Nigeria's Money Rules in 2026

Last checked 9 September 2026.

Three things changed in 2026 for anyone moving money in or out of Nigeria: the foreign exchange rules, how gains are taxed, and who regulates crypto. This page covers what's actually in force, what's still a proposal, and what each change does to you depending on how you earn.

What's in force right now?

Start here: what changed for you?

Jump to the part that applies.

• You're a freelancer paid from abroad. The FX Manual and the tax change matter. Cash collection on inbound transfers is capped at the naira equivalent of $200, and your gains are now taxed at your income band.
• You run a business importing or paying suppliers. The FX Manual matters most. Form A is gone for self-funded domiciliary outward transfers, advance import payment is capped at 30% of FOB, and you can't take cash out of an export proceeds account.
• You trade crypto. The NRS guidelines matter most, particularly that your gain is calculated in dollars, plus a 1% withholding on gross proceeds.
• You invest in US stocks. The tax change matters. Nigerian shares get relief that foreign shares don't.
• You're building on crypto rails. The Executive Order and the August draft rules matter. Read the drafts now.

Where Daya fits against each of these: Borders for holding dollars and euros and receiving from abroad, Coins and Pro for buying and selling crypto, Business for company payouts and multi-currency balances, Stocks for US equities, and the Daya API for building on the rails themselves.

What did the 2026 FX Manual change?

The manual took effect on 1 June 2026 and replaced the 2018 edition. It loosened personal access and tightened export controls at the same time.

Loosened:

• Form A is no longer required for outward transfers from a domiciliary account you funded yourself
• Reporting says domiciliary holders now have unrestricted access to their foreign currency balances
• Domiciliary holders can make telegraphic transfers of up to $10,000 a day without exhaustive trade documentation
• Form NXP processing is free for exporters
• Advance payment for imports is capped at 30% of FOB value

Tightened:

• Cash withdrawals from export proceeds accounts are prohibited
• Inbound transfer beneficiaries can take only the naira equivalent of $200 in cash
• Banks face a ₦100 million flat penalty plus ₦10 million per affected transaction for undocumented transfers, and corporates face fines up to 10 times the transaction amount

There are two different $10,000 limits in the manual and they get conflated. One covers cross-border movement of physical cash without declaration. The other is the daily domiciliary transfer threshold.

The CBN gave the manual to banks rather than publishing it, so the detail here comes from law firm and press summaries.

Money sent through remittance services now arrives in naira

Since 1 May 2026, licensed money transfer operators have to settle diaspora remittances in naira only, through designated settlement accounts.

What it means for you: if someone abroad sends you money through a remittance service, you receive naira at their rate. Asking for dollars isn't an option. If you want dollars, they need to pay you a different way, such as into US account details.

How are gains taxed now?

From 1 January 2026, capital gains for individuals moved from a flat 10% to your personal income tax band.

The ₦800,000 is a threshold on total income including gains, not a separate allowance for gains. If you earn ₦5 million in salary, you don't also get ₦800,000 of tax-free gains.

Chargeable assets include land, buildings, shares, securities, digital assets and other property, whether in Nigeria or abroad. Nigerian residents are taxed on worldwide income, and virtual assets count as located in Nigeria where the owner lives here.

Nigerian company shares get relief foreign shares don't:

• Exempt where total proceeds stay under ₦150 million and total gains stay under ₦10 million in 12 months. Both conditions, not either.
• Full relief where proceeds are reinvested in Nigerian companies within 12 months, applied to the reinvested portion.

Neither applies to foreign shares.

Filing deadline is 31 March following the tax year.

How is crypto taxed?

The Nigeria Revenue Service issued guidelines on 31 July 2026. The most important rule in them is the one least reported.

Your gain is calculated in dollars. Tax is computed on the USD value at acquisition and at disposal, and only the dollar gain gets converted to naira, at the rate on the day you sold.

What it means for you: you aren't taxed on a gain that exists only because the naira weakened while you held. Buy $1,000 of USDT, sell $1,000 of USDT, and your dollar gain is zero even though the naira number grew.

The rest:

• FIFO is the default cost basis. Weighted average is allowed if chosen consistently from the start, with no retrospective changes
• 1% withholding tax on gross proceeds, not on the gain
• 1.5% stamp duty on token and fiat transactions, remitted by providers twice monthly
• Losses are ring-fenced. Crypto losses offset crypto gains only, carried forward indefinitely
• Not taxable: holding, unrealised gains, transfers between your own wallets, staking lock-up
• No crypto-specific allowance. The ₦800,000 threshold is all there is

Providers pay 30% companies income tax and carry reporting obligations, with penalties of ₦10 million for a first month of default and ₦1 million monthly after. Individuals face ₦50,000 then ₦25,000 monthly for failing to register, and ₦100,000 then ₦50,000 monthly for failing to file.

PwC has pointed out that these guidelines impose obligations not expressly set out in the Nigeria Tax Act, and that they don't specify a commencement date.

Who regulates crypto?

Crypto is legal for individuals to buy, hold and trade. The February 2021 measure restricted banks rather than owners, and it was lifted on 22 December 2023 by CBN circular.

An Executive Order in mid-July 2026 established a Virtual Asset Council chaired by the CBN Governor, vice-chaired by the SEC Director-General and the Nigeria Revenue Service Chairman, with a Virtual Asset Office as secretariat.

The split: the CBN supervises virtual assets used for payments, settlement, custody and wallets. The SEC regulates virtual assets behaving like securities.

No Nigerian platform holds a final operating licence. Busha and Quidax received Approval-in-Principle from the SEC in August 2024, and the SEC has said an AIP isn't a licence. As of 15 August 2026, 14 firms were in the SEC's incubation programme: Busha, Quidax, Bitbarter, Luno Fintech Nigeria, GetEquity, Koinkoin, Wrapped CBDC, Trovotech, Blockvault Custodian, GIGX, KuCoin Nigeria, Pisi Payments, BC Access Nigeria and Yellow Card Financial.

Crypto isn't legal tender.

What's only proposed so far?

Two SEC consultations from August 2026. Neither is law, and anything describing them as current rules is wrong.

Proposed rules on digital and virtual assets:

• Mandatory registration, including for offshore firms serving Nigerians
• Minimum capital of ₦2 billion for exchanges and custodians, ₦500 million for platform operators, ₦200 million for VASPs
• Registration fees of ₦30 million and ₦15 million
• API-based regulator access to transaction data
• Client asset segregation
• Explicit coverage of staking, lending, yield and P2P
• ARIP Approval-in-Principle capped at two years

Proposed retail exposure caps: ₦1 million per issuer and ₦10 million across all digital asset offerings in 12 months, up from ₦200,000 and ₦2 million.

Separately, the CBN's Payments System Vision 2028, published June 2026, proposes an enabling framework for stablecoins in regulated payments infrastructure. It's a vision document rather than a regulation, and no stablecoin licensing regime is in force.

Nigeria is also aligning to the OECD Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework for 2028.