Tinubu signs executive order on virtual assets

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed the Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, 2026, establishing a new inter-agency framework to harmonise the regulation of virtual assets and strengthen oversight of Nigeria’s rapidly expanding digital economy. The Executive Order, which takes immediate effect, creates a Virtual Asset Council to coordinate the activities of key financial, revenue, security and regulatory agencies, with the aim of protecting citizens from fraud, combating money laundering and terrorism financing, improving revenue collection and encouraging responsible innovation in the virtual assets sector. According to a statement issued yesterday by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Order was signed pursuant to Section 5 of the 1999 Constitution to address growing regulatory fragmentation as virtual assets increasingly cut across the traditional boundaries of currencies, securities, commodities and payment systems.