Beyond Gambling: Harmonizing Nigeria’s Capital Market and Virtual Asset Sector for a $1 Trillion Economy

The recent visit by the NGX Group Board and Management to the State House in Abuja highlights some of the commendable strides this administration’s economic team has made—although it remains a challenge for the administration to make these strides count for the common man out there. Regardless, seeing the Nigerian stock market’s capitalization surge to ₦160 trillion is a testament to the ongoing economic reforms championed by the President and spearheaded by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele.

 

During this recent engagement at the State House, while discussing strategies to attract youth participation to the capital market, the Honorable Minister made a notable observation:

 

“Many of our young people still spend the little money they have investing in virtual assets and sometimes in gambling whereas they can make more money with full tax exemption from the capital market.”

 

As an advocate for Nigeria’s virtual asset sector, I view this statement not necessarily as a dismissal, but as a critical diagnosis of a fundamental gap in our financial ecosystem—a gap that the virtual asset industry is eager and ready to help the government bridge. The statement is also revealing, highlighting a lingering ideological tug-of-war within the government: the desire to extract revenue from the virtual asset sector versus the protectionist urge to shield legacy financial institutions from digital disruption.

 

Against the backdrop of our evolving regulatory landscape, there is a tremendous opportunity to align the traditional capital market with the digital economy. From the Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 to the Nigeria Tax Act; the President’s Executive Order on Virtual Asset Coordination of 2026 to the recent NRS Guidelines on Taxation of Virtual Assets, Nigeria has clearly formalized virtual assets within the financial system and the digital economy. But beyond formalization, ensuring the level of market access that is globally competitive remain friction points that Nigeria needs to seriously address. The Honourable Finance Minister’s statement, betraying the current administration’s perception of virtual assets as largely speculative, illustrates a major friction point.

 

Let’s look at the friction points in the current landscape and how we can collaborate to fix them, head on:

 

1. The Fiscal Double Standard: Taxation vs. Exemption

 

The most glaring contradiction in the Minister’s statement is Nigeria’s weaponization of tax policy, intentional or unintentionally, to influence market participation.

 

By recognizing the “full tax exemption” available in the traditional capital market while simultaneously rolling out the NRS Guidelines on Taxation of Virtual Assets, the government is creating an unlevel playing field. The passage of the ISA 2025 and the President’s Executive Order of 2026 were supposed to integrate virtual assets into the mainstream financial system, treating them as legitimate asset classes.

 

However, heavily taxing the virtual asset sector while exempting traditional equities sends a contradictory message: Virtual assets are legitimate enough to tax, but not legitimate enough to incentivize. Rather than allowing the free market to dictate where capital flows based on innovation and yield, fiscal policy is being used to artificially funnel liquidity back into the legacy stock exchange.

 

2. Bridging the Perception Gap: Utility Beyond Speculation

 

The Minister’s pairing of virtual assets with “gambling” reflects a historical perception of crypto as a purely speculative arena. While speculative trading certainly exists across all asset classes, the underlying reality of Nigeria’s youth adoption of digital assets is deeply rooted in economic utility. As General Secretary of the Blockchain Industry Coordinating Committee of Nigeria (BICCoN) during the February 2021 CBN crypto ban, I also advocated on the industry’s behalf, urging the government to treat virtual assets not merely as speculative bets, but as legitimate financial instruments requiring proper regulation. But the CBN had other priorities at the time. The rest is history.

 

Now we are here in 2026. Young Nigerians have continued to leverage blockchain for decentralized finance (DeFi), seamless cross-border remittances, and integration into the global gig economy. Putting virtual asset investments—which involve the navigation of macroeconomic headwinds—side by side with “gambling,” particularly at this maturation stage misdiagnoses the economic intelligence of the Nigerian youth. Rather than gambling, many are actively hedging against inflation and building verifiable digital wealth, while regulation is playing catch-up.

