ABUJA, NIGERIA—July 4, 2026—The Virtual Asset Service Providers Association (VASPA) issues this official statement to warmly celebrate and recognize the latest advancements in Nigeria’s evolving capital market infrastructure.
1. Congratulating the Admitted Cohort
We extend our warmest institutional congratulations to the seven newly admitted entities in the Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP) of Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the leadership of Dr. Emomotimi Agama, the Director-General:
- Bitbarter Technologies Limited
- Luno Fintech Nigeria Limited
- GetEquity Limited
- Koinkoin Global Network Limited
- Wrapped CBDC Ltd
- Trovotech Ltd
- Blockvault Custodian Ltd
Securing an Approval-in-Principle (AIP) requires an extraordinary amount of operational grit, rigorous legal structuring, and a substantial commitment to compliance infrastructure. VASPA specifically recognizes the immense efforts of these leadership teams. Their entry into the sandbox sets a high benchmark for the ecosystem and validates the viability of compliant Web3 models in Nigeria.
2. Acknowledging the SEC’s Progressive Regulatory Leadership
VASPA highly commends the Management and Board of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Nigeria for their continued commitment to steering the nation’s digital economy by formalizing the adoption of digital asset innovations in the capital market.
By onboarding innovation into a controlled sandbox environment rather than relying on restrictive enforcement, the Commission continues to solidify Nigeria’s standing as a forward-thinking financial hub.
The implementation of the ARIP framework is a powerful testament to the SEC’s pragmatism, demonstrating an understanding that market discipline and investor protection are best achieved when regulators and innovators work side-by-side.
3. Strengthening the Framework: Constructive Pillars for Optimization
The core mandate of an Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme is to provide an efficient, fast-tracked bridge toward full licensing. To ensure the ARIP framework perfectly mirrors this objective and maintains unshakeable market confidence, VASPA outlines a few strategic, constructive areas for operational refinement, informed by healthy industry dialogue and recent public observations:
- Clear Lifecycles and Progression Timelines: For the “Accelerated” nature of the program to be fully realized, it is vital that the sandbox operates with definitive, transparent lifecycles. Establishing a clear, predictable end date from the very start date of admission will help participants systematically allocate their resources and signal structural certainty to international venture partners. Furthermore, providing public clarity on the status or re-admission of returning entities—such as those moving across iterations of the program—will help the wider ecosystem understand the precise milestones required to graduate from incubation to full, final capital market operator licenses. In our Project Green-White-Green Whitepaper, we also highlighted this need for “acceleration.”
- Upfront Categorization and Classification: The market operates best under conditions of absolute predictability. While the initial regulatory frameworks provided granular categorizations for admitted firms, recent iterations have adopted a more generalized layout. VASPA suggests that maintaining open, upfront classification of VASP operational tracks (e.g., Custody, Exchange, or Digital Investment Platform) from the point of admission provides invaluable structural clarity. It ensures that the investing public, peer operators, and banking partners know exactly which specific activities a sandbox participant is permitted to pilot.
- Consistent Guidelines for Specialized Digital Assets: As the technology expands to incorporate complex tokenized instruments, real-world assets (RWAs), and decentralized value representations, there is an increasing need for explicit clarity regarding asset definitions. Harmonizing how standard frameworks (such as the Howey Test or localized equivalent security metrics) apply to specialized assets inside the sandbox will provide operators with consistent goalposts and prevent administrative overlap during live testing.
4. Reaffirming VASPA’s Commitment to Regulatory Collaboration
As the Pan-African voice of the virtual asset service provider ecosystem, VASPA stands prepared and eager to deepen its strategic partnership with the SEC, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), and all relevant state actors, including the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on the Regulatory, Security and Economic Implications of Cryptocurrency Adoption and POS Operations in Nigeria and the Senate.
We believe that the ultimate success of the ARIP hinges on a robust feedback loop between the private sector and the state. VASPA is ready to deploy its technical committees, research repositories, and industry data to support the SEC in refining these frameworks. Together, we can ensure that Nigeria’s regulatory sandbox remains a world-class environment that safeguards national security and investor wealth while dynamically accelerating technological growth across the African continent.
About VASPA:
The Virtual Asset Service Providers Association (VASPA) is a Pan-African industry body registered as an Incorporated Trustee with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria (CAC IT: 79069970) where it is headquartered. VASPA comprises individual, corporate, and institutional members from across Africa. For more information about us, please visit our website, www.vaspa.org. To become a Patron or Partner of VASPA, visit our Membership page: https://vaspa.org/become-a-member/. Individual and corporate members are also welcomed.
