The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has opened applications for the second cohort of its Regulatory Sandbox Programme, expanding the initiative to include virtual asset service providers (VASPs), stablecoin businesses and other emerging financial technology companies.
Applications for the new cohort open on August 12, 2026, and close on August 31, 2026. The programme is designed to allow innovators to test new financial products, services and technologies under the supervision of the apex bank before wider market deployment.
The second cohort introduces two dedicated testing tracks, which are the Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) Track and the Data-Enabled Financial Services (Non-VASP) Track.
The VASP Track covers virtual assets, stablecoins, payments, settlement, custody, wallets, and related financial infrastructure solutions that require supervised live testing.
The Data-Enabled Financial Services Track, meanwhile, targets non-VASP innovations that use secure digital infrastructure and permission-based data sharing to improve financial inclusion, payments, credit, risk management, operational efficiency and consumer outcomes.
