NEWS
Nigerian Banks Weigh Stablecoins For Cross-Border Dollar Payments
Nigerian Banks Weigh Stablecoins For Cross-Border Dollar Payments
Banks, asset managers and fintechs are exploring stablecoin services, although no bank has publicly announced a launch.
Nigeria accounts for about 60% of stablecoin inflows into sub-Saharan Africa, IMF data shows.
Stablecoins made up more than 65% of Nigeria’s cross-border crypto inflows in 2024.
The CBN is testing stablecoin services while still prohibiting banks from trading virtual currencies for their own account.
November 3, () – Stablecoins are moving closer to Nigeria’s traditional financial system as banks, asset managers and fintech companies examine ways to offer dollar-linked digital assets to customers.
Quidax co-founder and CEO, Buchi Okoro, said financial institutions were considering how stablecoins and other digital assets could be integrated into customer services over the next five years. He spoke at The Exchange, a Lagos event organised by Quidax and Tether, the company behind USDT.
No Nigerian bank was identified as having committed to launching such a product, making the development an indication of growing institutional interest rather than a confirmed rollout.
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The attraction is increasingly practical. Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC track the US dollar and can be transferred between digital wallets without relying on the traditional correspondent-banking chain used for many international payments.
Nigeria Is Already A Major Stablecoin Market
Channel
Nigeria does not need banks to introduce consumers to stablecoins. Millions of Nigerians are already using them.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that Nigeria received about $59 billion in crypto assets between July 2023 and June 2024 and accounted for roughly 60% of stablecoin inflows into sub-Saharan Africa from late 2019 to early 2025. More than 65% of the country’s cross-border crypto inflows in 2024 were stablecoins.
Their use extends beyond crypto trading. The IMF says Nigerian households use stablecoins for remittances, while small importers increasingly use them to pay overseas suppliers. That is noteworthy in a region where sending $200 through conventional remittance channels costs about 9% on average, compared with roughly 6% globally.
Naira depreciation and periods of restricted access to foreign exchange also accelerated demand for dollar-linked assets, effectively allowing some households and businesses to hold and transfer dollar value outside the banking system.
Financial sector representatives at a cryptocurrency education programme organised by Quidax and Nigerias Securities and Exchange Commission in Lagos Source BitcoincomQuidax
Banks Still Face Regulatory Boundary
Nigeria’s regulators are no longer treating the sector as something that can simply be kept outside formal finance.
The Investments and Securities Act 2025 expressly includes virtual and digital assets among investments covered by Nigeria’s securities framework. The SEC has also admitted digital-asset companies including Quidax, Busha, Luno and Yellow Card into its regulatory incubation programmes.
The CBN went further in 2026 by opening a regulatory sandbox track covering fiat-backed stablecoin payments, wallets, custody, exchanges and on/off-ramp services.
There is still an important limit. Existing CBN guidelines allow banks to maintain regulated relationships with virtual-asset service providers, but prohibit them from holding, trading or transacting in virtual currencies on their own account.
That means any move by banks into stablecoins will depend heavily on how products are structured and approved.
The bigger commercial contest may therefore be over the infrastructure around the stablecoin rather than the coin itself: custody, conversion between naira and digital dollars, international settlement and cross-border payments.
For Nigerian banks, that could determine whether a fast-growing dollar-payment market eventually comes back inside regulated financial institutions or continues developing largely outside them.
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