NFRC: Operational readiness for Nigeria’s next fintech chapter – a practical guide

Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem has grown at remarkable speed. Payments, digital lending, wallets, embedded finance and agency banking now touch millions of customers daily. With this scale comes a different regulatory conversation.

The advancement of the Nigerian Fintech Regulatory Commission (NFRC) Bill signals a possible shift from fragmented regulatory patchwork toward a more unified, centralised oversight model.  

For fintech leaders, the most productive response is not political debate, but operational readiness. History from other markets shows that when regulation is unified, expectations around data quality, transparency, consumer protection and system connectivity rise exponentially. Teams that prepare early tend to move faster, with less disruption. 

​The question is no longer just about obtaining a licence; it is about whether your core operational engine can withstand the scrutiny of a single, empowered regulator while keeping pace with market demands. 

This article offers a practical guide to what Nigerian fintechs can do now, regardless of how timelines evolve. The focus is on systems, data and processes that support compliance by design, while still allowing product innovation.  

The new standard for fintech’s interoperability 

​A unified regulatory environment often accelerates the standardisation of how financial institutions talk to each other. We are already seeing the push toward open banking and standardised API frameworks.

In this new chapter, proprietary, closed-loop systems will become liabilities. This shift favours platforms that are modular, well-documented, and observable in real time. 

Regulators will increasingly expect fintechs to plug into national rails, credit bureaus, and KYC databases with zero friction. This requires an API-first architecture, not as a luxury, but as a baseline. 

According to Antonio Separovic, co-founder and CEO of Oradian, “Unified oversight raises the bar on data quality and connectivity. Teams that fix their data path and standardise APIs will move fastest and stay safest.” 

API-first architecture is no longer a technical preference. It is a regulatory enabler. Fintechs should ensure their core systems can expose and consume services securely, with versioned endpoints and clear contracts. Event-driven patterns matter too.

Webhooks and streaming enable systems to respond to transactions, disputes, or risk signals in near real-time, which is increasingly expected by supervisors and partners. 

Platforms like Oradian are built with this reality in mind. Its core banking system is designed to plug into payment switches, identity providers, AML services and wallets without brittle custom work. In practice, this reduces the operational cost of onboarding new regulated connections as standards evolve. 

The second foundation is data. Strong oversight depends on clean, governed and timely data. Fragmented regulation can allow fragmented data practices. Unification rarely does. Regulators usually want confidence that numbers reconcile, histories are immutable and reports can be reproduced. 

Many fintechs still rely on ad hoc access to production databases or manual exports for reporting and analytics. This creates risk. A more mature approach separates operational workloads from analytical and regulatory access while enforcing role-based controls and full query auditing. 

Oradian’s “Database Access” capability is one example of this pattern. It provides governed read replicas with strict permissions. Teams can run regulatory reports, risk analysis or even AI models on near real-time data without touching live transaction processing. For audits, this creates a clear evidence trail of who accessed what and why. 

This type of setup also supports faster response to regulatory queries. When data is already structured, documented and accessible in a controlled way, compliance teams spend less time gathering and more time explaining. 

Compliance operations themselves are the third focus area. A unified regulator typically brings tighter requirements around internal controls. These can include maker–checker approvals, clear policy enforcement, dispute handling timelines, data retention rules and defined SLAs for customer complaints. 

Trying to retrofit these controls at the process level alone is risky. Modern practice baked controls naturally into systems. Audit trails should be automatic. Permissions should be granular. Exceptions should be visible on dashboards, not buried in spreadsheets. 

Core platforms that offer native audit logs, workflow controls and templated reports reduce manual effort. They also reduce the chance of gaps under inspection. Oradian, for instance, provides system-level permissioning, real-time compliance dashboards and standard reports that teams can adapt to local requirements. 

Speed still matters. In fact, it matters more when rules are clearer. Once standards settle, the competitive edge shifts to who can ship compliant products fastest. This requires disciplined separation of environments, strong testing practices and cloud-native scalability. 

Fintechs should ensure they can pilot new products without risking production stability. Test and sandbox environments should mirror real controls. Releases should be traceable. Scaling infrastructure should not require rewrites. 

Oradian’s customers often highlight this balance between speed and control. Institutions can launch new lending or savings products in weeks while maintaining clear boundaries between experimentation and live operations. Cloud SLAs and resilience features support growth without sacrificing uptime or audit readiness. 

Local context and execution 

Nigeria’s context adds specific considerations. Data residency expectations. Local integration patterns. High transaction volumes. Regulatory engagement that often moves quickly from guidance to enforcement. 

Experience in similar markets helps. Oradian operates across Sub-Saharan Africa and supports institutions such as FairMoney and SEAP at scale. That exposure shapes practical product decisions, from local payment integrations to operational playbooks for audits and rollouts. 

The broader lesson, however, applies to all fintechs, regardless of vendor. Unified regulation rewards clarity. Clear data paths. Clear interfaces. Clear accountability. Teams that invest now in interoperable systems, governed data access and embedded controls will adapt with far less friction. 

Another perspective is equally important. “Open-banking-style interoperability is only useful if your core can expose clean, governed data on demand. That’s the gap we close,” Separovic adds. 

Nigeria’s next fintech chapter will not be defined by regulation alone. It will be shaped by how effectively institutions translate standards into operations. Preparation today is not about compliance for its own sake, but about building foundations that support trust, speed, and sustainable growth tomorrow.