By Bassey Udo
A new report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem has outlined the priorities needed to sustain innovation, strengthen system integrity, and support the next phase of digital financial system growth in the country.
The report, which is a comprehensive assessment of Nigeria’s fintech landscape, examines the scale and maturity of Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem and highlighted the country’s leadership in real-time payments and the structural factors shaping recent growth.
Also, the report positions fintech innovation as a complementary force within the country’s financial system, expanding access, efficiency, and reach, while preserving stability and resilience.
Informed by surveys and extensive stakeholder engagement, the report outlines practical policy directions to improve regulatory coordination, strengthen supervisory capability, and support responsible innovation, including cross-border scale.
Besides, the report underscores interoperability, proportional regulation, and effective execution as critical enablers of sustainable ecosystem development.
A statement by the apex bank said on Monday that the publication forms part of an ongoing series through which the CBN would continue to engage the financial sector, provide clearer regulatory direction, and support more coordinated execution.
The Bank said this was intended to serve as a shared reference point for banks, fintech firms, regulators, infrastructure providers, investors, and partners as Nigeria consolidates its position within the regional and global fintech landscape.
Identifying Nigeria as one of Africa’s leading fintech ecosystems, the report the country’s profound status was supported by regulatory reforms, digital payments infrastructure, and a growing innovation community.
The CBN said the report was developed through extensive stakeholder consultation and supported by a nationwide Fintech ecosystem survey, assessed the current state of Nigeria’s fintech environment, identifies strategic priorities, and outlines policy pathways to guide the next phase of development.
Identifying compelling opportunities in the system, the report said Nigeria can lead not just in adoption, but in the design of the global fintech future, provided it enhances collaboration between regulators and innovators, strengthen infrastructure and policy reforms, and communicates progress with clarity.
Emerging insights from the CBN, the report said, showed several priorities for the next phase of ecosystem development, including rising interest in sovereign digital asset frameworks, discussed at an illustrative and exploratory level only, as part of broader conversations on reducing FX leakage and strengthening formal remittance channels.
The report said more than 25% of all electronic transactions in Nigeria today are processed via real-time payment channels and through the NIBSS NIP platform,with close to 11 billion transactions processed in 2024, up from 5 billion transactions in 2022.
The progress, which has placed Nigeria among the top adopters of fintech globally and a clear leader on the African continent, the report said, aligns with the Payments System Vision 2025, which sets a target for achieving near-universal e-payment penetration by 2030.
Despite its achievements, the report said Nigeria faces an enduring reputational burden linked to digital fraud, which poses a real and evolving challenge, driven by a combination of domestic criminal activity and cross-border actors exploiting global digital platforms.
While some fraudulent schemes are perpetrated locally, the report said recent law-enforcement cooperation and prosecutions has provided significant deterrence to digital financial crimes.
Following coordinated national reforms and enhanced supervisory enforcement, the report said Nigeria recently exited the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) “grey list”, marking a significant milestone in restoring international confidence and reducing compliance frictions for cross-border finance.
The report identified three top-level objectives to guide Nigeria’s fintech strategy, including the need to enable innovation-friendly regulation, by streamlining approval processes, increasing regulatory clarity, and deploying supervisory technology (SupTech) to reduce friction.
Also, the report stressed the need to advance financial inclusion through digital infrastructure, by improving the cost and reliability of API access to national identity systems, strengthening interoperability across digital platforms, and enhancing infrastructure resilience to bridge last-mile gaps.
In addition, the report called for the strengthening of system integrity and reputation, by modernising consumer protection, enhancing AML supervision, and communicating reform outcomes.
With these objectives in focus, and consistent with the
Central Bank’s publicly stated commitment to disciplined
reform, financial integrity, and evidence-based policy implementation, the report outlines multiple policy initiatives, including a dedicated CBN–fintech engagement platform, a compliance-as-a-service model, a fintech credit guarantee scheme, expansion of open banking, and the piloting of regional passporting agreements.