes for non-compliant VASPs. WPM carries only the litigation and enforcement-precedent angle here. The illicit-finance, FX-manipulation and sanctions-evasion dimensions of the Binance matter are routed to the Financial Integrity Monitor; original illicit-finance analysis is not performed in this module. #### Outlook The litigation environment is escalating, with ISA 2025's expanded enforcement toolkit raising the precedent risk for crypto and FX intermediaries operating outside the SEC authorisation perimeter. Read full sub-brief · 157 words no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief Evidence 4 Sources and findings (4) - T3[https://breet.io/blog/is-cryptocurrency-legal-in-nigeria](https://breet.io/blog/is-cryptocurrency-legal-in-nigeria)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://breet.io/blog/is-cryptocurrency-legal-in-nigeria](https://breet.io/blog/is-cryptocurrency-legal-in-nigeria)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.ainvest.com/news/nigeria-sec-introduces-stablecoin-regulations-2025-act-policy-shift-2507/](https://www.ainvest.com/news/nigeria-sec-introduces-stablecoin-regulations-2025-act-policy-shift-2507/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://breet.io/blog/is-cryptocurrency-legal-in-nigeria](https://breet.io/blog/is-cryptocurrency-legal-in-nigeria)retrieved 2026-06-23 ### W8Merchant Acquiring & Risk1 gapProbableconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Acquiring is restricted to CBN-licensed institutions and is card-neutral; PTSPs deploy/maintain POS terminals while NIBSS and (since April 2024) Unified Payments act as Payment Terminal Service Aggregators routing and settling POS transactions. Merchants must pass due diligence before POS allocation, may not surcharge or discriminate by scheme, and disputed card/POS transactions must be resolved within five working days (cardholder complaints within 48 hours). NIBSS credits interchange shares to parties and POS devices now require GPS tracking for recertification. The market is highly POS/agent-led, dominated by Moniepoint, OPay and PalmPay agent networks. Open gap — wpm-int-3 No merchant-acquiring chargeback rule change sourced this cycle. no under-indexing note recorded Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 169 words · last cycle 2026-10-18 #### Merchant Acquiring & Risk Nigerian merchant acquiring is restricted to CBN-licensed, card-neutral institutions. PTSPs deploy and maintain POS terminals while NIBSS and — since April 2024 — Unified Payments act as PTSAs routing and settling POS transactions. Merchants must pass due diligence before terminal allocation, may not surcharge or discriminate by scheme, and disputed card and POS transactions must be resolved within five working days. POS devices now require NIBSS certification plus GPS tracking for recertification. The market is POS and agent-led, dominated by the Moniepoint, OPay and PalmPay agent networks. For firm types, the market spans both bank-PSP acquirers (who must hold the CBN acquiring licence) and the non-bank agent networks that dominate physical acceptance. The PCI-DSS, NIBSS-certification, GPS-recertification and SLA burdens are real entry barriers for early-stage acquirers — an under-indexed operational dimension. This module cross-references the W4 scheme rules. #### Outlook Acquiring structure is stable. The GPS-recertification control is a notable operational tightening, and specialist coverage of merchant-acquiring operations remains under-indexed relative to regulatory and legal-firm sourcing. Read full sub-brief · 169 words Periodic update · new data 2026-09-28 #### Merchant Acquiring & Risk Merchant-acquiring concentration in Nigeria is now directly constrained by the same 15 June 2026 CBN circular that caps card-issuing concentration: an institution controlling more than 25 per cent of the card-issuing market cannot hold more than 15 per cent of merchant-acquiring market share. This structural cap targets the same firms that dominate consumer issuing, on the premise that allowing a single institution or group to dominate both sides of the transaction chain concentrates risk and reduces competitive pressure on acquiring fees and merchant terms. Affected institutions must submit monthly market-share reports to the CBN to demonstrate compliance ahead of the 31 December 2026 deadline, giving the regulator an ongoing monitoring mechanism rather than a one-time compliance check. This reporting obligation is itself a meaningful addition to the merchant-acquiring risk-management landscape, since it creates a documented, recurring dataset the CBN can use to track concentration trends over time rather than relying on episodic market surveys. The concentration-cap intervention sits within the broader context of Nigeria's rapidly scaling payments volume, with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System's Instant Payment platform processing close to 11 billion transactions in 2024. That scale is precisely the environment in which merchant-acquiring concentration risk, if left unaddressed, could compound quickly, which is the analytical rationale connecting the volume growth to the timing of this intervention. #### Outlook The monthly market-share reporting requirement will be the most useful near-term indicator of how concentrated Nigeria's merchant-acquiring market actually is heading into the 31 December 2026 deadline. Whether dominant card-issuers restructure their acquiring operations to comply, divest acquiring business lines, or seek exemptions will determine how disruptive this cap proves to be in practice. 