Nigeria’s FX demand jumps 91% to $50.93 billion, strongest in six years

Nigeria’s foreign exchange utilisation rose sharply to $50.93 billion in 2025, the highest annual level since 2019, as demand for foreign currency by importers and businesses more than doubled from the previous year.

The latest figure is contained in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) 2025 Statistical Bulletin, which shows that total FX utilisation increased by 91.1% from $26.65 billion recorded across the four quarters of 2024.

The surge was driven by higher demand for both imports and invisible transactions, with the second half of 2025 accounting for the largest share of annual utilisation.

What the data is saying

Nigeria’s total FX utilisation stood at $12.71 billion in Q1 2025, rose to $13.13 billion in Q2 before it moderated to $12.01 billion in Q3 and recovered to $13.08 billion in Q4.

• The quarterly figures brought full-year utilisation to $50.93 billion, compared with $6.72 billion in Q1, $6.39 billion in Q2, $5.67 billion in Q3 and $7.87 billion in Q4 2024.
• The Apex Bank data shows that import-related transactions accounted for $19.94 billion of 2025 utilisation, while invisible transactions accounted for $30.99 billion.
• Import FX utilisation increased from $15.54 billion in 2024 to $19.94 billion in 2025, while invisible transactions rose from $11.11 billion to $30.99 billion, according to the CBN.

Financial services remained the largest component of invisible transactions, rising to $20.30 billion in 2025 from $10.76 billion in 2024.

• Business services also recorded a substantial increase, climbing to about $5.45 billion from $702 million in 2024, while other services not included elsewhere rose to approximately $3.51 billion from $22 million.
• Within the import category, the industrial sector accounted for the largest share, with FX utilisation of $8.60 billion in 2025, up from $6.96 billion in 2024.
• Manufactured products followed with $2.69 billion, while food products accounted for $2.36 billion. The oil sector utilised $4.73 billion during the year, compared with $2.26 billion in 2024.
• Transport-sector FX utilisation increased to $677.51 million from $458.58 million, while agricultural-sector utilisation rose to $208.87 million from $155.96 million.

The figures indicate that demand for foreign currency was spread across productive sectors, imports and services, rather than being driven solely by merchandise imports.

Get up to speed

Nairametrics earlier reported that Nigeria recorded total foreign exchange (FX) inflows of $109.86 billion in 2025, representing a 13.81% increase from $96.53 billion recorded in 2024, according to CBN.

The CBN said aggregate FX outflow also increased during the year, rising by 27.83% to $49.05 billion from $38.37 billion, resulting in a net FX inflow of $60.81 billion, compared with $58.16 billion in 2024.

Also, Nairametrics previously reported that data released by the National Bureau of Statistics show Nigeria attracted a total capital importation of $11.1 billion in the second and third quarters of 2025.

What you should know

On Tuesday, Nairametrics reported that the exchange turnover in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM) fell sharply on Monday, September 7, dropping to N107.07 million as the naira strengthened to N1,320/$.

Nigeria’s foreign exchange market posted its strongest weekly turnover so far in 2026, with total transactions in the FX Spot and Derivatives markets surging 146.12% to $5.06 billion in the week ended August 21, 2026.

Nigeria’s external reserves crossed the $54 billion mark for the first time since December 2008, reaching $54.08 billion as of September 3, 2026.