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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has opened applications for the second cohort of its Regulatory Sandbox Programme, creating a dedicated testing route for fintechs developing financial services around permission-based data sharing.
The latest cohort features two tracks, including a new pathway for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) and the Data-Enabled Financial Services (Non-VASP) Track, which could provide a significant regulatory testing opportunity for companies building products around consent-driven access to financial data.
Applications opened on August 12, 2026, and will close on August 31, giving interested firms less than three weeks to submit their proposals through the CBN Regulatory Sandbox Portal.
CBN Targets Data-Driven Financial Innovation
The Non-VASP track is designed for innovations that employ secure digital infrastructure and permission-based data sharing to address challenges across Nigeria’s financial sector.
According to the CBN, eligible solutions may focus on areas including financial inclusion, payments, credit, risk management, operational efficiency and improved consumer outcomes.
The focus is particularly significant for Nigeria’s evolving open banking ecosystem, where financial institutions and fintech companies have long anticipated wider use of customer-authorised data sharing.
The CBN introduced its regulatory framework for open banking in 2021 and subsequently issued operational guidelines. However, the implementation of open banking has faced delays, leaving banks, fintechs and third-party providers with regulatory standards but limited large-scale adoption.
The new sandbox track does not replace or alter the existing open banking framework. Instead, it offers firms an opportunity to test products based on consent-driven data sharing under the regulator’s supervision.
Firms Face Readiness Test
The apex bank said applications will be evaluated against several criteria, including the level of innovation, preparedness for controlled live testing, potential benefits to consumers and the wider market, governance structures, risk-management capacity and the suitability of the proposed testing approach.
For fintechs, the emphasis on readiness could prove decisive.
Companies seeking admission are expected to demonstrate that their solutions are sufficiently developed to undergo controlled testing rather than simply presenting an early-stage concept.
Successful applicants will be permitted to conduct supervised tests within parameters agreed with the CBN.
Those tests will be subject to safeguards covering consumer protection, operational resilience, cybersecurity and regulatory reporting.
However, participation in the programme does not amount to regulatory approval to conduct business outside the sandbox.
The CBN made clear that admission to the programme does not constitute a licence, authorisation or approval to operate beyond the specific testing parameters established for the participant.
For participating companies, the immediate benefit is therefore regulatory access and learning rather than a blanket operating licence.
First Cohort Attracted Strong Interest
The CBN’s experience with the first sandbox cohort indicates that demand for the programme could be substantial.
The apex bank opened applications for the first cohort in December 2022, with the application window closing on February 1, 2023. The programme reportedly attracted more than 1,000 submissions.
The level of interest suggests that competition among fintechs seeking access to the second cohort could be significant, particularly as Nigeria’s financial technology ecosystem continues to expand into new areas of digital finance.
Sandbox Opens Amid Broader Regulatory Changes
The second cohort is being launched against the backdrop of increased regulatory activity across Nigeria’s financial services and digital asset sectors.
It follows President Bola Tinubu’s executive order on the harmonisation of virtual asset oversight, which established a Virtual Asset Council chaired by the CBN.
It also comes shortly after the release of a Nigeria Revenue Service tax framework covering virtual assets.
The timing gives the latest sandbox programme a broader significance, with the CBN effectively creating testing environments for two important areas of financial innovation.
The virtual asset track focuses on an increasingly prominent segment of digital finance, while the Non-VASP track addresses the longer-running ambition of enabling financial data to move securely between institutions with customers’ permission.
Open Banking’s Next Test
For Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem, the central question is whether the sandbox can help translate the country’s open banking framework into products that can operate in real-world conditions.
The programme gives the CBN an opportunity to observe how consent-based financial data sharing works in controlled live environments, while allowing innovators to identify regulatory, operational and consumer-protection challenges before wider deployment.
Ultimately, the impact of the initiative will depend not only on the number of companies admitted or tested, but also on how the CBN applies lessons from those experiments to the broader financial-services market.
For now, fintechs developing permission-based data products have until August 31, 2026, to submit their applications and make their case for inclusion in the second cohort.