1 earlier distinct update(s) Periodic update · new data 2026-08-25 #### Merchant Acquiring & Risk The Central Bank of Nigeria's market-concentration circular bears directly on merchant-acquiring market structure. Under the 15 June 2026 circular, any institution whose consumer-issuing market share exceeds twenty-five percent is limited to no more than fifteen percent merchant-acquiring share, with divestiture or restructuring required by 31 December 2026. For merchant acquirers specifically, this fifteen-percent ceiling is the operative constraint: an acquirer that has grown its merchant-acquiring book to a scale that would previously have been unremarkable may now be required to divest acquiring volume, transfer merchant relationships, or restructure corporate ownership if its affiliated consumer-issuing business exceeds the twenty-five-percent threshold. This is a market-structure risk rather than a fraud or credit risk in the conventional merchant-acquiring sense, but it is the most consequential acquiring-side development identified this cycle: it directly targets the vertically-integrated bank and non-bank groups that have historically combined issuing and acquiring functions within Nigeria's payments market, and it does so through a hard divestiture deadline rather than a supervisory expectation. #### Outlook Which specific acquirers are affected by the fifteen-percent merchant-acquiring ceiling, and what divestiture or restructuring mechanisms they pursue ahead of the 31 December 2026 deadline, are the key developments to watch; no acquirer-specific divestiture or restructuring action had been evidenced as of this cycle's research. Evidence 4 Sources and findings (4) - T3[https://srjlegal.com/pos-card-acceptance-services-in-nigeria/](https://srjlegal.com/pos-card-acceptance-services-in-nigeria/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/cashless/POS_GUIDELINES_August2011_FINAL_FINAL%20(2).pdf](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/cashless/POS_GUIDELINES_August2011_FINAL_FINAL%20(2).pdf)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://financeinafrica.com/insights/inside-nigerias-card-rails-build/](https://financeinafrica.com/insights/inside-nigerias-card-rails-build/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T2[https://nibss-plc.com.ng/](https://nibss-plc.com.ng/)retrieved 2026-06-23 ### W9Product Innovation & Market DevelopmentConfirmedconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Nigeria's standout rails are NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) — the dominant account-to-account real-time system, ~70% of NIBSS volume, the first IPS in Africa to reach 'Maturity' on AfricaNenda's inclusivity spectrum — alongside QR (NQR), USSD and mobile money. The eNaira (Africa's first CBDC, launched October 2021) has seen minimal retail uptake (<0.5% adoption) and the CBN is repositioning it under the Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 as cross-border/settlement infrastructure rather than a retail product, exploring NIP-eNaira integration, PAPSS/AfCFTA alignment and regulated-stablecoin settlement corridors. Open banking has formally launched, and the SEC ARIP sandbox supports crypto/stablecoin product testing. Horizon · 2028 (± more than a year) Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 / eNaira cross-border repositioning Proposed · Tier 3 source Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 231 words · last cycle 2026-10-18 #### Product Innovation & Market Development NIBSS Instant Payments (NIP) is the dominant account-to-account real-time rail at around 70% of NIBSS volume and the first instant payment system in Africa to reach 'Maturity' on AfricaNenda's inclusivity spectrum. It settles in central-bank money via deferred net settlement (four times daily) with the CBN as settlement agent, has 29 direct commercial-bank participants and around 670 indirect participants (541 MFIs, 10 MMOs, 5 PSBs), and supports card, e-money, EFT and CBDC instruments. NIP is the backbone real-time rail of Africa's largest payments market and the continent's most mature inclusive instant payment system — the settlement substrate every Nigerian payment operator depends on, spanning both bank-PSP and non-bank participation tiers. In parallel, under the Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 the CBN is repositioning the eNaira — Africa's first CBDC, launched October 2021, with under 0.5% retail adoption — as