CBN Tightens Stablecoin Issuer Rules With Capital Floors and Full Reserve Requirements
Nigeria's Central Bank has tightened rules for stablecoin issuers, requiring capital floors of ₦10 billion for naira stablecoin issuers and ₦15 billion for foreign stablecoin issuers, backed by full reserve requirements. The framework is being described as the most stringent crypto licensing bar in Africa and is expected to materially reshape Nigeria's stablecoin market.
Nigeria Stablecoins: who actually survives this framework?
The CBN has now published the full picture: ₦15 billion in paid-up capital for foreign-currency stablecoin issuers, full reserves, a separate liquidity buffer, and mandatory local incorporation — all at once.
Stack those requirements together and the realistic answer to 'who can afford this' is: Tether and Circle, and almost no one else.
That may not be accidental. Nigeria's post-FATF compliance sprint has consistently produced rules that are legitimate in intent but brutal in practice for anyone without deep pockets. This framework follows the same logic — and the stablecoin market it leaves standing will be a small, highly capitalised oligopoly, not the open, competitive layer it was supposed to become.
2 sources
- 👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Nigeria tightens stablecoin rules · techcabal.com · T1
- Nigeria : la Banque centrale durcit les règles pour les émetteurs de stablecoins · financialafrik.com · T2