Nigeria's House of Representatives held a public hearing on March 2 for a bill that would create a single body to oversee the country's entire fintech sector. The proposed Nigerian Fintech Regulatory Commission (NFRC), introduced by Hon. Fuad Kayode Laguda (House Bill 2389), cleared its second reading in October 2025 and is now before five joint House committees. If enacted, the commission would consolidate licensing and supervisory authority currently scattered across six federal agencies: the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Information Technology Development Agency, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service. The timing matters: Nigeria's fintech sector grew 70% in 2025, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria. The country accounts for 28% of all fintech companies on the African continent, according to a 2024 European Investment Bank report.

The stated goal is simpler compliance. Today, a Nigerian fintech company may answer to the CBN for payment processing, the Securities and Exchange Commission for any virtual asset activity, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission for user data, the National Information Technology Development Agency for digital governance requirements, and the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission for lending practices. Laguda framed the proposed commission as a fix for that sprawl. "The commission will enable operators to relate with one primary authority, thereby improving ease of doing business rather than navigating multiple regulators," he said at the hearing, according to Daily Trust. House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas echoed that framing, calling the NFRC a "complementary mechanism" designed to "streamline processes, eliminate regulatory overlap and reduce barriers" rather than compete with existing institutions.

The problem is what the bill does not eliminate. A provision in the current draft requires all fintech operators to obtain an NFRC license even if they already hold valid licenses from the CBN or the SEC. For crypto and Web3 companies, that creates a potential three-layer licensing stack. Nigeria's Investment and Securities Act 2025, enacted just last year, already classified virtual assets as securities and placed all Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) under SEC supervision. Because the law is recent, the licensing framework it created is still embryonic: as of early 2026, only two Nigerian crypto firms, Quidax and Busha, have received even provisional SEC licenses, while the minimum paid-up capital requirement for crypto exchanges sits at 500 million naira (roughly $325,000 USD). An NFRC license added on top of that framework would mean a third approval process, a third compliance calendar, and a third set of ongoing reporting obligations. Legal analysts at Olaniwun Ajayi LP, writing for Mondaq, concluded that without significant amendments to existing statutes, the bill risks producing overlaps, bureaucracy, and uncertainty that could discourage innovation and investment.

Stakeholders at the March 2 hearing broadly supported creating the commission but pressed lawmakers on exactly this point. Mojisola Ologe, Chief Compliance Officer at Hydrogen Payment Services, welcomed formal recognition of the fintech sector while urging legislators to "clearly define the commission's jurisdiction" to prevent "conflicting compliance obligations and higher regulatory costs." Obioha Otto, Acting National Chairman of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN), also addressed the committee, calling for legislative reform that keeps pace with technological evolution and reflects the operational realities of agent banking networks across the country. Committee Chairman Hon. Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo acknowledged these concerns, cautioning that harmonization with existing regulators is essential to avoid jurisdictional conflicts. The bill also includes structural mandates for fintech firms, according to Mondaq's analysis of the draft legislation: dedicated compliance teams, in-house legal counsel, continuous technology audits, and demonstrated Nigerian participation in ownership and management. That last requirement could complicate foreign-backed ventures and diaspora-founded startups seeking to operate in the market.

The legislative push reflects a genuine problem in Nigerian fintech governance. A major enforcement action in April 2024, when regulators halted multiple fintech firms over gaps in know-your-customer, anti-money-laundering, and transaction monitoring controls, exposed how fragmented oversight produced inconsistent enforcement. The Senate has pursued a parallel track: Senator Adetokunbo Abiru has led debate on amendments to the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, proposed in December 2025, that would designate large fintechs as systemically important institutions. Proponents cited concerns that some now operate at scales rivaling mid-sized banks, and that offshore servers and opaque ownership structures create national security risks.

Nigeria's fintech market was valued at approximately $527 million in 2024 and is projected to reach $4.24 billion by 2033, representing a compound annual growth rate near 15.8%, according to IMARC Group. The country's 430-plus fintech companies operate in a market where roughly half of industry participants cite weak ecosystem interoperability as a core constraint, per a February 2026 CBN fintech review. No Nigeria-specific on-chain transaction volume or decentralized finance total value locked figures are currently segmented by major analytics platforms such as DefiLlama, making the pace of formal VASP licensing one of the few publicly trackable metrics for the sector's regulatory trajectory. How lawmakers resolve the jurisdictional overlap question in the coming weeks will determine whether the NFRC becomes the consolidation tool its sponsors intend or adds yet another layer to one of Africa's most complex regulatory stacks. The bill remains in committee, with no vote currently scheduled.