cross-border and settlement infrastructure rather than a retail product. It is exploring NIP–eNaira integration, PAPSS/AfCFTA alignment and regulated-stablecoin settlement corridors, leveraging more than US$20bn in annual diaspora remittances. Low retail uptake is attributed to BVN/NIN access requirements excluding the unbanked and overlap with existing payment apps. This pivot is carried at Assessed confidence. #### Outlook Product development is escalating. The strategically significant move is the eNaira's repositioning from a failed retail product toward cross-border settlement, a multi-year Vision 2028 horizon with implications for diaspora-remittance economics and regulated-stablecoin corridors. Read full sub-brief · 231 words Periodic update · new data 2026-09-28 #### Product Innovation & Market Development The Central Bank of Nigeria's Fintech Policy Insight Report, published 2 February 2026, is the first sector-wide fintech policy review since the 2022 Payment Systems Vision 2025, and it sets the product and market-development direction for the current tightening cycle. The report proposes a Compliance-as-a-Service utility, intended to lower the compliance burden for smaller fintechs by centralising shared compliance infrastructure, and a Single Regulatory Window, aimed at reducing the number of separate touchpoints fintechs must navigate across Nigeria's multi-regulator landscape. Notably, the report also encourages CBN engagement with regional central banks and economic blocs such as ECOWAS on regulatory harmonisation, signalling that Nigeria's payments regulator is thinking about cross-border product and regulatory coordination within West Africa, not only domestic market development. The scale underpinning this policy review is substantial: the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System's Instant Payment platform processed close to 11 billion transactions in 2024, up from 5 billion in 2022, more than doubling in two years. This volume growth is the empirical basis the CBN itself cites for undertaking its first sector-wide fintech policy review since 2022, and it explains why product-innovation policy and structural market-tightening (the concentration caps) are proceeding on parallel tracks in the same period. #### Outlook Implementation of the proposed Compliance-as-a-Service utility and Single Regulatory Window remains at the proposal stage as of this cycle; whether and how the CBN moves these from policy report to concrete regulatory instruments is the key development to track. Any follow-through on ECOWAS-level regulatory harmonisation engagement would be a further significant product-and-market-development signal worth monitoring in subsequent cycles. 1 earlier distinct update(s) Periodic update · new data 2026-08-25 #### Product Innovation & Market Development Africa's first wallet-based outbound cross-border payment pilot launched from Nigeria this cycle. Onafriq and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System launched an instant naira-to-cedi corridor between Nigeria and Ghana on 3 February 2026, structured as a six-month pilot approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria and operating without US-dollar or euro intermediation. PAPSS itself, which covers eighteen to nineteen African countries including Nigeria as of 2026 and settles intra-African payments in local currency via central-bank netting, is the underlying settlement infrastructure enabling the product. As a product-innovation matter, the pilot's significance is that it is a genuinely novel payment-rail product rather than an incremental feature addition: a wallet-based, non-dollar-intermediated, instant cross-border transfer mechanism did not previously exist at scale for the Nigeria-Ghana corridor, and its explicit design target, reducing transfer costs from the historical seven-to-twelve-percent range toward the G20's three-percent benchmark by 2027, positions it as aimed at underserved small and medium enterprise trade-settlement demand rather than at retail remittance alone. Separately and at lower confidence, a February 2026 Central Bank Fintech Policy Insight Report proposed a regulatory-sandbox test-then-codify pathway alongside digital-identity and credit-data-sharing reforms; if implemented, such a sandbox mechanism could provide a formal route for further product innovation of this kind, though this rests on a single Tier-4 source and no sandbox has yet been evidenced as operational. #### Outlook The pilot's six-month review point, expected around August 2026, will determine whether the wallet-based corridor model scales to further African trade pairings beyond Nigeria-Ghana; a positive review outcome combined with continued PAPSS network expansion would represent the clearest evidence yet of a durable shift away from correspondent-bank-dependent African cross-border payment infrastructure. Evidence 5 Sources and findings (5) - T2[https://www.africanenda.org/uploads/files/siips2025/siips_2025_NIP-Nigeria_CaseStudy_en.pdf](https://www.africanenda.org/uploads/files/siips2025/siips_2025_NIP-Nigeria_CaseStudy_en.pdf)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://bitcoinke.io/2026/06/the-nigeria-payments-system-vision-2028-framework/](https://bitcoinke.io/2026/06/the-nigeria-payments-system-vision-2028-framework/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://bitcoinke.io/2026/06/the-nigeria-payments-system-vision-2028-framework/](https://bitcoinke.io/2026/06/the-nigeria-payments-system-vision-2028-framework/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.goldsmithsllp.com/cbns-issues-draft-guidelines-on-handling-authorised-push-payment-fraud/](https://www.goldsmithsllp.com/cbns-issues-draft-guidelines-on-handling-authorised-push-payment-fraud/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/PaymentsSystem/PSPs.html](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/PaymentsSystem/PSPs.html)retrieved 2026-06-23 ### W10Consumer Protection & APP FraudConfirmedconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Consumer protection sits with the CBN's Consumer Protection and Financial Inclusion Department (CPFD) under the Consumer Protection Regulation 2019 and Framework 2016, with the FCCPC and NCC as adjacent regulators; complaints route to the provider first then escalate to CPFD. A landmark development is the CBN's draft Guidelines for Handling Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud (dated 26 November 2025), introducing mandatory reimbursement: institutions acknowledge complaints within 24 hours, investigate within 14 working days, reimburse within 48 hours of conclusion (16 working days end-to-end), with customers required to report within 72 hours. There is an active debate about creating an independent financial ombudsman. Electronic-payment fraud reportedly fell 51% in 2025 after tighter controls. Horizon · 2026-H2 (± six months) CBN APP-fraud mandatory reimbursement guidelines finalisation Consultation · Tier 1 source Horizon · 2026-04 (± a quarter) POS agent geo-tagging/location-compliance tightening In force · Tier 3 source Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 235 words · last cycle 2026-10-18 #### Consumer Protection & APP Fraud The headline development is the CBN's draft Guidelines for Handling Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud, an exposure draft dated 26 November 2025, introducing mandatory reimbursement: institutions acknowledge complaints within 24 hours with a unique case reference, investigate within 14 working days, and reimburse within 48 hours of conclusion (16 working days end-to-end); customers must report within 72 hours; and where neither sending nor receiving bank is at fault but the customer qualifies, the two institutions share the refund equally. Electronic-payment fraud reportedly fell 51% in 2025. The regime is functionally analogous to the UK PSR model and materially shifts fraud-liability economics onto bank-PSPs, though it remains an exposure draft not yet in force. The standing redress architecture sits with the CBN Consumer Protection & Financial Inclusion Department under the Consumer Protection Regulation 2019 and Framework 2016. Complaints route provider-first then escalate to the CPFD, which operates 24/7 with a 94% timely-resolution rate. In H1 2025 the CBN resolved 9,771 of 10,704 complaints (up 143.3% year on year), with electronic-transaction and card issues at 51.5% and fraud at 39.27%, and refunds of ₦7.17bn. Consumer advocates support exploring an independent financial ombudsman. #### Outlook Consumer protection is escalating. The APP-fraud reimbursement draft is expected to be finalised in H2 2026, at which point fraud-liability economics shift onto banks and PSPs; the ombudsman debate signals a possible future structural change to the redress layer. Read full sub-brief · 235 words Periodic update · new data 2026-09-28 #### Consumer Protection & APP Fraud Nigeria introduced a materially different Authorised Push Payment fraud liability regime in 2026: fintechs may now share or fully absorb losses from APP fraud even where the user initiated the transaction, a shift away from a purely user-responsibility default toward shared institutional accountability for fraud losses. This is a substantive consumer-protection change with direct commercial implications for fintechs' loss-provisioning and fraud-prevention investment decisions. Alongside the liability-sharing reform, real-time transaction monitoring became mandatory in 2026, with an audit-backed enforcement rollout timeline cited in reporting, though the precision of that rollout timeline carries some uncertainty in the underlying sourcing. The intended effect is that mandatory real-time monitoring should reduce the incidence of APP fraud reaching completion, which would in turn reduce the loss exposure fintechs face under the new liability-sharing rule; the two measures are complementary in their evident policy logic even though they were reported through separate sourcing. Both developments represent a tightening of the consumer-protection environment for Nigerian payments users, shifting a portion of fraud risk away from consumers and onto the institutions best positioned to detect and prevent it through monitoring infrastructure. #### Outlook The practical effect of the liability-sharing reform will depend on how disputes over "user-initiated" transactions are adjudicated in practice, and whether the real-time monitoring mandate's enforcement timeline holds firms to a meaningfully shorter fraud-detection window. Both measures merit continued tracking as concrete dispute or enforcement data emerges. 