Nigeria’s Crypto Reforms Leave Key Regulatory Gaps

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu signed an executive order in mid-2026 aimed at unifying oversight of the country’s fragmented digital asset sector, but financial law professor Iwa Salami argues significant gaps remain. The order creates a Virtual Asset Council and a Virtual Asset Office within the Central Bank to improve coordination between regulators, whose conflicting mandates have long created confusion over how crypto-assets are classified and supervised. Salami notes the order doesn’t address decentralized exchanges, largely ignores the growing use of stablecoins, and does nothing to curb dollarization, since most stablecoins are pegged to the US dollar. It also fails to address emerging risks from AI-driven “agentic commerce.” Because the measure is an executive order rather than legislation, it could also be reversed by a future administration. Salami says Nigeria must adopt clearer asset classifications, stronger international cooperation, and activity-based regulation to create a stable, future-ready digital asset ecosystem.