The Central Bank of Nigeria did change the rules for how the apps you use to send money home settle their side of the transfer. That rule has been in force since 1 May 2026.
What the rule says, in plain words
To pay out in Nigeria, a transfer app needs a licensed operator called an IMTO. LemFi, Sendwave, Remitly, WorldRemit, Taptap Send, Western Union and MoneyGram are all on the CBN's 2025 list of these operators. Since May, every IMTO has had to hold its Nigerian money in a special naira account at a Nigerian bank.
That account is only allowed to receive one kind of money in: the pounds, dollars or euros the operator has collected from senders like you, converted at the official Nigerian market. All payouts to the people receiving the money must run through that account. For you, that means the money you send goes through the official market, at the rate the app shows you before you pay.
The apps also have to watch the live market price and use it as guidance. It is guidance, not a limit, so rates still differ between apps. They have to keep detailed records of every send for the regulator.
The need for a CBN licence is older. It comes from the January 2024 guidelines, not from this rule. It is still the part you can check: use an app that holds the licence or works through a partner that does.
Why the rule exists
For years there was a big gap in Nigeria between the official exchange rate the apps could get and the street rate the informal money-changers could quote. When the street rate looked much better, many senders used informal channels instead of an app, and Nigeria lost track of that money. This rule is one of several steps Abuja has taken to pull those transfers back into the official market, where the CBN can see them. If it works, the gap gets smaller, and the app rate your family gets moves closer to the street rate.
Why it can look new
The circular went out on 24 March 2026 and started to bind on 1 May. News feeds can show an old report with a newer date. If someone tells you the CBN has just changed the rules on your Nigeria transfer, check the date on what they read. On 4 November 2026 the CBN's own list of circulars showed nothing newer on these transfers.
What has not changed for you
The apps you already use still work the same. Money to a bank account still arrives in minutes. Nothing about the recipient side moved because of the settlement rule.
Your recipient's account still needs a Bank Verification Number (BVN), a National Identification Number (NIN), or both. A basic Tier 1 account or wallet needs at least one. Tier 2 and Tier 3 accounts need both. A Tier 1 account with neither can be frozen, and a good transfer to it does not arrive. That is an older, separate rule from December 2023. In practice, banks also flag accounts where the details on the two numbers do not agree.
The Central Bank's tier rules from 2013 also bar international transfers on Tier 1 accounts and keep Tier 2 accounts for transfers within Nigeria. These rules do not say how this applies to money paid in by a transfer app.
What could still change, and what to watch
This rule may be one reason a small app starts asking for extra paperwork or stops accepting Nigeria as a destination. Watch for this if your app's name is not on our Nigeria guide.
The gap to the street rate is worth watching too. You are selling pounds, so the figure to compare is what a street dealer pays for a pound, as reported by ngnrates. In late July a dealer paid about 20 naira a pound more than Wise, around 1.2%. In early November a dealer paid about 40 naira a pound less than Wise, around 2.2%. These are two dates, not a trend, and the November dealer figure comes from one report. Nothing we have found shows this rule caused the change.
Some Nigerian recipients used to be paid in dollars into a domiciliary (foreign-currency) account at their bank. This rule did not close that route for transfer companies. The January 2024 guidelines did, when they said money sent in through transfer companies must be paid out in naira only.
What to do
You do not need to do anything new because of this rule. Send the way you already send. For a family bank account, use LemFi or Wise. For a Kuda account, use Wise and pick Kuda from its bank list. For an OPay or PalmPay recipient, send straight to the wallet from Remitly. For a relative who prefers cash, use Western Union or MoneyGram at a counter, for up to about £150 a send. In Nigeria, a transfer worth more than $200 (about £150) must be paid into an account, not in cash. That limit is from January 2024, not from this rule. Western Union says the receiver also needs a bank account or a referee.
Before your next send, ask your recipient to check three things with their bank or wallet. The first is that the account has the numbers its tier needs, and that they show the same name, date of birth and phone number. The second is what limit the account or wallet has. Basic accounts and wallets have low limits, and a send over the limit may be refused. The Nigeria guide gives the limits. The third is to ask if the account can take money from abroad. None of these checks comes from this rule.
The late July figures on this page are from 28 and 29 July 2026. In the early November comparison, the dealer figure is from 3 November and the Wise figure is from 4 November. The 6 November Friday number for Nigeria shows what each app delivered on £300, as checked on 6 November. It is not updated.
Corrections
- 2026-11-06: An earlier version of this page did not give the Central Bank's 2013 rules on international transfers for Tier 1 and Tier 2 accounts, or the check that the account can take money from abroad, and offered a Western Union counter without saying Western Union also asks for a bank account or a referee. It also said the January 2024 guidelines made all app transfers to Nigeria pay out in naira, when they bind transfer companies, and gave a payout partner running short as a reason an app might stop sending to Nigeria, which we could not source.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the CBN and the trade press looked back in July to see if the rule was working, and that the rule hits hardest on companies using informal channels; we could not source either claim, so both are gone. It also gave the BVN and NIN check as the one thing to do before a send, without saying that basic accounts and wallets have low limits; it now says so.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said a recipient's BVN and NIN must both be linked and match, as a rule for every account. The December 2023 directive says Tier 1 needs one of the two, Tier 2 and Tier 3 need both, and the freeze is for Tier 1 accounts with neither; matching details is what banks check in practice.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the street rate was about 70 naira, or 4 percent, above the app rate. That was the dealer's selling price; a dealer paid about 20 naira more than Wise for a pound in late July, and the forecast that the gap would narrow is gone. It also said every naira leaving the settlement account had to be a payout to a family member, but the rule only says payouts must run through the account. It credited this rule with ending dollar payouts and with the licence requirement, and both come from the January 2024 guidelines. It listed Kuda as a wallet, but Wise pays Kuda as a bank account. It called the Friday number updated every week, but the link goes to one issue with rates from 7 July, and no Nigeria issue had run since. We also removed claims we could not source, including that rates stayed within 0.5% of the real market rate, that fees had not changed, and how fast money reaches a wallet.
- 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page dated its rates and gaps to "Tuesday 29 July 2026". 29 July 2026 was a Wednesday. The date and the figures are unchanged; the weekday is now right.
- 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page offered a Western Union or MoneyGram counter for a relative who prefers cash without saying that in Nigeria a transfer worth more than $200 (about £150) must be paid into an account, not in cash. The advice now gives that limit.
- 2026-09-07: An earlier version of this page linked "LemFi", "Wise", "Western Union" and "MoneyGram" at review pages that either did not exist or lived at a different URL. The Wise link now points at the Wise review (its page uses the older Wise slug); LemFi, Western Union and MoneyGram appear as plain text until we publish reviews for them.
- 2026-07-29: An earlier version of this page said the street rate was about 40 naira above the app rate this week. For pounds sent to naira the gap this week is around 70 naira per pound - roughly 4 percent. The figure on this page has been corrected.
- 2026-07-29: An earlier version pointed both Friday-number links at the 24 July Friday number. That issue covers UK-to-Kenya sends and carries no Nigeria numbers. Both links now point at the most recent Nigeria Friday number.