1 earlier distinct update(s) Periodic update · new data 2026-08-25 #### Consumer Protection & APP Fraud Nigerian consumers gained materially stronger authorised-push-payment fraud protection this cycle through the Central Bank's shift from advisory to mandatory conduct rules. Under the new liability-sharing regime, fintechs may be required to reimburse APP-fraud losses even where the consumer self-initiated the transaction, with liability apportioned between sending and receiving institutions and full-loss exposure attaching to an institution that fails to flag a suspicious account. This is paired with a mandatory real-time transaction-monitoring requirement for regulated payment institutions, intended to detect fraudulent transaction patterns before losses crystallise. From a consumer-protection perspective, the structural significance of this shift is that it moves loss-allocation risk away from the individual consumer and onto the regulated institutions in the payment chain, reversing what has historically been a self-initiated-transaction defence available to payment-service providers in APP-fraud disputes. Industry-reported compliance-cost strain, 87.5 percent of surveyed fintechs reporting that compliance costs are limiting their ability to innovate, is the visible cost side of this consumer-protection gain, though this survey finding rests on a single source and should be read directionally rather than as a precise market-wide figure. #### Outlook How Nigerian payment-service providers operationalise the liability-sharing rules in individual fraud disputes, and whether the mandatory real-time monitoring requirement measurably reduces APP-fraud incidence once its phased rollout completes, are the developments most likely to indicate whether this cycle's consumer-protection shift delivers in practice rather than only on paper. Evidence 5 Sources and findings (5) - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2025/CCD/Exposure%20draft%20of%20the%20Guidelines%20for%20Handling%20Authorised%20Push%20Payment%20Fraud.pdf](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/Out/2025/CCD/Exposure%20draft%20of%20the%20Guidelines%20for%20Handling%20Authorised%20Push%20Payment%20Fraud.pdf)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://punchng.com/cbn-orders-48-hour-refunds-for-app-fraud-victims/](https://punchng.com/cbn-orders-48-hour-refunds-for-app-fraud-victims/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://techcabal.com/2025/12/02/nigerian-banks-16-days-fraud-refund-cbn/](https://techcabal.com/2025/12/02/nigerian-banks-16-days-fraud-refund-cbn/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.legit.ng/business-economy/money/1693950-nigerian-bank-customers-complaints-surge-electronic-transactions-fraud-top-list/](https://www.legit.ng/business-economy/money/1693950-nigerian-bank-customers-complaints-surge-electronic-transactions-fraud-top-list/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://efina.org.ng/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Ask-the-Regulator-Communique-1.1-December-2025.pdf](https://efina.org.ng/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Ask-the-Regulator-Communique-1.1-December-2025.pdf)retrieved 2026-06-23 ### W11AML/CFT & Financial Crime (Sentinel.gi-fed)1 gapSourced from Sentinel.gi ↗Probableconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# sentinel. Nigeria's AML/CFT/CPF posture is anchored on the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 and the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022, supervised by the CBN with the NFIU and EFCC. Nigeria was placed on the FATF grey list in February 2023, completed its 19-point action plan by May 2025 and was formally delisted at the October 2025 FATF Plenary, improving correspondent-banking and risk-rating conditions; the next mutual evaluation is expected 2027. (Carried per Sentinel.gi payments-context feed — no original FIM analysis performed.) Open gap — wpm-int-1 No AML/CFT delta sourced for Nigeria this cycle; see financial-integrity consumer. no under-indexing note recorded Horizon · 2027 (± a year) Next FATF mutual evaluation of Nigeria Proposed · Tier 3 source Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 210 words #### AML/CFT & Financial Crime (Sentinel-fed) This module is sourced from the Sentinel feed; WPM carries only the payments-context impact and performs no original illicit-finance analysis. Per Sentinel, at the FATF Plenary