title: Nigeria — Stablecoins & Digital Money | World Payments Monitor canonical: https://payments.gi/jurisdictions/nigeria/w2/ publisher: Asymmetric Intelligence ### W2 Stablecoins & Digital Money 1 gap Confirmed confirmed 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. Open gap — wpm-int-2 No new stablecoin-regime development for Nigeria identified this cycle._no under-indexing note recorded_ 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. no periodic updates on record for this sub-brief ** Sources and findings (5)** 1. T1 Investments and Securities Act 2025 (signed 29 Mar 2025); SEC Nigeria as digital-asset regulator (sec.gov.ng) 2. T1 SEC Nigeria — Amended Digital Assets Rules (publ. 16 Dec 2024, eff. 30 Jun 2025) (sec.gov.ng) 3. T1 SEC Nigeria — ARIP Framework for onboarding VASPs (12-month AIP) (sec.gov.ng) 4. 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]) 5. T1 [https://www.cbn.gov.ng/AboutCBN/Reforms.html](https://www.cbn.gov.ng/AboutCBN/Reforms.html) retrieved 2026-06-23