Online forex trading remains an unregulated activity in Nigeria. Safety must be your watchword when choosing a forex broker. We discuss only those forex brokers with strong oversea regulations and a reputation free of scandals & market malpractice.
Best Forex Brokers in Nigeria List
- HF Markets – Overall Best Forex Broker in Nigeria, Best Customer Support in Nigeria
- Pepperstone – Forex broker with no minimum deposit in Nigeria
- Exness – Forex broker with lowest spread in Nigeria
- XM – Best forex broker in Nigeria for beginners
- AvaTrade– Best broker for forex trading using fixed spreads
- FxPro – Best broker for forex trading using cTrader
Best forex brokers in Nigeria compared side by side
#1. HF Markets
- Overall best forex broker in Nigeria
- Best customer support
Reason to trade
Start trading with a N5, 500 minimum deposit: Nigerian clients can deposit N5, 500 or $5 by transferring from their Nigerian Bank Account to their HF Markets Wallet. Deposits reflect in 24 hours and the account is activated for trading.
Trade micro lots using Cent account: On the Cent Account, trading large quantities of any instrument is deactivated. You cannot trade above 1,000 units of an instrument. Access to trading micro lots is especially beneficial to beginners to prevent them from blowing their trading account quickly and getting discouraged.
For example, when you trade a micro lot of EUR/USD you lose or gain $0.1 for every pip movement but when you trade EUR/USD standard lots using bigger accounts you can lose as much as $10 on every pip movement
Cent Accounts are ideal for beginners as losses will not hit as hard as if they had opened the bigger account types.
You can open a Cent Account with N5, 500 and transfer funds from your bank or internet banking app into your HFM Wallet.
Naira account currency: You can set your account currency to Naira. This will help you avoid paying HF Markets a fee to change your Naira deposits to another account currency. HF Markets Nigeria also offers USD, EUR, & JPY account currencies.
Trade instruments you don’t own using leverage: You don’t need to acquire the underlying instrument you are trading so you enter a contract for Difference (CFD) with HF Markets and pick which direction you think the instrument price will go.
If you pick that the price will go up, you will be compensated with the price difference if you are right. CFDs available are Forex, Stocks, ETF, Bonds, Commodities, & Indices CFDs.
Also, HF Markets will allow you to open a trade up to 2000 times the money in your trading account. They do this with the hope that your trade will be profitable.
Once they see your trade is not profitable, they will ask you to deposit more funds and if you cannot, they close your trades. This is called leverage and HF Markets leverage is up to 1:2000.
Trade without overnight fees: You don’t pay to keep your trades open till the next day. This means you don’t pay overnight swap fees, but you also don’t earn swaps. Swap-free trading at HF Markets Nigeria covers all instruments you trade.
Copy trades of more experienced traders: With HF Markets, you can copy and follow the trades of experienced traders, bypassing the need for in-depth analysis, learn and follow their strategies and decisions while developing your strategies. You can choose the most experienced traders according to their performance and trades.
Great Customer Support: An Account Manager is assigned to you to help you resolve any issues. The Account manager will usually contact you via telephone & email after you open your account.
Reasons to avoid
High spreads on entry-level accounts: Some HF Markets accounts (the ones that you can open with N6, 000) charge higher spreads but these accounts are good for beginners who are experimenting with the market.
More experienced high-volume traders can get lower spread on the PRO & PRO PLUS Accounts, but their minimum deposit is N50, 000 for PRO & N200, 000 for PRO PLUS.
Inactivity fees: HF Markets charges you $5 per month after 30 days (about 4 and a half weeks) of no trading activity on your account and $10 per month after 90 days (about 3 months) of no trading activities on your account.
#2. Pepperstone – Forex broker with no minimum deposit in Nigeria
Reason to trade
- No minimum deposit required: The minimum deposit for a Pepperstone account is $0. You can open an account with any amount as there are no minimum deposits required to trade on Pepperstone.
- Trade instruments you don’t own using leverage: You can increase your profits with leverage by trading instruments you don’t own. With a maximum leverage of 1:400, you can adjust your leverage to your trading habits, managing risks.
- Trade on multiple platforms/apps: Pepperstone allows you to trade on different platforms like TradingView, MT4, MT5, Pepperstone trading platform, and cTrader.
- No inactivity fees: Pepperstone doesn’t charge any inactivity fee when your account stays idle for a long time.
- Access to quality trading education & market insights: Pepperstone offers education on how to trade CFDs, forex, and shares. Pepperstone educates you about liquidity, equipping you with webinars, educational videos, training guides, and trading tools, offering market analysis from professional analysts.
Reasons to avoid
No Naira account currency: Pepperstone does not have a Naira account currency. This creates the need for currency conversion. The account base currencies available are USD & EUR.
#3. Exness – Best Forex Broker in Nigeria with Low Fees & Naira Account
Reason to trade
- Trade with low minimum deposits: You can open an Exness account with $10 or around N13, 000 (depending on the USD/NGN exchange rate).
Exness accepts transfers from local Nigerian Banks as seen on their platforms. You can also deposit by entering your ATM card details and effecting the transfer which will enter your account in 24 hours.
To deposit, go to the Exness website then register an account and make the deposit using internet banking, mobile banking or ATM Card.
- Naira account currency: Exness offers a Naira base currency account. This allows for easier transactions and eliminates the need for currency conversion.
- Trade instruments you don’t own using leverage: Exness offers CFD contracts on over 100 forex pairs, plus other assets like Indices, Stocks, & Commodities. CFD contracts mean you don’t acquire the underlying asset you only speculate on price direction.
Exness also allows up to 1:2000 leverage allowing you open positions 2000 times bigger than the funds in your account. If your trade becomes unprofitable, Exness will require you to deposit more funds.