held 22–24 October 2025 Nigeria — alongside Burkina Faso, Mozambique and South Africa — was removed from the FATF grey list after completing its 19-point action plan by May 2025. The principal AML/CFT/CPF laws are the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 and the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022, supervised by the CBN with the NFIU and EFCC. Reforms included operationalising a Beneficial Ownership Register, broader DNFBP supervision and strengthened NFIU–EFCC coordination; the next mutual evaluation is expected in 2027. The payments impact is the relevant lens here: delisting reduces de-risking pressure and improves correspondent-banking, remittance and credit-access conditions for Nigerian bank-PSPs — a direct positive for the country's payment corridors and settlement-tier access. Anything beyond payments context is routed to the Financial Integrity Monitor. #### Outlook The AML/CFT backdrop is improving from a payments standpoint following the October 2025 delisting. The next FATF mutual evaluation in 2027 is the key forward marker; its outcome will shape the correspondent-banking and de-risking trajectory. See further analysis in the Sentinel feed. Read full sub-brief · 210 words no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief Evidence 5 Sources and findings (5) - T3[https://www.mondaq.com/nigeria/money-laundering/1701544/nigerias-exit-from-the-grey-list-implications-for-businesses-and-the-financial-system](https://www.mondaq.com/nigeria/money-laundering/1701544/nigerias-exit-from-the-grey-list-implications-for-businesses-and-the-financial-system)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T?FIM (sentinel.gi) per-JID baseline profile — Nigeria — Nigeria's AML/CFT/CPF regime rests on the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 (as amended), NFIU Act 2018, Terrorism Prevention Act, and CAMA 2020 BO framework, supervised by CBN, SEC and NAICOM with EFCC/NFIU as lead enforcement/FIU bodies. Nigeria exited the FATF grey list in October 2025 after a February 2023-2025 action plan, but GIABA follow-up reviews still flag technical gaps, especially in free-zone beneficial ownership transparency and targeted financial sanctions for proliferation financing. - T2FIM (sentinel.gi) enforcement_action_register (issue FIM-BASE-ENF-002) — Enforcement: Federal High Court (Abuja) / EFCC — Saleh Mamman, former Minister of Power - T?FIM (sentinel.gi) gaps_register_cumulative (issue FIM-BASE-GAP-004) — Gap: capacity-deficit - T?FIM (sentinel.gi) gaps_register_cumulative (issue FIM-BASE-GAP-002) — Gap: legal-gap ### W12Correspondent Banking, Settlement & Access1 gapProbableconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Settlement runs through NIBSS as settlement system operator with the CBN as settlement agent (deferred net settlement, 4x daily for NIP), and NIBSS — owned by the CBN and Nigerian banks — coordinates clearing (single clearing house post-cheque-truncation) and the central anti-fraud infrastructure. Direct NIP membership is open to commercial banks, MFBs and MMOs. Correspondent-banking access improved following the October 2025 FATF delisting, and the CBN has expanded cross-border settlement access via PAPSS (FX sourcing from the official market, eased documentation) and the NRBVN platform. The 2024 bank recapitalisation (₦500bn for international-authorisation banks) is reshaping settlement-tier institutions. Open gap — wpm-int-4 No correspondent-banking access event sourced this cycle beyond the standing remittance-corridor structure. no under-indexing note recorded Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 199 words · last cycle 2026-10-18 #### Correspondent Banking, Settlement & Access The analytical spine of this module is the bank versus non-bank settlement-access asymmetry. NIBSS — owned by the CBN and Nigerian banks and incorporated under CAMA 2020 — is the payment-system operator and clearing coordinator, with the CBN acting as settlement agent using deferred net settlement (four times daily for NIP) and no FX hub or correspondent banks in the domestic settlement layer. Direct settlement membership is confined to 29 commercial banks; non-bank operators reach settlement only indirectly through the indirect-participant tier. NIBSS routes all inter-bank e-channel transactions through central anti-fraud solutions and can issue hold or post-no-debit instructions. Two developments are reshaping access tiers. Correspondent-banking access improved following the October 2025 FATF delisting, easing de-risking pressure on Nigerian banks. And the 28 March 2024 recapitalisation set ₦500bn minimum capital for international-authorisation banks (₦200bn national, ₦50bn regional), reshaping which institutions can hold international-authorisation settlement status. The direct/indirect split is precisely the bank-PSP versus non-bank access asymmetry that this module foregrounds. #### Outlook Settlement and access is escalating. The 2024 recapitalisation will continue to determine which institutions