The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released its 2025 Fintech Report, outlining a strategic roadmap to elevate Nigeria from a continental fintech leader to a global rule-setting hub. The report highlights Nigeria’s strengths in real-time payments, digital innovation, and financial inclusion, while identifying regulatory and operational challenges that must be addressed for the sector’s next phase of growth.
Modernizing regulations to spur innovation
A central focus of the report is regulatory modernization. Survey data shows that 87.5% of fintech firms consider compliance burdens — including high costs and slow product approval timelines — as major barriers to innovation.
To tackle these challenges, the CBN proposes:
- Establishing a permanent CBN-Fintech Engagement Forum to strengthen industry dialogue
- Creating a Single Regulatory Window to streamline licensing and approvals
- Deploying supervisory technology (SupTech) to simplify oversight and reduce friction for fintech firms
These measures are aimed at improving the ease of doing business for fintechs while maintaining financial system integrity.
Expanding financial inclusion
The report also underscores fintech’s critical role in increasing financial access, noting that 26% of Nigerian adults remained unbanked as of 2023. To address this gap, the CBN plans to:
- Enhance digital identity verification by expanding API access to the National Identification Number (NIN)
- Improve infrastructure reliability and resilience to support broader adoption of digital financial services
- Review lending restrictions on Payment Service Banks (PSBs) to unlock credit access for underserved populations
The CBN emphasises that growth must be paired with trust and integrity, advocating for AI-powered fraud detection and exploring regional regulatory passporting to facilitate cross-border fintech expansion in Africa.
Nigeria’s global fintech ambitions
With milestones such as Nigeria’s exit from the FATF “grey list”, the CBN report signals a deliberate push to position the country as a regulatory and innovation benchmark for fintech on the continent and globally. By modernising oversight, expanding inclusion, and strengthening infrastructure, Nigeria aims to cement its status as a fintech hub that sets standards rather than just follows them.
The 2025 roadmap provides both clear guidance for policymakers and a strategic signal to investors and fintech operators, highlighting opportunities for growth while underlining the importance of balanced regulation and technological innovation.
