- Nigeria’s potential move toward a unified fintech regulator will introduce tighter standards, clearer supervision, and a stronger emphasis on interoperability data integrity and consumer protection
- Fintechs can prepare by building API-driven systems, strengthening data governance, embedding compliance into daily operations and maintaining agility for rapid product development
- Platforms like Oradian offer tools for interoperability, secure data access, and compliance readiness, helping institutions adapt to evolving regulatory expectations and thrive in a connected ecosystem
As Nigeria prepares for the possibility of a unified fintech regulator — the National Fintech Regulatory Commission (NFRC) — operators across payments, digital lending, banking-as-a-service, and embedded finance are entering a new era of regulatory expectations.
The anticipated shift isn’t simply administrative. A single regulator typically means tighter standards, clearer supervision, and a stronger emphasis on interoperability, data integrity, and consumer protection.
For forward-looking fintech leaders, the question is no longer what the regulation will say, but how to get operationally ready now. This guide focuses on the practical steps institutions can take to strengthen their systems, organise their data, and improve compliance readiness.
1. Build for Interoperability and Open Banking
If a unified regulator emerges, one of its first priorities is standardising how institutions connect, share data, and integrate with national rails. That means harmonised APIs, cleaner data formats, and onboarding processes that reduce fragmentation.
Fintechs should begin assessing whether their current technology stack can:
- Consume and expose APIs in a standardised, version-controlled way.
- Connect cleanly to KYC/AML databases, payment switches, mobile money operators, credit bureaux, and wallets.
- Trigger real-time events (e.g., customer onboarding, repayment updates, fraud flags) for external partners and regulators.
Oradian’s architecture is API-first by design, built to plug into payments, identity services, credit infrastructure, and third-party applications through secure endpoints and webhook or event frameworks. As regulatory connectivity expectations rise, this type of interoperability backbone will be essential.
As Oradian’s spokesperson and CEO Antonio Separovic, puts it simply: “Unified oversight raises the bar on data quality and connectivity. Teams that fix their data path and standardize APIs will move fastest and stay safest.”
2. Strengthen Data Foundations and Secure Access
A centralised regulator depends on real-time, reliable, and well-governed data. Fintechs operating with fragmented datasets, undocumented transformations, or manual reporting pipelines will face significant friction under a unified supervisory model.
Readiness should include:
- Establishing governed, clean, reconciled datasets across products.
- Implementing role-based access controls to protect sensitive customer information.
- Ensuring data can be retrieved quickly for audits, reporting, or consumer requests— without compromising the stability of core systems.
- Preparing data infrastructure for analytics, AI-driven risk models, and automated reporting workflows.
This is where platforms like Oradian’s Database Access feature become enabling tools. It provides governed read replicas, audited queries, and role-based controls that let teams use real-time data for reporting and analytics without touching production systems.
As Oradian representative notes: “Open-banking style interoperability is only useful if your core can expose clean, governed data on demand. That’s the gap we close.”
3. Design Compliance Into Daily Operations
A unified regulator is likely to heighten expectations around internal controls, monitoring, customer protection, and auditability. Fintechs should therefore build compliance functions into daily workflows — not treat them as afterthoughts.
Key operational capabilities to prepare include:
- Comprehensive audit trails for all transactions and user actions.
- Maker–checker workflows for approvals.
- Clear, time-bound dispute resolution processes.
- Automated logs for data access, staff actions, and system exceptions.
- Templates or modules that simplify periodic reporting.
- Clear policies for data retention, user privacy, and incident reporting.
Oradian includes many of these capabilities out of the box, such as audit logs, role-based permissions, policy controls, dashboards, and templated reporting formats. These features reduce the operational burden on compliance and risk teams, allowing them to demonstrate adherence quickly when regulators request evidence.
4. Achieve Speed — Without Losing Control
In markets that move fast, responsiveness is often the difference between maintaining competitiveness and stagnating. As regulatory standards settle under a unified supervisor, the fintechs that win will be those able to ship new, compliant products rapidly and with confidence.
Operational readiness here means:
- Maintaining dedicated test environments to validate new features safely.
- Keeping deployment pipelines automated and auditable.
- Ensuring cloud environments scale securely during peak loads.
- Being able to create and trial new financial products or workflows in short cycles. Oradian’s cloud-native platform, combined with its ability to launch pilots in weeks, is designed to support fast iteration while maintaining strict operational controls. This balance of agility and discipline will be increasingly crucial as regulatory expectations mature.
5. Prepare for Local Realities and Regional Complexity
Even with a unified regulator, Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem will remain deeply interconnected with regional payment systems, telecoms, agency networks, and identity infrastructure. Providers must understand local integration patterns, data residency requirements, and operational constraints.
Oradian already supports large-scale lending and financial operations across Nigeria and broader Sub-Saharan Africa. Partnerships with institutions like FairMoney and SEAP demonstrate the platform’s ability to operate reliably at scale, adapt to local requirements, and deliver support aligned to Nigerian operational needs.
Its Customer Success and Product Adoption teams also play a role in helping institutions turn regulatory requirements into practical workflows and best practices.
Making the Transition: A Practical Checklist for Fintech Leaders. Here are steps fintechs can begin implementing immediately:
Technology & Systems
- Evaluate API maturity and documentation quality.
- Map all integrations and ensure they follow consistent standards.
- Set up sandbox environments that mirror production behaviour.
Data & Reporting
- Build governed, centralised datasets.
- Implement query auditing and access controls.
- Begin automating recurring regulatory reports.
Operations & Compliance
- Establish maker–checker approval flows.
- Document dispute, incident, and SLA processes.
- Implement full audit trails across the organisation.
Product & Innovation
- Shorten product development cycles through modular architecture.
- Run controlled pilots to test compliance readiness.
- Strengthen monitoring, observability, and uptime processes.
Organisational Readiness
- Train teams on new data and API standards.
- Engage vendors early to ensure alignment with regulatory expectations.
- Track developments from policymakers but focus on internal preparedness first. Nigeria’s potential move toward a single fintech regulator represents a shift toward coherence — one that rewards institutions with mature systems, disciplined data governance, and strong operational foundations.
While no one can predict the final shape of the NFRC, fintechs do not have to wait to get ready. The steps outlined above strengthen resilience, improve customer trust, and position institutions to thrive in a more standardised and connected regulatory environment.
Platforms like Oradian offer a practical foundation for institutions seeking to build interoperability, secure data access, and fast compliance into their core operations. But readiness ultimately starts with proactive leadership and a commitment to strengthening internal systems today.
Nigeria’s next fintech chapter will belong to the operators who prepare early — and build for the future, not just the rules.
