…Constitutes Council To Harmonise Crypto Regulations
President Bola Tinubu has signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026 pursuant to Section 5 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which now establishes a new supervisory architecture to harmonise the regulation of virtual assets in Nigeria.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, in a statement signed on Friday indicated that the order, which takes immediate effect, closed the regulatory gaps that had hitherto allowed fraudulent operators to prey on unsuspecting Nigerians and now positioned Nigeria to benefit from responsible innovation in the increasing evolving global digital economy.
According to him, the order is a response to a regulatory environment that has become fragmented as virtual assets increasingly blur the traditional boundaries between currencies, money, commodities and securities.
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The President’s aide, noted that with relevant agencies operating in silos, overlapping in some areas and leaving gaps in others, the country had been exposed to risks including money laundering, terrorism financing, cybersecurity and data privacy threats, fraud, and revenue losses.
He added that too often, unregistered and fraudulent operators had exploited these gaps to prey on unsuspecting Nigerians, costing families their savings.
Onanuga stated that to address this problem, the order established a Virtual Asset Council 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, alongside the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) as members.
Based on its mandate, the council will provide policy direction, promote synergy among the 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 creates a Virtual Asset Office as the council’s operational body, with its secretariat domiciled at the CBN and will be responsible for the day-to-day coordination of information sharing, applications and reporting among the agencies, supported by an integrated supervisory technology platform that provides shared visibility while preserving each agency’s ownership and control of its data.
Onanuga stated the order did not create a new regulator or transfer powers between existing agencies and that “each institution retains its full statutory mandate and independence, and the framework coordinates their work rather than replacing it.”
On registration, the order provided that activities involving securities would be registered by the SEC, while payment, settlement, custody and related services involving non-security virtual assets will be registered by the CBN.
The order stipulated that the council would resolve any case in which responsibility cannot be readily determined, closing the gaps through which unregistered operators have previously escaped oversight, and that CBN had already proceeded with a regulatory sandbox for virtual assets under the new framework.
The President’s spokesperson stated that the sandbox would provide a controlled environment in which eligible operators can test virtual asset products, services and blockchain-based solutions under close supervision, enabling the participating agencies to assess the implications for monetary sovereignty, financial stability, market integrity, consumer protection, financial inclusion and revenue administration before any product reaches the wider market.
He further clarified that the CBN would announce further details of the sandbox while the Nigeria Revenue Service would specifically release a tax policy for the virtual assets sector, providing greater certainty for taxpayers and service providers, strengthening voluntary compliance and ensuring that the sector contributes fairly to national revenue as it grows.
Onanuga added: “The NRS will provide further details. The Federal Government is also finalising a comprehensive Virtual Assets White Paper, which will set out the country’s longer-term policy direction and implementation priorities and serve as a roadmap for stakeholders across the sector.
“The Council has been directed to develop a Harmonised Implementation Framework within 30 days to guide the participating agencies in giving effect to the Order and to ensure its expedited implementation”, he stated.
