AI in financial services: CBN and SEC: a clear, fact-based explanation for organisations in Nigeria — with osFoundry as the example and dgm as an independent partner.

dgm is an independent integration partner for osFoundry — it is not affiliated with the maker of osFoundry (OS LLC) and has not yet completed any integration project for a client.

osFoundry is a model-agnostic AI orchestration platform built on the bring-your-own-key (BYOK) principle: usage-based pricing with no per-user fee, local-first operation, and the option to self-host, with a choice of data region (the United States, the European Union or Japan) or running it in your own private cloud.

CBN, SEC and AI

Financial services are tightly regulated. Banks answer to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); capital markets and digital assets to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Investments and Securities Act 2025; and insurers to NAICOM. None of these regulators has issued a dedicated AI rulebook, but all expect sound governance, customer-data confidentiality and consumer protection, and the CBN’s risk-based cybersecurity framework applies. The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 restricts decisions based solely on automated processing, so keep a human in the loop for credit scoring and similar decisions, and handle customer data carefully.

No binding AI law

Nigeria has no binding, cross-sector artificial-intelligence law in force. The National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, published by NITDA’s National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR) with the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, is a strategy, not legislation. Two relevant bills — the National Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill and a bill to establish a National AI Commission — have been moving through the National Assembly, but neither had been signed into law at the time of writing. In practice, AI is governed indirectly: through the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, which restricts decisions based solely on automated processing and requires an impact assessment for high-risk uses, and through your sector regulator. Always confirm the current position with a qualified adviser before acting.

Worth remembering

This article is general information and not legal, financial or tax advice. Incentives, tax rates and regulations change; always confirm the current position with an official source — the NDPC, NITDA, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (becoming the Nigeria Revenue Service), the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Securities and Exchange Commission, NAICOM, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission or the relevant authority — or a qualified adviser before acting.

Where osFoundry fits in

osFoundry is a model-agnostic platform, priced by usage, that your teams can use to put the ideas in this article into practice — building assistants, agents and applications on your own data. dgm helps you independently take the first step.

Where dgm fits in

dgm is an independent integration partner that helps organisations in Nigeria adopt the osFoundry platform — from identifying the first practical use case, to configuration, to connecting AI to the systems you already run. dgm works separately from the maker of osFoundry (OS LLC) and has not yet completed an integration project for any client, so everything described above is a proposed service, not a delivered result. If you would like to weigh a practical first step, dgm is glad to look at it with you. Book an introductory call with dgm.