VASPA's Statement on the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026 and the Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulation Bill, 2026 (SB 956)
On 17 July 2026, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026, establishing a Virtual Asset Council to harmonize oversight of Nigeria’s digital asset ecosystem. The Order takes immediate effect. It follows the advancement of the Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulation Bill, 2026 (SB 956) to second reading in the Senate in June, now under review by the Senate Committee on Capital Market.
The Imperative: Why Your Data is Vital Now
These developments are not surprises. They are the regulatory reckoning that Nigeria’s virtual asset industry has needed — and that VASPA, through Project Green-White-Green, has been advocating in principle, and has always indicated readiness to support. The Executive Order’s stated purpose — to close regulatory gaps through supervisory coordination, without displacing the mandates of existing agencies — is precisely the architecture our engagement with the CBN, SEC, NRS, and NFIU has been designed to reinforce.
What the Executive Order Does
The Executive Order creates a Virtual Asset Council chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as vice-chairs. It establishes a Virtual Asset Office within the CBN to serve as the Council’s operational secretariat. Existing regulators retain their full statutory powers. The mechanism is one of coordination, not displacement.
This is the right design. Nigeria’s challenge has largely been a shortage of regulatory coherence, not a shortage of regulatory will. A multi-regulatory council that brings fiscal, capital market, and intelligence oversight into a shared operational framework is the beginning of the resolution that operators, investors, and regulators alike have waited for.
Where SB 956 Stands — and Why It Matters
The Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulation Bill, 2026 (SB 956), sponsored by Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau, has passed its second reading and is now before the Senate Committee on Capital Market. It proposes mandatory licensing, transparency, and compliance requirements for all VASP categories operating in Nigeria.
The bill has not yet been passed into law. Committee review, third reading, and the full legislative process remain. This moment is the most consequential window in the bill’s journey and it is the stage at which definitions are sharpened, obligations are calibrated, and implementation frameworks are designed. VASPA, actively aware of the national interest and the legitimate needs of VASPs in the market, is well-positioned to contribute to that process constructively. In the same spirit that has guided our work since inception, especially following the launch of Project Green-White-Green and the inauguration of our new leadership in April: technical precision offered in good faith, not necessarily exemptions sought on the industry’s behalf.
VASPA's Role in What Comes Next
The Project Green-White-Green launched in April 2026 with a single governing premise: that Nigeria’s regulators have legitimate concerns, and that the industry’s obligation is to meet those concerns with technical precision, not deflection. Our nine published policy recommendations — covering market integrity, national security, and fiscal sovereignty — were designed to serve the very framework that has now been formally announced by the Presidency.
The Virtual Asset Council reflects the kind of inter-agency coordination our recommendations have consistently pointed toward. The legislative process behind SB 956 is one we will be following closely. Neither development changes our direction as both affirm the relevance of the work already ongoing.
Understanding that implementation is key, VASPA is fully poised to collaborate with the new Virtual Asset Council’s operational secretariat, the Senate Committee on Capital Market, and all relevant regulatory principals. Together, Nigeria must build the level of trust that the sector and the nation needs to grow and thrive sustainably.
“Nigeria has, in the space of weeks, produced an executive coordination mechanism and advanced its first comprehensive VASP legislation. That is meaningful regulatory momentum. The question now is not whether regulation is coming — it is whether the framework that emerges will be one that regulators can enforce, operators can comply with, and users can trust. That outcome requires industry participation at the design stage. It requires the kind of structured, evidence-based engagement that VASPA was built to provide.”
As engagements kick off in the coming days and weeks, our members and partners will be briefed directly through The Meridian, our policy newsletter, and through the ongoing Project Green-White-Green programme schedule.
We are ready. We are engaged. And we remain committed to a Nigeria where responsible virtual asset innovation and effective regulatory oversight are not in tension — but in partnership.
Franklin Peters
Executive Chair, Virtual Asset Service Providers Association (VASPA)
Favour Uche
Project Manager, Project Green-White-Green
Project Green-White-Green is VASPA’s flagship regulatory engagement initiative. For enquiries: projectgwg@vaspa.org | www.vaspa.org
