2025 in Review: Nigeria’s Regulatory Highlights

As the regulatory landscape continues to evolve, recent developments across key sectors in Nigeria have introduced significant changes with far-reaching implications for businesses, investors, and consumers. From data protection and capital markets to taxation, corporate governance, and financial services, these reforms reflect a broader effort by regulators to modernise legal frameworks, strengthen oversight, and align with global best practices. This article highlights some of the regulatory changes that shaped the ecosystem.

Regulatory Highlights

The data privacy sector started the year with the implementation of the Nigeria Data Protection Act - General Application Implementation Directive (NDPA GAID). The draft NDPA GAID, which was published by the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) on May 31, 2024, was finally issued as a legal instrument on the 20th of March, 2025, by the NDPC. The NDPA GAID is now a legal instrument that provides guidance to data processors and controllers for the implementation of the NDPA. We provided a full breakdown and highlights of this instrument here. ​

The Nigerian capital market has, over the years, continued to provide and implement regulations to meet the ever-dynamic system. The implementation of the Investments and Securities Act (ISA), 2025, replaced the repealed ISA 2007 as the comprehensive law that guides the issuance of securities. ISA brought some major redevelopments such as the supervision of the virtual and digital assets operations, reforms of the investments and securities tribunal, categorisation of securities exchange, among other major changes.

Taxation in Nigeria also experienced a transformative year. In June 2025, the country introduced sweeping changes to its tax framework when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed into law the Nigerian Tax Acts. This introduction has left Nigerians seeking answers to a lot of questions on how the new regulation will affect them personally and their businesses. We have provided answers to questions about how the Tax Act will affect startups. The new Tax Acts also brought along major reforms, such as the consolidation of all tax legislation under a single umbrella, the provision of new tax regulations for Limited Liability Partnerships, tax reliefs for small companies, and tax exemptions on capital gains for startup investors, among many others.

In August 2025, the Nigerian regulators rebuilt one of the strongest pillars that companies require in order to continue to stand tall and ensure nothing in its foundation gets so bad as to lead to its collapse. This pillar is what is known as Corporate Governance. It is against this backdrop that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) released the Guidelines of Corporate Governance (“The Guidelines”) for the telecommunications industry. The Guidelines set out comprehensive provisions on the size, structure, and composition of company boards, provided regulations on the establishment of key board committees, implementation of a whistle-blowing policy, shareholding restrictions for shareholders, among other new provisions. ​

Finally, the year may be closing off, or not, with the enactment of the Draft Guidelines on the Operation of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in Nigeria. These Guidelines were introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria to refine the regulatory environment for consumer protection and operational efficiency for ATMs. It provides provisions to ensure service availability, transaction security, accelerated dispute resolution timelines, periodic audits, and sanctions.

Conclusion

As 2025 comes to a close, we find ourselves reflecting not only on the regulatory changes that have shaped key sectors but also on the evolving legal landscape that will continue to influence businesses, startups, and individuals alike. This year has demonstrated the critical role that law and regulation play in fostering transparency, protecting consumers, and ensuring that industries operate on solid foundations. As we look ahead, we remain committed to sharing knowledge and providing tailored and expert legal solutions to you, your business, startup, or company. While this is our last official newsletter for the year, it is far from the end of our engagement with you. 2026 promises new challenges, new regulations, and new opportunities to work with you. We look forward to helping you navigate every legal turn professionally.

‍