Crypto20 July, 20262 min read
Bola Ahmed Tinubu Signs Executive Order Creating Nigeria’s Virtual Asset Council
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Tinubu signed an executive order establishing a CBN-led Virtual Asset Council to harmonize crypto regulation. Council chaired by the Central Bank coordinates cross-agency oversight of digital assets.
Tinubu signs crypto order
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria signed an executive order on Friday to “harmonize the regulation of virtual assets,” strengthen cooperation among financial, revenue and capital markets agencies, and protect citizens from fraud. The order also established a virtual asset council headed by some of the nation’s top financial regulators, while Nigeria’s tax authority was directed to update its policies on digital assets.
Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu’s special adviser, said the order “does not create a new regulator or transfer powers between agencies,” adding that each institution retains its full statutory mandate and independence. The executive order points to a regulatory challenge tied to stablecoins, with an IMF June report cited in the coverage saying Nigeria 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.
CBN-led council timeline
The Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, dated July 17, 2026 in the coverage, created a formal council to govern the sector and gave it 30 days from the signing date to produce a harmonized implementation framework. Crypto Briefing described the Virtual Asset Council as chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria, with the Nigeria Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission among its supporting members.
The same coverage said responsibilities are split so the SEC takes charge of securities-related virtual asset activities while the CBN handles non-securities services, which it said covers most of the payment and transfer activity that dominates everyday crypto use in Nigeria. Crypto Briefing also said the order calls for a regulatory sandbox, a controlled environment where new products and services can be tested under regulatory supervision without immediately triggering the full weight of compliance requirements.
Tax, sandbox, and enforcement
The executive order framed enforcement around curbing fraud, money laundering, and terrorism financing, and it identified unregistered operators as a specific vulnerability for follow-up licensing requirements. Cryptonews.net | Western Alternative said Nigeria’s tax authority would update its policies on digital assets, and it also noted that in January authorities said crypto service providers were required under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act to link transactions to tax identification numbers and, in some cases, national identification numbers.
FinanceFeeds added that the decree creates no new regulator and does not transfer powers between existing entities, while it pairs the council with a regulatory sandbox and a Nigeria Revenue Service tax policy and a White Paper on virtual assets. FinanceFeeds also cited an IMF warning that dollar-backed tokens were testing Nigeria’s monetary framework, noting the country accounts for about 60% of stablecoin inflows in Sub-Saharan Africa since 2019, and it described the 30-day deadline as the first indication of whether five agencies with distinct mandates can supervise a market that developed in regulatory gaps.