President Bola Tinubu signed a Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination on Friday, immediately establishing a new federal council to oversee crypto regulation across Nigeria's agencies. The order takes effect upon signature.
The Virtual Asset Council will be chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria, with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Inland Revenue Service as vice-chairs. The Presidency stated the order creates no new regulator and transfers no powers between existing agencies, framing it instead as a coordination mechanism.
The executive order directs the establishment of a regulatory sandbox and a dedicated crypto tax policy framework. Nigeria hosts Africa's largest crypto market by trading volume and user base. The council has 30 days to submit an implementation plan detailing how the sandbox will operate and how the tax regime will function.
The order designates coordination between the CBN, SEC, and revenue authorities, which have overlapping claims over crypto assets in Nigeria. A sandbox allows firms to test services under relaxed rules and regulatory oversight before full deployment, a model adopted by jurisdictions from Singapore to El Salvador to manage emerging financial activity.
The council structure names three sitting regulators as its leadership, avoiding the appointment of new officials and sidestepping questions about budget or staffing. Implementation deadlines and sandbox rules remain unwritten pending the council's 30-day submission.
