Nigeria has launched a regulatory sandbox for virtual asset operators, fintechs, financial institutions, and technology companies, marking the latest step in the country’s push to coordinate oversight of the country’s fast-growing digital finance ecosystem.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Tuesday that applications for Cohort 2 of its Regulatory Sandbox Programme will open on August 12 and close on August 31.
The new programme includes a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) track for companies offering stablecoins, payment and settlement services, custody, wallets, and related financial infrastructure solutions. It also includes a second Data-Enabled Financial Services (Non-VASP) track for firms using secure digital infrastructure and permission-based data sharing to improve payments, credit, risk management, operational efficiency, and financial inclusion.
The sandbox marks Nigeria’s latest move to regulate the virtual asset industry. The CBN will now oversee virtual assets used for payments, including stablecoins, payment, settlement, custody, wallet management, and other transaction-based infrastructure services. The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will oversee digital assets that behave like securities.
The CBN began testing its supervisory approach in March with a pilot involving selected fintechs, including Flutterwave, Paystack, and Juicyway, to assess the stability of payment and cross-border transaction infrastructure linked to stablecoins under closer regulatory monitoring. With the new sandbox, the CBN now has a complementary testing framework alongside the SEC’s Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP), which admitted nine digital asset-based investment companies in July.
The CBN regulatory sandbox is expected to focus on stablecoin providers, on- and off-ramp companies, payment processors, settlement infrastructure operators, custody platforms, wallet-service providers, and other financial infrastructure firms that support the movement, storage, and conversion of digital assets.
“The CBN Regulatory Sandbox provides a controlled environment in which eligible participants may test innovative financial products, services, business models, and enabling technologies under the supervision of the Central Bank,” Sidi-Ali Hakama, CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, said in a statement seen by TechCabal. “The programme enables the CBN and innovators to engage constructively throughout the testing process, supporting regulatory learning while encouraging responsible innovation that benefits consumers and the wider financial system.”
The move follows President Bola Tinubu’s July 18 Executive Order to establish a harmonised regulatory authority under the Virtual Asset Council, which the CBN now chairs. As part of that committee, the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS)—which released a tax framework for virtual assets on August 3—and the SEC serve as vice-chairs. Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) serve as the other members of the council.
The council evolved from a virtual assets white paper in February that proposed a coordinated oversight framework led by the CBN, SEC, and NRS, with the July executive order formalising and modifying that structure.
The order was created to harmonise regulation across agencies, close supervisory gaps, strengthen anti-money laundering controls, improve consumer protection, and reduce fraud in a market that has grown rapidly with limited coordinated oversight.
Following the establishment of the council, an inaugural meeting was held at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, on July 29, signalling that implementation has moved beyond policy design into active institutional coordination.
Nigeria remains one of the world’s most active cryptocurrency markets. According to Chainalysis, Nigerians transacted about $92.1 billion in cryptocurrencies between July 2024 and June 2025, making it Africa’s largest virtual assets market by transaction volume. Stablecoins are becoming a bigger part of payments and remittances, as fintechs build infrastructure around stablecoin-based payment rails.
The CBN said participation in the sandbox does not amount to a licence or authorisation to operate beyond approved testing parameters. Successful applicants will be required to comply with safeguards covering consumer protection, operational resilience, cybersecurity, and regulatory reporting.
“The launch of Cohort 2 reflects the CBN’s continued commitment to developing a transparent, proportionate, and risk-based regulatory environment that fosters innovation while preserving monetary and financial stability,” Hakama said in the statement.
“Insights from supervised testing will help deepen regulatory understanding of emerging technologies and inform the ongoing development of regulatory and supervisory frameworks for Nigeria’s evolving digital financial ecosystem.”
For crypto operators, the immediate milestone is the application window. It will provide eligible virtual asset companies their first opportunity to enter the CBN’s supervised testing environment under Nigeria’s newly coordinated virtual assets regime.
True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
