… Digital asset seen lifting naira’s worth
Nigeria’s new Funding and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 has created a regulatory framework for digital belongings, positioning Africa’s most populous nation to leverage on a fast-growing phase of worldwide capital markets to revive its financial system, create wealth and lead the pack in blockchain expertise.
These have been the positions of the specialists and policymakers who spoke on the ‘Digital Asset Markets Technique Masterclass Collection’ final Friday in Lagos.
The landmark laws, signed into regulation in March 2025, empowers the Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) to supervise digital belongings, digital asset service suppliers (VASPs), and tokenised securities—bringing readability to an area that has operated in a authorized gray space for years.
In response to Nicholas Okoye, a worldwide funding advisor and convener of the occasion, a full adoption of the digital asset market would redefine Nigeria’s future because it creates a possibility to construct new wealth and unlock digital transformation.
“This digital market expertise has proven that Nigeria has taken a flip as a result of the best way we’ve got embraced it’s magnificent,” Okoye stated. However not lacking out of this digital revolution lies in adopting a digital asset market technique.
“For enterprises, it’s about positioning digital belongings for development. For presidency ministries, each wants its personal digital asset technique. And for people, it’s about understanding how you can make investments and plan wealth switch utilizing digital instruments,” he defined.
Digital asset markets to elevate naira’s worth
Okoye stated that younger Nigerians who’re making nice fortunes are leaving their funds overseas earlier than as there was no readability in rules. He famous that the naira got here below stress because of this Act, assuring that with the brand new laws, the story is about to alter.
“We’re going to maneuver the worth of the naira to the optimistic facet with the type of cash that’ll be coming into Nigeria with the digital asset market. What acquired the naira to crash was as a result of we have been pushing cash out. But when we give our folks the rationale to put money into Nigeria by way of digital belongings, the foreign money will bounce again.”
Emmomotimi Agama, director normal, Securities and Trade Fee (SEC), who was represented by Bola Ajomale, government commissioner of operations at SEC, stated the enactment of the ISA 2025 has ‘legitimised’ the house for digital belongings to thrive in Nigeria.
The SEC chief famous that the fee would proceed to supply regulatory frameworks aimed toward guaranteeing compliance, stressing that “investor confidence within the capital market stays SEC’s high precedence.”
Earlier than the enactment of the ISA, Nigeria’s digital asset market—regardless of being some of the lively globally—lacked a statutory foundation for regulation.
The SEC had issued pointers in 2020, however its function remained ambiguous. The brand new regulation addresses that vacuum by legally recognising digital belongings as securities, giving the fee full authority to license and regulate associated market actions.
This transfer aligns Nigeria with international locations such because the UAE, Singapore, and South Africa which have adopted pro-innovation regulatory approaches to blockchain-based finance.
Learn additionally: Right here’s what to know as Tinubu assents to Investments and Securities Act 2024
Lagos to monetise idle asset, increase bond to fund infrastructure
The Lagos State authorities is planning to monetise idle belongings within the state and lift inexperienced bonds to supply the wanted finance to bridge its N10 trillion infrastructural gaps.
Babajide Sanwoolu, Lagos State governor, talking on the occasion stated: “We’re growing a securitisation coverage to monetise and liquefy our idle belongings,” he stated.
“These are belongings we used to name ‘Idle belongings.’ Now we wish to use them to get liquidity to finance our infrastructure wants. Within the subsequent two to 3 months, we can be coming to the market to securitise a few of them.”
The governor, represented by Abayomi Oluyomi, commissioner of finance, described digital asset innovation as one transfer that helps the federal government objective to realize a N1 trillion financial system by 2030.
He referred to as for extra inclusion by way of digital asset training initiatives to usher in small companies and entrepreneurs, enabling them to faucet into the alternatives and perceive the challenges therein.
Nigeria-China relations yield $30bn funding commitments
Nigeria has acquired over $30 billion funding dedication, and 300 expressions of curiosity from completely different Chinese language corporations throughout the final 5 months and can quickly signal a ‘Digital R&D’ with China to allow a direct conversion of Naira to Chinese language Yuan, thereby lowering the nation’s dependency on Greenback, in response to Joseph Tegbe, director-general of the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership (NCSP).
In response to him, the connection with China is targeted on improvement reasonably than commerce.
“The overview of our goals within the Nigerian-China Strategic Partnership is to drive infrastructure improvement, scale up investments from China, strengthen Nigerian-China commerce and financial relations, and promote information and financial transparency, and likewise advance cultural exchanges between the 2 nations.”
