By Gabriel Ani
ABUJA, Nigeria (XOL Africa) — President Bola Tinubu has signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026, establishing a coordinated framework for regulating Nigeria’s virtual assets sector in a move aimed at strengthening oversight, protecting consumers and supporting responsible innovation.
The presidency announced Friday that the order, signed under Section 5 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), takes immediate effect and is intended to address regulatory fragmentation as digital assets increasingly blur the traditional distinctions between currencies, money, commodities and securities.
According to the presidency, the new framework is designed to improve cooperation among financial, revenue and capital market regulators without creating a new regulatory agency or altering the statutory powers of existing institutions.
The statement said Nigeria’s current regulatory structure had left gaps that exposed the country to financial crimes and consumer fraud.
“With relevant agencies operating in silos, overlapping in some areas and leaving gaps in others, the country has been exposed to risks, including money laundering, terrorism financing, cybersecurity and data privacy threats, fraud, and revenue losses,” presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said in a statement.
“Too often, unregistered and fraudulent operators have exploited these gaps to prey on unsuspecting Nigerians, costing families their savings.”
The statement added that the executive order “is designed to close these gaps through supervisory coordination, without introducing new layers of regulation or displacing the mandates of existing agencies.”
Under the order, a new Virtual Asset Council will coordinate regulatory oversight across government institutions. The council will be chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) serving as vice-chairs. Other members include the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
The council will provide policy direction, strengthen collaboration among participating agencies and work with the Attorney-General of the Federation to develop a harmonised legal and institutional framework aligned with Nigeria’s national security, economic and social objectives.
The order also establishes a Virtual Asset Office, which will serve as the council’s operational arm and will be headquartered at the CBN. The office will coordinate information sharing, applications and reporting among participating agencies through an integrated supervisory technology platform while allowing each agency to retain control of its own data.
The presidency stressed that the executive order does not establish a new regulator or transfer statutory authority between agencies.
Instead, regulatory responsibility will continue to depend on the nature of the virtual asset or service. Securities-related virtual assets will remain under the supervision of the SEC, while payment, settlement, custody and other non-security virtual asset services will fall under the CBN’s oversight. The council will resolve any disputes where regulatory jurisdiction is unclear.
“This closes the gaps through which unregistered operators have previously escaped oversight,” the presidency said.
As part of the new framework, the Central Bank of Nigeria will also introduce a regulatory sandbox that will allow eligible companies to test virtual asset products, blockchain technologies and related services under regulatory supervision before wider market deployment.
According to the presidency, the sandbox will enable regulators to assess potential impacts on monetary sovereignty, financial stability, market integrity, consumer protection, financial inclusion and revenue administration before new products become widely available.
The CBN is expected to announce further details of the sandbox programme.
The Nigerian Revenue Service will also publish a tax policy for virtual assets to clarify how existing tax laws apply to the sector. The presidency said the policy is intended to improve tax certainty for operators, encourage voluntary compliance and ensure the rapidly expanding industry contributes appropriately to government revenue.
In addition, the Federal Government said it is finalising a comprehensive Virtual Assets White Paper that will outline Nigeria’s long-term policy direction and implementation priorities for the sector.
The Virtual Asset Council has been directed to produce a Harmonised Implementation Framework within 30 days to guide participating agencies and accelerate implementation of the executive order.
