Beyond fintech growth, CBN aims to shape global digital finance

Nigeria has emerged as one of Africa’s most dynamic fintech ecosystems, underpinned by regulatory reforms, expanding digital payments infrastructure, and a fast-growing community of innovators.

Building on this foundation, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) strategy increasingly positions the country not just as a leader in fintech adoption, but as an active contributor to how regulatory approaches, innovation practices and trust frameworks are shaped.

That ambition was laid out in the CBN Fintech Report themed “Shaping the Future of Fintech in Nigeria: Innovation, Inclusion and Integrity”, where Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the CBN said that with the right reforms and a unified national vision, Nigeria could move from being a fintech frontrunner to a fintech rule-setter.

The rapid expansion of the country’s fintech ecosystem presents a strategic opportunity to accelerate inclusive economic growth, deepen financial resilience and strengthen Nigeria’s role within the evolving global digital economy.

Fintech has emerged as a powerful channel for extending financial access to underserved and excluded populations. With mobile phone penetration far exceeding access to traditional banking services, Nigeria has a compelling opportunity to close the gap between digital reach and meaningful financial inclusion.

The report highlighted persistent barriers that continue to limit inclusion, including weak identity verification systems, affordability constraints and infrastructure gaps. Addressing these challenges, it noted, is central to unlocking broader and more sustainable growth across the financial sector.

Developed through extensive stakeholder consultations and supported by a nationwide ecosystem survey, the report assesses the current state of Nigeria’s fintech landscape, identifies strategic priorities and outlines policy pathways for the next phase of development. Its central message is clear: Nigeria has the potential to lead not only in fintech adoption but also in shaping the global future of digital finance, provided collaboration between regulators and innovators is strengthened, infrastructure and policy reforms are deepened, and progress is communicated with greater clarity.

The report also points to the importance of Nigeria consolidating its leadership across Africa by shaping continental standards and advancing mutual recognition frameworks. Beyond regional integration, Nigeria is increasingly positioning itself to influence the development of global digital finance corridors.

According to the CBN, these objectives extend beyond ecosystem priorities and reflect Nigeria’s broader opportunity to elevate its international standing through regulatory leadership, particularly in areas such as Anti-Money Laundering enforcement, consumer protection and real-time payments infrastructure.

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Cardoso on Nigeria’s Fintech Vision

Cardoso said he had witnessed first-hand the transformative power of digital finance in broadening economic participation, creating employment and improving the lives of millions of Nigerians, underscoring why the CBN is determined to harness fintech innovation as a driver of national development.

“Nigeria is undergoing a rapid and significant financial evolution,” he said. “Over the past decade, our fintech landscape has grown from a handful of startups into one of Africa’s most vibrant innovation ecosystems. Even amid global economic headwinds, Nigerian fintech firms continued to attract investment and drive change.”

With improved currency stability and a more settled domestic economic environment, Cardoso said it has become increasingly evident that financial innovation can advance inclusion at scale.

“This report reflects the Central Bank’s commitment to fostering a thriving fintech landscape while safeguarding the stability of our financial system. It is the product of extensive engagement between regulators and industry stakeholders,” he said.

By surveying fintech operators, financial institutions and policymakers, the CBN gathered frank assessments of what is working, where gaps remain and what needs to change. The findings, Cardoso said, highlight both progress and persistent shortcomings, from modernising regulatory frameworks and payments infrastructure to supporting startups in reaching Nigeria’s unbanked communities.

The report also places Nigeria’s fintech journey within a global context, reminding stakeholders that while digital finance offers immense opportunities, it also introduces new and evolving risks.

For the apex bank, Cardoso said, innovation is no longer optional but a strategic imperative. “We are committed to creating an environment where new ideas can flourish under prudent oversight, and where inclusion remains at the heart of our efforts,” he said. “Fintech must deliver financial services to the last mile, from bustling cities to rural villages, ensuring that no Nigerian is left behind in the digital economy.”

At the same time, he emphasised the need to protect the integrity of the financial system through strong governance, consumer protection and risk management. He said the insights and recommendations in the report would guide the country toward a stronger, more inclusive financial future.

The Central Bank, Cardoso added, will continue to study the perspectives gathered and deepen collaboration with industry participants to refine its policies.

“This collaborative spirit, government and innovators working together, is the cornerstone of sustainable fintech development. Our objective is to strike the right balance: encouraging the creativity that sparks growth while putting in place robust measures that preserve stability and public confidence,” he said.

