Nigeria's Post-FATF Fintech Compliance Overhaul Continues to Reshape Sector Operations
A detailed account of Nigeria's fintech sector compliance sprint following the country's FATF grey-listing finds that CBN rules introduced during the reform period continue to impose significant operational constraints on payments operators. The analysis is described as critical reading for fintech companies navigating the post-grey-list regulatory environment.
Nigeria Fintech: the grey list was never the finish line
Seven major CBN interventions in eighteen months — frozen accounts, onboarding bans, crypto restrictions — were framed as Nigeria fixing its anti-money laundering gaps to exit the FATF grey list. Nigeria exited in October 2025. Then the rules kept coming.
Ring-fencing requirements, a 25% market concentration cap, device-binding rules, lifetime limits on phone number changes — none of these appear in the official account of what got Nigeria delisted.
So the FATF sprint may have been the moment the CBN finally had political cover to do what it wanted to do anyway: treat large fintechs the way it treats banks. The exit wasn't the destination. It was permission to go further.
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- Inside the compliance sprint that reshaped Nigeria’s fintech sector · thecondia.com · T2