Nigeria’s central bank has opened applications for the second cohort of its regulatory sandbox, giving virtual asset operators, fintechs and other digital finance companies a supervised space to test products before applying for a full licence. Applications opened on August 12 and close August 31.
The programme runs on two tracks. The first, for Virtual Asset Service Providers, covers stablecoins, payment and settlement services, custody platforms, wallets and related infrastructure. The second track supports companies that use secure digital infrastructure and permission-based data sharing to improve payments, credit assessment, risk management and financial inclusion more broadly.
Regulatory oversight is split by function rather than by company. The CBN supervises virtual assets used for payment activities, while the Securities and Exchange Commission regulates digital assets that function as securities. Companies accepted into the sandbox have to meet standards for consumer protection, cybersecurity, operational resilience and regulatory reporting, and the CBN has been explicit that a sandbox spot is not a licence to operate outside the approved testing parameters.
