A new regulatory deadline is about to reshape Nigeria’s fast-growing digital lending landscape. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has given all digital lenders and intermediaries until January 5, 2026, to comply fully with updated operational requirements, a move aimed at curbing predatory practices and restoring consumer trust.

The directive comes as the commission tightens its oversight of an industry that has expanded rapidly over the past five years, often outpacing the rules designed to govern it. Nigeria’s digital lending boom, driven by smartphone penetration and gaps in traditional banking, has also brought aggressive debt-recovery tactics, misuse of personal data, and unlicensed operators.

The new rules are designed to close those gaps. Platforms must obtain valid registration, demonstrate data-protection compliance, and ensure all lending and recovery activities meet national consumer-protection standards. Intermediaries, including app stores and payment processors, must also verify that digital lenders they work with have FCCPC approval.

The commission views the January deadline as a turning point. The goal is to clean up the market without slowing innovation, and to ensure that millions of borrowers are protected in an economy where short-term digital credit has become a lifeline.

For fintech companies, the implications are significant. Compliance will determine who stays in the market, who gets removed, and which players can scale sustainably as Nigeria’s digital-finance sector matures.

“The deadline signals that the wild west phase of digital lending in Nigeria is over,” one regulatory analyst told Axis Signal. “The sector is about to be defined by legitimacy rather than speed.”

The question now is whether all operators can meet the requirements in time, and how strictly the FCCPC will enforce the rules once the clock runs out.