Nigerian president signs order on crypto rules, taxes
Nigerian president signs order establishing a virtual asset council to harmonize crypto regulation and taxes. The Friday executive order aims to close oversight gaps, coordinate financial agencies, and update digital-asset tax policy without creating a new regulator or shifting statutory powers between institutions.
Key Takeaways
- President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed an executive order to address fragmented digital asset regulation in Nigeria.
- A virtual asset council led by top financial regulators will direct related policies.
- The framework coordinates agencies; it does not create a new regulator or transfer powers.
- Nigeria’s tax authority will update digital asset policies after earlier TIN and NIN rules for crypto service providers.
- An IMF report said Nigeria drew about 60% of sub-Saharan Africa’s stablecoin inflows since 2019.
What did the Nigerian president’s crypto order do?
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has moved to tackle what his office called the fragmentation of digital asset regulation. According to special adviser Bayo Onanuga, the executive order signed on Friday would “harmonize the regulation of virtual assets, strengthen cooperation among the nation’s financial, revenue and capital markets agencies, protect citizens from fraud, and safeguard the integrity of the financial system while enabling responsible innovation.”
The order also established a virtual asset council headed by some of the country’s top financial regulators to direct related policies. Coverage in BlasterPost Fintech & Crypto Alerts and reporting from Cointelegraph outline the coordination push.
How will oversight and taxes change under the order?
Onanuga stressed that the order does not create a new regulator or transfer powers between agencies. Each institution keeps its full statutory mandate and independence; the framework coordinates their work rather than replacing it.
Registration will follow the nature of the activity and the asset involved, closing gaps that previously let unregistered operators escape oversight. Nigeria’s tax authority, the Nigerian Revenue Service, is to update policies on digital assets and provide further details on taxpayer effects.
Authorities had already signaled reforms in January. Under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act, crypto service providers were required to link transactions to tax identification numbers and, in some cases, national identification numbers.
Why does Nigeria’s crypto framework matter now?
Nigeria has seen some of the strongest digital asset adoption growth in Africa, spanning cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. A June International Monetary Fund report said the country accounted for about 60% of stablecoin inflows within sub-Saharan Africa since 2019 and had about $59 billion in crypto inflows between July 2023 and June 2024.
The IMF framed the policy challenge as narrowing the gap that made workarounds in cross-border payments attractive while containing new risks. That, it said, requires a clear strategy open to innovation but anchored in sound macroeconomic policy and effective regulation—the balance Nigeria’s new order seeks to strike.