Nigeria's president signed an executive order on crypto regulation and taxes this week, centralizing oversight under a new virtual asset council. The directive directly tackles the fragmentation that has long left the country's digital-asset sector straddling multiple agencies with conflicting rules. For an African market that consistently ranks among the world's top adopters, the order signals a deliberate shift toward structure and enforcement.
Fragmented oversight gets a single body
Until now, crypto firms in Nigeria answered to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the central bank, and the tax authority — often at the same time, with different demands. The order establishes a virtual asset council that will coordinate policy across those agencies, giving the industry a single point of regulatory contact. That's a change many local exchanges have been asking for since the central bank's 2021 ban on bank-to-crypto transactions was later relaxed but never fully clarified.
A council with broad authority
The council's mandate covers both oversight and enforcement. It will set licensing standards, monitor compliance, and recommend tax treatment for digital assets. The White House-style directive doesn't lay out a detailed tax code — that will come from the council's work with the finance ministry — but it does make clear that the government intends to treat crypto transactions as taxable events. The exact rate and structure remain open questions.
Tax clarity on the way
Tax has been a major headache for Nigerian crypto users. The country's income tax law was written long before Bitcoin, and the Value Added Tax Act doesn't mention digital assets. The executive order explicitly instructs the Federal Inland Revenue Service to work with the new council on guidelines. That process could take months, but the direction is clear: Nigeria wants to tax crypto, and it wants to do it in a way that doesn't drive the industry further underground.
What happens next
The council is expected to be formed within 60 days, with members drawn from the SEC, central bank, tax authority, and the National Information Technology Development Agency. The first task will be drafting a unified rulebook for exchanges and wallet providers. The market is watching closely — Nigeria's younger population has flocked to crypto for remittances and savings, and any regulatory shift could either boost confidence or push activity back to peer-to-peer channels. The next concrete step is the council's inaugural meeting, which the order says must happen by late September.
