Nigeria's naira-only remittance rule: four weeks in, the cracks are showing

What happened. Since May 1, the Central Bank of Nigeria has required all international money-transfer operators to settle remittances through naira accounts at authorised dealer banks. Recipients are now paid in naira at official rates — ending decades of dollar payouts and dollar-funded domiciliary cash. The stated goal is to capture FX inflows in the formal system and improve transparency.

Why this matters to you. Your relatives no longer choose when to convert. They receive naira at the official rate the moment the transfer lands, which removes their old hedge against a weakening currency. Early on, the naira traded near ₦1,376 to the dollar; the gap with the parallel market has narrowed but not closed.

The risk and the decision. Analysts warn the obvious failure mode: if the official rate stays meaningfully below street rates, price-sensitive senders drift back to informal, peer-to-peer channels — defeating the whole reform. For now, the practical move is to compare what each operator’s “naira received” actually works out to, because the headline fee is no longer the only cost — the exchange rate baked into the payout is. Cheapest advertised fee is not the same as most naira delivered.

— TWB Newsroom