The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says regulatory bottlenecks, including unclear compliance requirements and licence approval delays, are hampering growth in Nigeria’s financial technology (fintech) sector.
The concerns are contained in the CBN’s fintech policy insight series — an inaugural report developed after a dedicated fintech policy forum convened by the apex bank — released on Monday.
The forum brought together regulators, industry leaders and experts to assess opportunities and risks within Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem.
Insights for the report were drawn from stakeholder surveys, a closed-door fintech workshop held in June 2025, the October 2025 CBN fintech roundtable and international benchmarking analysis.
According to the report, industry players identified several pain points hindering the sector’s progress, including ambiguity in compliance obligations, delays in product approval and licensing, inconsistent application of rules, and insufficient coordination among regulatory agencies.
The challenges, the CBN noted, have increased friction across the ecosystem, inflated compliance costs and created uncertainty for fintech operators.
“Stakeholders cite issues including ambiguity in compliance requirements, delays in product approval and licensing, inconsistent application of rules, insufficient coordination between regulatory agencies,” CBN said.
“These pain points increase friction, inflate compliance costs, and dampen innovation.”
The apex bank warned that the persistence of the challenges could undermine innovation at a time when fintech is playing an increasingly critical role in Nigeria’s financial system.
It added that the next phase of reforms must directly address the identified hurdles to sustain growth and strengthen trust in the ecosystem.
From the regulator’s perspective, the CBN acknowledged that the rapid expansion of fintech has made supervision more complex, requiring a careful balance between enabling innovation and safeguarding financial stability.
While fintech has the potential to deepen inclusion, reduce transaction costs and modernise service delivery, the bank said it also introduces new risks that strain traditional supervisory approaches.
The CBN noted that addressing the disconnect between regulators and industry players, strengthening inter-agency coordination and improving regulatory clarity will be critical to consolidating Nigeria’s leadership in financial innovation while preserving system-wide resilience and integrity.
“To strengthen this further, stakeholders are encouraged to share any egregious or persistent examples of regulatory overlap or uncertainty to inform more targeted coordination and policy refinement,” the bank said.
“While tackling these supervisory challenges, the CBN also recognises the reputational burden Nigeria faces internationally. Digital financial crimes attributed to Nigeria are often perpetrated by actors based abroad.”
On Nigeria’s international reputation, the CBN said digital financial crimes attributed to the country are often perpetrated by actors based outside its borders.
The apex bank said that strengthening enforcement, ensuring transparency and communicating progress, including Nigeria’s enforcement actions and steps toward exiting the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list are essential to rebuilding global confidence.
The report also highlighted other challenges such as compliance gaps, financial integrity risks, supervisory capacity limitations, and jurisdictional complexity as key regulatory weaknesses.
According to the report, both regulators and industry players agreed to sustain and institutionalise engagement to foster trust, reduce friction and improve responsiveness.
For future success, the report called for increased investment in digital public infrastructure and shared compliance tools to lower costs, promote interoperability and expand access.
CBN also recommended ensuring regulatory consistency and proportionality across agencies, scaling supervisory capabilities through SupTech tools and skills exchange programmes, and strengthening communication around reforms, integrity and enforcement to boost investor and consumer confidence.
