As policymakers and international institutions raise concerns over the growing use of stablecoins in Nigeria and other emerging markets, the debate has largely centred on risks to monetary sovereignty and financial stability.
In this exclusive interview with FRIDAY EHIME ALEX, the CEO and Co-Founder of WeFi, Maksym Sakharov, argues that the rapid adoption of dollar-backed digital assets reflects a deeper challenge. He points out that consumers are choosing the fastest, cheapest, and most reliable way to move and store value.
Sakharov also explains why stablecoins continue to gain traction despite regulatory concerns, what the rise of “digital dollarisation” says about gaps in existing financial systems, and how regulators can encourage innovation without compromising consumer protection. He also discusses the future of Nigeria’s cNGN, the resilience of peer-to-peer markets, and the opportunity to build a more efficient cross-border payments network that could connect economies across Sub-Saharan Africa.
On the Nigerian Landscape:
Pinnacle Daily: The IMF observes that USD-denominated stablecoins enable households and firms to transact outside the formal system, a phenomenon known as “digital dollarisation”. How can traditional Nigerian banks adapt to remain competitive against this shift?
Sakharov: Stablecoin usage is telling banks something important: people want more reliable access to value, faster settlement, and cheaper cross-border payments. Nigerian banks already have major advantages: trust, regulatory standing, customer relationships, and access to local payment infrastructure.
To stay competitive, they can use those strengths to improve the digital experience around FX, transfers, and settlement. That means clearer pricing, faster access, better mobile products, and regulated ways to connect with stablecoin infrastructure where appropriate. People generally do not leave formal channels for philosophical reasons. They leave when the alternative is faster, cheaper, or easier. Banks can respond by making the formal system work better.
Pinnacle Daily: The report emphasises “bringing stablecoin and other crypto-asset activities into the regulatory perimeter”. In your view, will stricter licensing requirements protect consumers or stifle local fintech innovation?
Sakharov: Licensing can protect consumers when the rules are clear, practical, and proportionate. Stablecoin activity already exists in Nigeria, so the question is how to create accountable participation. Good regulation can set standards for custody, disclosures, onboarding, monitoring, and financial integrity. It can also give serious companies more certainty about how to build.
The concern is when the process becomes too expensive, too slow, or too unclear for responsible local fintechs to enter the market. Then the strongest players may not be the most innovative, but simply the ones with the most resources. Nigeria needs a framework that raises standards while still leaving room for local builders. Consumer protection and innovation should not be treated as opposing goals.
Pinnacle Daily: Given the “limited uptake” of the regulated cNGN stablecoin compared to the network effects of USD-backed alternatives, what technical features are needed to make a local digital currency viable for Nigerians?
Sakharov: Wallet interoperability, merchant acceptance, low fees, mobile access, clear redemption, and liquidity are the baseline. Without them, a local digital currency will struggle to function. But baseline infrastructure does not automatically create demand. For Nigerians to choose a local digital currency over USD-backed alternatives, it needs to solve a specific everyday problem better than the existing options. That could be local merchant payments, business settlement, payroll, public transfers, or regulated access to digital financial services.
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The stronger question is whether it can become useful across the places where Nigerians already move money. If a local digital currency is accepted only in a narrow environment, users will still prefer the asset with deeper liquidity, wider acceptance, and clearer practical value.
Pinnacle Daily: Since past “regulatory restrictions… shifted activity toward less regulated channels” like peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms rather than reducing them, what is the best strategy for the government to ensure transparency?
Sakharov: The government needs to make transparent channels more convenient than less regulated ones.
If P2P platforms become the easiest route to stablecoin access, then restrictions can reduce visibility instead of improving it. Users will choose the option that works, especially in a market where speed, liquidity, and access matter.
The better approach is to give licensed providers clear rules and enough room to build a full experience: onboarding, stablecoin access, settlement, cash-out, merchant payments, and reporting. That has to be paired with real accountability around monitoring, disclosures, consumer protection, and financial integrity. The objective should be to make the regulated route safer and more complete than informal alternatives. Once transparent platforms offer a better experience, the appeal of less-regulated channels naturally becomes weaker.
On the Broader African Context:
Pinnacle Daily: Nigeria currently accounts for “around 60 per cent of inflows” of stablecoins to Sub-Saharan Africa. How can other African nations leverage Nigeria’s infrastructure to improve their own cross-border payment efficiency?
Sakharov: Other African nations should look at Nigeria as a live case study in stablecoin demand: where users need digital dollars, which corridors create liquidity, how people move between local currency and stablecoins, and where the existing payment system still creates friction.
But the goal should not be for every country to build a separate version of the same infrastructure. Each market has different banking access, mobile money adoption, currency pressure, and regulatory priorities. The larger opportunity is to use those local differences to design a more connected Sub-Saharan payment layer.
That means shared standards for wallet interoperability, liquidity corridors, compliance, local currency access, and cross-border settlement. Nigeria’s role can be important because scale creates liquidity, but the regional gain comes from connecting markets rather than duplicating isolated systems.
Pinnacle Daily: While stablecoins can cost “only a few cents per dollar” to send, remittance costs in Sub-Saharan Africa remain as high as “8.78 per cent”. What are the primary technical barriers preventing a low-cost, universal standard for the continent?
Sakharov: A cheap on-chain transfer only solves one part of the problem. The harder costs come from the surrounding infrastructure: converting between local currencies and stablecoins, maintaining liquidity in smaller corridors, connecting wallets to banks and mobile money networks, meeting compliance requirements, and giving recipients a practical way to spend or withdraw.
A universal standard is difficult because Africa is not one payment market. There are many currencies, regulators, banking systems, mobile money networks, and settlement processes. Each corridor has its own technical and liquidity constraints.
A lower-cost model would need stronger on-ramps and off-ramps, shared compliance standards, better FX liquidity, and deeper integration with local payment systems. The goal is to make the entire journey cheaper for both the sender and the recipient.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X