The CBN released its Payments System Vision 2028 (PSV 2028) on June 1, 2026, with Governor Yemi Cardoso presenting the framework outlining how money moves into, out of, and within Nigeria by the end of the decade. The word "stablecoin" appears at least 68 times in the document, reflecting how central the technology has become to the bank's thinking. The plan targets lifting formal financial inclusion to 95 percent of Nigerian adults by 2028. Nigeria's formal financial inclusion rate currently stands at approximately 64 percent, up from 56 percent in 2020; the PSV 2028 document references an earlier benchmark of approximately 52 percent as its internal baseline. The plan identifies regulated stablecoins as a key instrument for closing the remaining gap.

From Ban to Blueprint

In February 2021, the CBN banned banks from serving cryptocurrency exchanges, citing money laundering risks and capital flight concerns. By December 2023, the bank had reversed course, permitting banks to open accounts for licensed crypto firms. In March 2025, President Bola Tinubu signed the Investments and Securities Act, formally recognizing digital assets as securities under Nigerian law and designating the Securities and Exchange Commission as the primary regulatory body for digital assets.

PSV 2028 goes further still, treating stablecoins not as an asset class to be regulated around, but as infrastructure to be built upon.

The CBN's position in the document is explicit: "When fully backed by fiat reserves, such tokens function as on-chain representations of sovereign currency."

What the Framework Requires

PSV 2028 proposes a licensing regime for stablecoin issuers that sets a high compliance bar. Issuers must hold 100 percent of reserves in high-quality fiat assets, conduct daily reserve attestations, and submit to monthly audits. The most technically novel requirement is the "regtech node." Any blockchain network hosting CBN-approved stablecoins in Nigeria would need to run a smart contract interface granting the central bank real-time regulatory visibility into on-chain activity. For developers and infrastructure operators, this in effect means building CBN observer access into the network as a condition of participating in the Nigerian market, at least as the draft framework currently reads.

The document also proposes a Nigeria Settlement Cloud that would connect domestic payment systems, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the eNaira, SWIFT, and trade platforms. PSV 2028 is structured around five explicit pillars: strengthening payment infrastructure, deepening financial inclusion, fostering innovation, facilitating cross-border transactions, and safeguarding financial system integrity. The eNaira, the CBN's own central bank digital currency, is being repositioned within this plan away from retail consumer use (where adoption has been limited) and toward serving as a settlement layer for cross-border trade corridors alongside regulated stablecoins.

The Numbers Behind the Shift

Nigeria's existing stablecoin market is large enough to justify a dedicated regulatory framework. Between July 2024 and June 2025, Nigeria received an estimated $92.1 billion in crypto-asset value, with stablecoins accounting for more than 65 percent of those inflows, according to Chainalysis data. Nigeria accounts for roughly 60 percent of all stablecoin inflows into Sub-Saharan Africa. Among Nigerian crypto users, 59 percent hold USDT (Tether, primarily on the TRON network) and 48 percent hold USDC (Circle), according to the BVNK 2026 Stablecoin Utility Report. Nigeria also ranks sixth globally for TRON-based USDT activity, underscoring how deeply dollar-pegged instruments have taken hold in the market. That same report found that 95 percent of survey respondents preferred receiving payments in stablecoins over local currency.

The domestic naira-backed stablecoin, cNGN, issued by WrappedCBDC and launched in February 2025, had about 4,805 wallets holding a combined 2.3 billion naira in circulation as of June 12, 2026. That is a small footprint relative to the broader market, though daily transaction volumes did surpass 1 billion naira on a single day in August 2025. CBN validation of the stablecoin model through PSV 2028 could support cNGN's growth, but the naira's history of volatility and the entrenched preference for dollar-pegged instruments make that outcome uncertain.

On remittances, PSV 2028 targets reducing the cost of sending $200 to Nigeria to below 5 percent. The current global average sits at 6.49 percent, and the Sub-Saharan Africa average is 8.78 percent, per World Bank data. Nigeria receives roughly $21 billion in annual remittances. Stablecoin transfers, which can cost pennies per transaction, are central to the CBN's plan for hitting that cost target.

Regional Significance and IMF Alignment

The timing of PSV 2028 is notable. The IMF's Article IV Consultation for Nigeria, released June 9, 2026, independently urged the country to bring stablecoins and other crypto assets into its regulatory perimeter. The Fund warned that unregulated growth in stablecoin use "could undermine monetary policy, financial stability, and capital flow management." The near-simultaneous release of a CBN framework and an IMF recommendation pointing in the same direction gives the CBN political cover to move forward and strengthens Nigeria's position in ongoing IMF program discussions.

Compared to peers on the continent, Nigeria's framework is the most architecturally specific. South Africa leads on licensing volume, with more than 300 crypto asset service provider approvals issued by late 2025. Kenya passed its Virtual Asset Service Providers Act in October 2025 and eliminated a 3 percent digital asset tax in July 2025. Ghana passed its own VASP legislation in 2025 and is exploring gold-backed stablecoins. None of those frameworks, however, include anything comparable to the regtech node requirement or the direct integration with regional settlement infrastructure that PSV 2028 proposes.

What Comes Next

The framework is a policy document, not binding law yet. Translating its provisions into enforceable regulation will likely require the CBN to publish detailed licensing guidelines, engage stablecoin issuers on the regtech node specifications, and address questions about how the CBN and SEC will coordinate where the payments framework and the VASP framework overlap.

For foreign issuers like Tether and Circle, the question of whether to establish Nigerian regulatory relationships or cede market share to licensed domestic alternatives is now squarely on the table. Neither company has made a public statement in response to PSV 2028.

On-chain figures for cNGN circulation are sourced from TechCabal reporting dated June 12, 2026. Readers seeking real-time data can verify current supply at cngn.co or through supported block explorers.