Digital Economy Regulation, Cross-Border Data Flows, and the Internationalisation of Nigerian Fintech Firms

This dissertation investigates the relationship between digital economy regulation, cross-border data flow regimes, and the internationalisation trajectories of Nigerian fintech firms, developing an original theoretical framework for understanding regulatory-driven internationalisation in data-intensive service industries. Nigeria's fintech sector has produced a generation of internationally active firms in payments, digital lending, and investment services, yet their expansion strategies are increasingly shaped by divergent national data sovereignty and financial regulation frameworks across target markets. The study employs a sequential mixed-methods design, beginning with a qualitative phase involving 40 in-depth interviews with Nigerian fintech founders, chief compliance officers, and regulatory affairs specialists in seven countries of operation, followed by a quantitative phase analysing cross-border data flow restriction indices and fintech investment flow data using gravity-augmented regression models. The theoretical framework integrates the digital internationalisation theory, the institutional distance literature, and the regulatory arbitrage hypothesis of financial services internationalisation. The dissertation develops an original Regulatory-Digital Internationalisation Model, which incorporates data localisation costs, regulatory heterogeneity effects, and platform scalability constraints as determinants of fintech internationalisation pathway choice. Original contributions include the Regulatory-Digital Internationalisation Model, a novel data flow restriction index calibrated for African market regulatory contexts, and the identification of regulatory arbitrage as a theoretically distinct internationalisation motive for Nigerian fintech firms. Policy recommendations are developed for Nigerian regulators and for ECOWAS on developing a harmonised digital financial services regulatory framework that supports regional fintech expansion while maintaining data protection standards. Keywords: digital economy, fintech, cross-border data flows, internationalisation, Nigeria