hold the top settlement tier, while the post-FATF correspondent-banking improvement is the principal positive structural shift for cross-border access. Read full sub-brief · 199 words Periodic update · new data 2026-09-28 #### Correspondent Banking, Settlement & Access The Central Bank of Nigeria has introduced a requirement that all financial institutions ensure Nigeria-generated payments transaction data is stored and managed within Nigeria, framed as consistent with domestic data-protection law. For correspondent-banking and settlement architecture, a domestic data-residency requirement of this kind has direct implications: any cross-border settlement or correspondent arrangement that relies on transaction data being processed or stored outside Nigeria would need to be restructured to comply, affecting the technical architecture underlying Nigeria's access to international payment rails. There is a genuine dating uncertainty in the underlying sourcing that should be flagged rather than resolved by assertion: one outlet reports a 2027 compliance horizon for this requirement, against an underlying circular dated to 2026. This inconsistency has not been resolved against primary CBN text this cycle, and the effective compliance deadline should be treated as an open question pending that primary-source confirmation. This data-localisation requirement sits within the module's analytical spine of bank-versus-non-bank access asymmetry: banks with established domestic data infrastructure are likely better positioned to comply quickly than smaller non-bank payment institutions and EMIs that may currently rely on offshore cloud or processing infrastructure, meaning the localisation requirement could have an uneven competitive impact across the bank-PSP and non-bank-PI/EMI populations even though it is written as a uniform obligation. #### Outlook Resolving the 2026-versus-2027 compliance-date discrepancy against primary CBN circular text is the immediate research priority. Beyond that, the practical effect on smaller non-bank payment institutions' correspondent and settlement access, given likely differential readiness to localise data infrastructure, is the development most worth tracking into the next cycle. 1 earlier distinct update(s) Periodic update · new data 2026-08-25 #### Correspondent Banking, Settlement & Access Nigeria's dependence on correspondent-banking and US-dollar intermediation for cross-border settlement was directly addressed this cycle by the Onafriq-PAPSS Nigeria-Ghana wallet corridor pilot, launched 3 February 2026 as a six-month, Central-Bank-approved pilot settling naira-to-cedi transfers instantly without US-dollar or euro intermediation. The pilot rests on the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System's local-currency netting infrastructure, which as of 2026 covers eighteen to nineteen African countries including Nigeria and settles intra-African payments via central-bank netting rather than correspondent-bank chains. The bank-versus-non-bank access asymmetry that typically defines correspondent-banking analysis is reframed, rather than resolved, by this development: PAPSS-based settlement reduces the corridor's dependence on correspondent-bank relationships and the US-dollar intermediation historically required to access them, which is of particular relevance to non-bank payment-service providers that have faced disproportionate difficulty securing or maintaining direct correspondent relationships compared with banks. Onafriq, a non-bank payments-infrastructure operator, is the named commercial party alongside PAPSS in this pilot, underscoring that the model is being tested through a non-bank access channel rather than through traditional bank-to-bank correspondent arrangements. #### Outlook Whether the local-currency netting model demonstrated in the Nigeria-Ghana pilot is extended to further corridors, and whether it measurably reduces Nigerian payment institutions' reliance on correspondent-bank relationships for African trade settlement specifically, are the developments to track following the pilot's six-month review point. Evidence 4 Sources and findings (4) - T2[https://www.africanenda.org/uploads/files/siips2025/siips_2025_NIP-Nigeria_CaseStudy_en.pdf](https://www.africanenda.org/uploads/files/siips2025/siips_2025_NIP-Nigeria_CaseStudy_en.pdf)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://srjlegal.com/fraud-monitoring-obligations-in-nigerias-payment-system/](https://srjlegal.com/fraud-monitoring-obligations-in-nigerias-payment-system/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T1[https://www.cbn.gov.ng/AboutCBN/Reforms.html](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/AboutCBN/Reforms.html)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.aneej.org/nigerias-exit-from-the-fatf-grey-list-a-new-chapter-for-financial-integrity/](https://www.aneej.org/nigerias-exit-from-the-fatf-grey-list-a-new-chapter-for-financial-integrity/)retrieved 2026-06-23 ### W13Commercial Intelligence (M&A, Investment & Product)limited signalProbableconfirmed 2026-06-23▾# Trailing-12-month commercial intelligence is dominated by fintech consolidation into banking. Flutterwave acquired open-banking startup Mono (completed December 2025, made public January 2026; all-stock, ~US$25–40m) and then secured a Nigerian national microfinance banking licence (April 2026). Paystack acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank (January 2026), rebranding it Paystack Microfinance Bank. Moniepoint secured a Visa investment (January 2025) following its October 2024 unicorn round. Ripple reportedly invested in Flutterwave's Series E to accelerate stablecoin payments. Standing sub-brief · as of 26 June 2026 288 words · last cycle 2026-10-25 #### Commercial Intelligence (M&A, Investment & Product) The trailing-12-month commercial cluster captures fintech consolidation into banking. Flutterwave acquired Nigerian open-banking startup Mono in an all-stock transaction reportedly valued between US$25m and US$40m; exact terms were not publicly disclosed; the deal completed in December 2025 and was made public in January 2026, with the rationale of consolidating open-banking and data-aggregation capability ahead of banking-licence expansion. Flutterwave then secured a Nigerian national microfinance banking licence — via the Mono acquisition — in April 2026, after crossing US$40bn in lifetime payments, allowing it to hold customer deposits and issue loans directly; this moves Flutterwave from payments-processor to deposit-taking bank, changing its safeguarding and prudential posture. Paystack — Stripe-owned and valued at around US$500m — acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank in January 2026 (value not publicly disclosed), rebranding it Paystack Microfinance Bank to offer business lending beyond its payments licence; a second major fintech acquiring a microfinance bank confirms consolidation-into-banking as a structural trend rather than a one-off. On the investment side, in January 2025 Moniepoint secured a strategic investment from Visa to accelerate continental expansion (amount not publicly disclosed), following its October 2024 US$110m unicorn round — Visa taking a stake in a leading Nigerian acquirer signals incumbent-scheme interest in African rails even as AfriGo competes domestically. Separately, Ripple reportedly invested in Flutterwave's Series E round to jointly accelerate stablecoin-based payment solutions across Africa (amount not publicly disclosed); this is reported and unconfirmed, carried at rumoured event status and Possible confidence. #### Outlook The commercial-intelligence cluster is escalating. The fintech-into-banking M&A pattern is the defining commercial dynamic; exact deal values across the cluster remain undisclosed, and the single-aggregator anchors behind the Ripple/Flutterwave and operations-separation items warrant corroboration before heavier-weight judgments are built on them. Read full sub-brief · 288 words Periodic update · new data 2026-10-25 #### Commercial Intelligence & Fintech The notable commercial event is JPMorgan's market entry into Nigeria via Central Bank of Nigeria approval-in-principle to establish JPMorgan Merchant Bank Nigeria Limited. The event status is pending regulatory, meaning approval-in-principle has been granted but full licensing has not yet been confirmed in reporting. The capital commitment and expected close date for this market entry have not been publicly disclosed. The entry follows Nigeria's bank recapitalisation exercise, which has been associated with a broader reshaping of the competitive landscape for banking and merchant-banking licences in the country, and represents the establishment of a dedicated Nigerian legal entity rather than a cross-border service arrangement. #### Outlook The amount and timeline for full licensing have not been disclosed; the next marker to track is confirmation of a full merchant-banking licence and any associated capital announcement. Evidence 5 Sources and findings (5) - T3[https://businessday.ng/technology/article/flutterwave-acquires-nigerias-mono-in-deal-worth-up-to-40m/](https://businessday.ng/technology/article/flutterwave-acquires-nigerias-mono-in-deal-worth-up-to-40m/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://techcabal.com/2026/04/02/flutterwave-mfb/](https://techcabal.com/2026/04/02/flutterwave-mfb/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://weetracker.com/2026/04/02/flutterwave-banking-license-africa-fintech-become-banks/](https://weetracker.com/2026/04/02/flutterwave-banking-license-africa-fintech-become-banks/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://fintechnews.africa/45002/fintech-nigeria/top-fintechs-in-nigeria/](https://fintechnews.africa/45002/fintech-nigeria/top-fintechs-in-nigeria/)retrieved 2026-06-23 - T3[https://www.paymentsafrica.news/](https://www.paymentsafrica.news/)retrieved 2026-06-23 No modules match. Filters combine as OR inside a group and AND across groups. 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