Nigeria's Tinubu Urges Crypto Literacy for Judges
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Tinubu’s Crypto Literacy Push: Expert Says Nigeria Needs Policy Clarity Before Judicial Training

President Tinubu’s call for judicial crypto literacy is a welcome step, but one expert warns that without clear policy, it risks reinforcing negative biases and stifling innovation. Is Nigeria ready to level up its crypto game?

Nigeria’s Tinubu Urges Crypto Literacy for Judges

President Bola Tinubu‘s recent charge to Nigeria’s judiciary to embrace cryptocurrency literacy, delivered via Vice President Kashim Shettima at an EFCC/NJI workshop, sounds progressive. After all, sophisticated financial crimes demand sophisticated understanding.
But, as Senator Ihenyen, Lead Partner at Infusion Lawyers and Executive Chair of the Virtual Asset Service Providers Association (VASPA), points out, focusing solely on the crime-fighting aspect misses the bigger picture. “It shows a crucial recognition that traditional judicial methods are inadequate for the digital age,” Ihenyen admits. However, he cautions that this narrow focus risks painting Nigeria’s crypto ecosystem as a hotbed for illicit activity, rather than a burgeoning landscape of opportunity.Ihenyen stresses that the message articulated in the speech is “insufficiently holistic,” potentially leading to “reactionary approaches” instead of a solid foundation for enforcement. It’s like teaching a surgeon how to stitch up wounds without teaching them basic anatomy – you might fix the immediate problem, but you’re not building long-term expertise.

Nigeria’s crypto journey is a fascinating paradox: a global leader in grassroots adoption despite regulatory headwinds. Chainalysis reports that Nigeria received a staggering $92.1 billion in on-chain value between July 2024 and June 2025, almost half of Sub-Saharan Africa’s total. This isn’t about shadowy figures in back alleys; it’s about freelancers, small businesses, and tech-savvy youth leveraging crypto for survival and economic empowerment.

“Crypto adoption in the country is not the story of crime, but a story of resilience,” Ihenyen emphasizes. Nigerians use crypto for investments, payments, remittances, and cross-border trade.

Focusing solely on fraud risks stifling these legitimate activities, pushing the market back into the shadows. Imagine trying to regulate the internet by only focusing on phishing scams – you’d cripple innovation and legitimate online commerce.

Nigeria’s regulatory environment for digital assets has been, to put it mildly, inconsistent. From the 2021 CBN directive barring banks from crypto transactions to the subsequent rollout of VASP guidelines and the SEC’s digital asset framework, the rules have been a moving target. Even the updated Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025, classifying digital assets as securities, hasn’t brought complete clarity.Ihenyen argues that these fragmented and often prohibitive rules undermine the very goal of judicial competence. “It may be counterproductive to demand that the judiciary be grounded in a subject where the executive and regulatory branches are yet to establish clear, harmonised rules of engagement.” It’s like asking a judge to rule on a complex engineering case when the building codes are constantly being rewritten.

The solution? Legislative clarity. A unified, competitive national VASP Act or comprehensive digital asset framework is essential. This should precede or run concurrently with judicial training, providing judges with a reliable and stable legal foundation to interpret. This is essentially what the rule of law is about.

Nigeria’s obsession with crime control overlooks a golden opportunity: leveraging blockchain to improve governance, efficiency, and transparency. Blockchain isn’t just about Bitcoin and dodgy dealings; it’s a fundamental digital infrastructure for secure record-keeping, land registry, supply chain transparency, identity management, and governance.Ihenyen envisions a future where the President’s Office champions blockchain adoption across government. This requires a coordinated, national approach – a National Virtual Asset Strategy that includes judicial and law enforcement training, regulatory capacity building, competitive licensing for local innovators, and government adoption of blockchain for efficiency and transparency. Only then can Nigeria truly harness the transformative potential of this technology, moving beyond a reactive stance to a proactive one.

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