Key Points
- Lagos adviser calls for Nigeria to lead Africa in digital finance and tokenised assets.
- He says regulation, infrastructure and trust are needed to attract global capital.
- Lagos is urged to position itself as a hub for cross-border settlements.
Main Story
Nigeria should position itself as a leader in Africa’s digital finance, tokenised assets and cross-border financial settlement, Mr Ganiyu Oseni, Special Adviser on Technology, Broadband and Innovation to the Lagos State Governor, has said.
Oseni made the call on Thursday at the close of GITEX Nigeria, a three-day digital finance summit held in Lagos.
He said Nigeria should move beyond adopting technologies developed elsewhere and focus on developing home-grown solutions capable of competing across Africa and globally.
According to him, the country has the talent, technology ecosystem and market size required to build innovative digital financial services, but must strengthen its regulatory and trust systems to attract global capital.
Oseni said Nigeria had already demonstrated its ability to operate digital financial services at scale, with billions of transactions processed through its financial system.
He said the key question was no longer whether Africa’s financial system would become digital, but whether African countries would build and own the systems or remain dependent on external platforms.
The Issues
Oseni identified connectivity, power, identity and talent as four critical foundations for a digital economy.
He said Nigeria had made progress in fibre infrastructure, computing and data-centre capacity, digital identity and research and development across universities.
He also highlighted the Investments and Securities Act 2025, which brought digital and virtual assets within the capital-market framework.
According to him, the development provides an opportunity for Nigeria to establish a regulated market where Nigerian assets can be tokenised and made accessible to investors.
“Two years ago, that sentence should have been aspirational. Today, it’s a filing requirement,” he said.
Oseni said the expansion of global stablecoin and tokenisation markets meant countries that established themselves early as venues for digital-asset transactions could benefit from fees, employment, data and investment.
He called for greater regulatory coordination among Nigerian institutions to provide clear rules and reduce uncertainty for investors.
What’s Being Said
“Two years ago, that sentence should have been aspirational. Today, it’s a filing requirement.” – Ganiyu Oseni, Special Adviser on Technology, Broadband and Innovation to the Lagos State Governor.
“Monetising and digitising land and title records is therefore, not a housing reform. It’s a capital markets reform.” – Ganiyu Oseni.
“We would rather have your capital than your admiration, and we would rather have your operational presence than your capital.” – Ganiyu Oseni.
“Lagos should position itself as the place where those transactions are settled.” – Ganiyu Oseni.
What’s Next
Oseni called for continued investment in fibre, power and computing infrastructure, saying these should be developed and priced competitively with other leading digital-finance jurisdictions.
He also urged the digitisation and verification of government records and real-world assets, including land titles, property records and infrastructure concessions, to make them potentially investable.
He said governments should become early users of digital financial infrastructure through government payments, transportation systems and procurement processes.
According to Oseni, government adoption could help take digital-finance solutions beyond pilot projects and support the development of sustainable industries.
He urged innovators and investors to build within Nigeria’s regulatory framework and use the country as a base for expansion into other African markets.
Bottom Line
Lagos is urging Nigeria to move from being a consumer of digital financial technology to becoming a builder and owner of systems serving African and global markets. Oseni says stronger regulation, infrastructure and digitisation of assets could help position Lagos as a hub for digital-asset transactions and cross-border settlements.
