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Nigeria simply made working digital asset companies, fintechs, and funding intermediation a wealthy youngsters’ sport.

On the morning of January 16, 2026, Nigeria’s Securities Alternate Fee (SEC), the capital markets regulator, printed new capital necessities for nearly each capital market participant within the area, together with brokers, robo-advisors, funding advisors, and digital asset stakeholders, obtained a bump—some over 2x, however most of them over 50% will increase.

Within the memo, the SEC described the brand new thresholds as “minimal capital requirement,” which means these are required sums stakeholders should have in paid-up capital (shares issued and paid for) plus share premiums. The SEC director normal, Emomotimi Agama, later got here on CNBC’s Closing Bell podcast to say that the aim is to make sure investor confidence within the capital markets.

“The basic motive is to boost long-term capital, and that may solely occur with confidence, [which] stems out of sustainability, resilience, transparency, and integrity. For 2026, we’re going to be extra stringent on ensuring that enforcement actions are carried out, and market contributors start to see the flexibility of the SEC and the regulators [to protect] them from challenges that, hitherto, have been regular happenings inside the market,” mentioned Agama.

At the beginning of January, Nigeria’s inventory market index crossed ₦100 trillion ($70 billion) in capitalisation for the primary time, hinting that extra investor confidence is returning, and the market contributors should be accountable, from the SEC’s place.

But, why was the digital asset sector, an rising business with a less-defined regulatory framework, lumped with the others? Recall that in 2025, Nigeria categorised digital property as “securities,” below the Funding and Securities Act, subjecting them to the SEC’s purview. As a substitute of offering the market with a predictable licencing and working framework, the SEC has opted for market management by filtering who is available in and who stays out.

We gained’t play genies and inform you that we’ve seemed into the longer term to see that it is a good or unhealthy concept. However the actual query right here is whether or not elevating minimal capital necessities is the tightest method to defend buyers with out narrowing the market, particularly a capital market that also wants competitors, innovation, and smaller intermediaries to deepen liquidity reasonably than focus it in fewer, bigger palms.