- Trade without overnight fees: Exness does not charge overnight fees on Major Currency pairs as well as some Minor Currency Pairs. Other swap free instruments with no overnight fees are Indices, Crypto, & Gold.
- Low spread: Exness Standard Accounts charge low spreads, and the popular EUR/USD average spread is 1.0 pips. This means you pay $10 spread to trade 100,000 units and $1 spread to trade 10,000 units of EUR/USD etc.
- No inactivity fees: Exness does not charge inactivity fees for dormant accounts. All accounts are free to use at any time as management fees are not charged.
- Copy trades of more experienced traders: With Exness Social Trading, you can copy the trades of more experienced traders on the platform. You can capitalize on the successful strategies of others and profit from successful trades.
You can also share your successful trading strategies with followers, gain market popularity and set your commission up to 50% of the profits of successful trades.
Reasons to avoid
No MetaTrader support: Exness offers MT4 & MT5 but does not offer additional tools to support them. If you want to upgrade your MT4/5 you need to buy (from the MetaTrader market) or build your own Expert Advisors & technical Indicators using MQL4/5.
#4. XM – Best forex broker in Nigeria for Beginners
Reasons to trade with XM
$5 starting deposit: The minimum deposit to open an XM account is $5 or around N6, 000.
Trade Micro Lots: On the XM Micro Account, Standard Lots are not bigger than 1,000 units of the instrument traded. XM makes it cheaper by allowing you to trade as small as 0.1 of 1,000 units, meaning 100 units of an instrument. This makes trading cheaper and affordable, especially for beginners who may not want to risk trading a standard 100,000-unit lot.
If the market moves against you, your loss is $0.1 per pip which is bearable compared to a loss of $1 to $10 per pip on bigger XM account types.
Trade instruments you don’t own using leverage: CFD contracts are available on Forex, Indices, Stocks, & Commodities which you can trade without owning them. Leverage is also up to 1:1000
Trade Forex & Gold without overnight fees:
Trading major currency pairs using the Ultra-low Account is free of overnight fees. Gold trading is also swap-free
Copy trades of more experienced traders: With XM, you can follow and copy the trades of experienced traders to make profits. You don’t have to be an expert to earn like one or spend hours studying charts.
Reasons to avoid
- No Naira account currency: XM does not have a Naira account currency. This creates the need for currency conversion. The account base currencies available are EUR, USD, GBP, AUD, ZAR, and SGD.
- Inactivity fees: An inactivity monthly fee of $10 will be charged on dormant accounts after your account remains inactive for 90 days (about 3 months).
- XM mobile app is not advanced: if you intend to trade with XM, it’s advisable to download MT4/5 and login with your XM credentials. The XM in-house mobile app is not advanced, and you may not like it for trading.
What does a forex broker do?
Keep your funds safe
A forex broker is tasked with the responsibility of keeping your funds safe. These brokers hold your funds in a separate account from their operational accounts, this ensures that your funds are not affected in case of a financial crisis.
Only forex brokers regulated by tier-1 regulators can be trusted to keep your funds safe. Tier-1 regulators have more experience in broker oversight and are strict.
Forex Brokers like HF Markets & Exness are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) United Kingdom which is tier 1.
AvaTrade & Pepperstone are also regulated by the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) which is also tier 1.
Some countries grant forex licenses just because they want to attract business and they allow these forex brokers to self-regulate, which is dangerous.
Brokers under weak regulation can commingle your funds or use your funds to sponsor their business interests elsewhere.
Connect you to other traders in the market via trading software
Forex brokers act as intermediaries between traders and the foreign exchange market. Brokers through the trading software allow traders to interact with other traders through social trading platforms, chat rooms, or forums.
Some brokers also offer copy trading services which enable novice traders to interact and connect with experienced traders and replicate their trades. Many brokers also organize webinars, seminars, and other events to foster community engagement among their traders.
Provide leverage
Forex brokers are to provide leverage which will help increase your gains. While high leverage can increase profits, it also increases the risk of significant losses.
Brokers offering excessively high leverage must be well-capitalized to handle the increased risk. During market crashes or extreme volatility, undercapitalized brokers may face liquidity issues, affecting their ability to execute trades and potentially putting client funds at risk.
FAQs on Best Forex Brokers in Nigeria
Which is the best broker for forex trading?
HF Markets is the best forex broker in Nigeria because all types of traders are accommodated.
Beginners have a Demo Account to experiment with, and a N5, 500 minimum deposit Cent Account to transition into after experimenting with the Demo.
Experienced traders have Raw/Zero Spread Accounts, MetaTrader Support, Copy Trading, Auto Chartist and other advanced tools at their disposal.
Overnight holding fees are not charged in Nigeria and this also lowers trading cost.
How can I tell if a forex broker is regulated?
Find out the regulator who oversees the forex broker, then head to the regulator’s website to verify. If the forex broker is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) United Kingdom, you can visit the FCA website to reconfirm.
Which forex broker has the lowest minimum deposit?
Pepperstone has the lowest minimum deposit of $0. There are no minimum deposits required to trade on Pepperstone.
Which forex broker has the lowest spread?
Exness has the lowest spread. The benchmark EUR/USD average spread is 1.0 pips on Standard Accounts and 0.0 pips on the Raw/Zero Accounts.
How do I open a forex broker account?
You can open a Forex broker account by
- Researching and choosing a broker
- Visit the broker’s website and click on the Sign Up or Open Account button
- Fill out the application
- Verify your identity
This article has been provided by one of our content partners and may not reflect the views or opinions of Nairametrics or its analysts. Readers are encouraged to perform additional research to supplement the information presented here.