 

3. Harmonizing Fiscal Policy to Create a Level Playing Field

 

The Minister rightly highlighted the attractiveness of the capital market due to tax exemptions designed to stimulate wealth creation. 

 

However, a major friction arises when this is juxtaposed with the recent NRS Guidelines on Taxation of Virtual Assets.

 

While the virtual asset industry welcomes the NRS Guidelines—because taxation is a definitive step toward legitimization and institutional adoption—we must be careful not to create a fiscal imbalance. Heavily taxing the virtual asset sector while fully exempting traditional equities may inadvertently stifle a booming digital economy. A collaborative review of these tax frameworks could help harmonize policies, ensuring that both the NGX and the virtual asset sector are incentivized fairly, allowing capital to flow efficiently across both markets.

 

4. Activating “Micro-Liquidity” for Macro Growth

 

When the youth invest, indeed it is “the little money they have,” because essentially Nigeria’s regulatory infrastructure is yet to unlock institutional investors as it should. Yet, “the little money they have” represents a massive aggregation of what one could describe as micro-liquidity in Nigeria’s digital economy. The virtual asset market has successfully captured this demographic because of its low barriers to entry, fractionalized ownership, and 24/7 accessibility.

 

The traditional capital market doesn’t need to compete against virtual assets—absolutely not. Rather, the capital market can integrate with them, after all Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) who offer SEC-regulated products and services are now also capital market operators (CMOs). Therefore, by collaborating with VASPs, the NGX can embrace blockchain tokenization. 

 

Tokenizing traditional stocks and bonds would allow a young Nigerian to buy a fraction of a blue-chip NGX stock using their digital wallet, seamlessly funneling that youth liquidity back into the Nigerian capital market. We need to close the apparent generational gap in the capital market.

 

5. Realizing the Vision of the 2026 Executive Order

 

President Tinubu’s Executive Order on Virtual Asset Coordination 2026 and the ISA 2025 represent vital steps designed to safely integrate virtual assets into Nigeria’s mainstream financial system. These frameworks recognize that the future of finance is a convergence of traditional finance and the digital asset economy.

 

To achieve the administration’s ambitious goal of a $1 trillion economy, the NGX and the virtual asset sector must not operate in silos. Nigeria should not, effectively, frame the NGX and the virtual asset space as adversaries locked in a zero-sum game. We are not competitors. In fact, a market-development philosophy and vision should have all stakeholders viewing both markets as two sides of the same wealth-creation coin.

 

To align with President Tinubu’s Executive Order and the ISA 2025, Nigeria needs to encourage the NGX to adopt blockchain tokenization. If the NGX wants to attract the “little money” of the youth, it should be working with VASPs to tokenize traditional stocks, bonds, and real estate, making them as accessible and tradeable as virtual assets. More crucially, NGX and the SEC should work together to help enable access to capital for approved local VASPs in the country. 

 

A Hand of Collaboration

 

The Honorable Minister of Finance—to whom I have a lot of respect for his professional approach to reforms—has demonstrated an incredible capacity for reform and growth. This is why the virtual asset industry badly needs the Honorable Minister to put his weight of support behind this nascent industry. 

 

However, if the government truly wants holistic economic growth, it must stop treating the virtual asset sector as a necessary evil, a rival to be penalized, a national security risk, or the elephant in the room, and start treating it—and rightly so—as the innovative frontier of Nigeria’s financial future.

 

The virtual asset industry is not an adversary to traditional finance; it is a willing partner. The industry is not a national security risk; it is a room of innovators creating economic value. The industry needs a table—not for masters and servants, but for regulators and innovators in a new digital era—to sit side by side, engage responsibly, and co-build a more competitive, safer, and sound digital finance and digital economy. 

 

As co-builders, we stand ready to collaborate with the Ministry of Finance, the SEC, the NRS, and the NGX Group to design frameworks that protect investors and generate sustainable tax revenue. Most importantly, we stand ready to create inclusive wealth for the millions of young Nigerians who are already native to the digital economy.