Can Regulation Keep Pace with Platforms, Devices and Payments?
On July 23, the Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Security held a public hearing on a bill, sponsored by Senator Ned Nwoko, that would require platforms such as Facebook and TikTok to open physical offices in Nigeria by amending the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023. Stakeholders strongly supported it, and Committee Chairman Senator Shuaib Salisu said it would make technology firms follow Nigerian law. The same hearing considered a bill to set up a national Artificial Intelligence Academy in Omuo-Ekiti.
Regulation is also reaching consumers. On September 21, the Association of Mobile Phones and Allied Products Traders of Nigeria (AMPAT) warned that new phone registration fees under the NCC’s Device Management System could raise prices. The system places every phone’s IMEI number on one national list to fight stolen and counterfeit devices, with fees of about ₦670 for standard phones and over ₦3,700 for high-end phones. AMPAT wants a three- to six-month delay, and the NCC moved the deadline for existing stock from September 7 to October 6. Only 27% of Nigerians owned a smartphone in 2024, so affordability is a real concern.
Fintech faces a different problem. At the Nigerian Economic Summit Group pre-summit dialogue on September 8, a fintech co-founder said the country’s more than 400 fintech startups are slowed because the Central Bank and the Securities and Exchange Commission license businesses differently, and called for one shared process. Meanwhile, platforms such as CadRemit, licensed by the CBN, now combine ordinary banking with USDC and USDT payments, and across Africa new payment rules are appearing: Kenya’s draft National Payment System Bill (comments closing October 9), Luno’s purchase of Kenya’s GTXN, and Algeria’s approval of Djezzy Payment Services. In Lagos, the app drivers’ union AUATON plans an October shutdown of Bolt and inDrive over commissions, after Uber left Nigeria on September 2.
Outside the briefings’ focus, the first Nigerian Technology Law Report 2026 (EandC Legal, August 14) collected 10 major court decisions on online contracts, data privacy and digital property rights, a sign that courts are beginning to shape the digital economy too.