Nigeria’s Fintech Progress

The report defines fintech as the use of innovative digital technologies to deliver financial services across segments including payments and remittances, digital lending, crowdfunding, insurance technology, wealth management and regulatory technology.

As digital platforms continue to reshape how people send money, access credit and engage with financial institutions, Nigeria has emerged both as a leader and a testing ground for fintech innovation.

The country hosts some of Africa’s most influential fintech companies and remains a major destination for investment. In 2024, Nigerian startups raised more than $520 million in equity funding out of a continental total of $2.2 billion, ranking among Africa’s leading ecosystems by both capital raised and deal activity.

This momentum builds on earlier years. In 2019, Nigerian tech startups raised roughly US$747 million, accounting for about 37 percent of all startup funding across Africa.

While this performance reinforces Nigeria’s role as a hub for financial innovation, the report notes that fintech funding has historically relied heavily on foreign capital, exposing the ecosystem to global market swings. Rising interest rates in advanced economies in 2022 contributed to a slowdown in venture capital flows, helping to explain the decline in investment by 2024.

These dynamics underline the importance of developing domestic funding channels, including deeper use of Nigeria’s capital markets, to mitigate currency risk and sustain long-term fintech growth.

Given the scale of Nigeria’s payment volumes, the maturity of its real-time infrastructure and its experience managing innovation at population scale, the country is increasingly viewed not just as a fast-growing market but as a reference point whose regulatory lessons resonate with other emerging economies.

Insights from the CBN’s engagements with industry stakeholders also point to emerging interest in sovereign digital asset frameworks, discussed at an exploratory level, as part of broader efforts to reduce foreign-exchange leakage and strengthen formal remittance channels.

These views draw from three core inputs: a quantitative fintech survey, a closed-door stakeholder workshop held in June 2025, and the CBN Fintech Roundtable in October 2025. Together, they form the basis of Nigeria’s push to move from fintech frontrunner to fintech rule-setter.

Leadership Through Innovation

Nigeria has long played a pioneering role in digital finance. In 2011, it introduced a nationwide, real-time interoperable payments infrastructure, making instant interbank transfers a routine feature well ahead of many advanced and emerging economies.

Sustained through close collaboration between the CBN and the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), Nigeria’s instant payments platform has evolved into one of the most mature and widely adopted real-time systems globally.

Today, more than 25 percent of all electronic transactions in Nigeria are processed via real-time payment channels, with close to 11 billion transactions recorded in 2024, up from five billion in 2022. This places Nigeria among the world’s top adopters and firmly at the forefront in Africa, aligning with the Payments System Vision 2025, which targets near-universal electronic payment penetration by 2030.

Innovation and Integrity

Despite its gains, Nigeria continues to grapple with reputational challenges linked to digital fraud. Fraud remains an evolving threat, driven by a mix of domestic activity and cross-border actors exploiting global digital platforms.

While some schemes originate locally, law-enforcement cooperation and recent prosecutions show that a significant share of fraud associated with Nigeria is orchestrated by foreign or cross-border networks, often using the country as a base rather than the true source.

Even so, Nigeria is making measurable progress. NIBSS data show that losses from fraud fell to N25.85 billion last year, down sharply from N52.26 billion recorded in 2024. Fraud cases also declined to 67,515 in 2025 from 123,918 cases in 2021.

Premier Oiwoh, NIBSS managing director and chief executive officer, said Lagos remains a major fraud hub due to its transaction volumes and dense financial infrastructure, while Abuja and a few other cities are increasingly used as operational bases where tracking mechanisms are weaker.

Oiwoh urged banks to pay closer attention to staff lifestyles as part of fraud prevention, noting that early warning signs are often overlooked.

In his keynote address, Philip Ikeazor, CBN deputy governor for Financial System Stability, said Nigeria’s progress in identity management has been a major factor in shrinking fraud losses. He cited the rollout of the Bank Verification Number and its integration with the National Identification Number as critical in limiting impersonation and synthetic identity fraud.

He also pointed to the industry’s migration to ISO 20022, which he said has gone beyond compliance to deliver richer transaction data that enhances traceability and early detection of fraudulent activity.

Rakiya Yusuf, director of Payments System Supervision at the CBN and chairman of the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum, said reforms such as chip-and-PIN cards, two-factor authentication, stronger consumer protection and institutionalised fraud information-sharing have helped preserve trust during periods of rapid digital payments growth.

Together, the report argues, these advances reinforce the importance of pairing innovation with integrity as Nigeria seeks not only to expand fintech adoption, but to shape the rules that govern digital finance across Africa and beyond