Diaspora transfers hit record $1.57bn in second quarter, CBN data shows
- Nigeria received $1.57bn through money transfer operators between April and June 2026, the highest quarterly figure in CBN records from 2019.
- The total is about 33% higher than the $1.18bn recorded in the same period of 2025.
- May and June made up for a weaker April, with June alone bringing in $580.16m.
Nigerians abroad sent home more money through licensed transfer firms in the second quarter of 2026 than in any other quarter since at least 2019, according to figures in the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) Q2 2026 Statistical Bulletin.
Inflows through International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) — companies such as Western Union, MoneyGram and their local partners — reached $1.57 billion between April and June. That is about 33 per cent more than the $1.18 billion recorded in the same three months of 2025.
The figure is also the highest for any quarter in the series, beating the roughly $1.47 billion posted in the third quarter of 2024.
Why May and June mattered
The quarter did not start strongly. April brought in $513.81 million, down from $597.44 million in April 2025.
But May jumped to $472.13 million from $288.17 million a year earlier, and June — the strongest month — reached $580.16 million, compared with $292.25 million in June 2025. Those two months were enough to push the quarter past every previous total.
For an ordinary Nigerian household, remittances are often money for school fees, rent, food or a small business. A rise in inflows can also mean more foreign exchange entering the country, which matters for the naira and for importers paying for goods abroad.
The second-quarter surge follows a strong start to the year. IMTO inflows were $1.29 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up 45 per cent from $888.47 million in the same period of 2025.
It also reverses last year's trend. In the first half of 2025, receipts fell by 11.78 per cent compared with the same period in 2024.
Looking further back, second-quarter inflows were about $551.86 million in 2019, $482.58 million in 2020, $638.19 million in 2021, $954.61 million in 2022 and $810.84 million in 2023. They climbed to about $1.26 billion in 2024, slipped to $1.18 billion in 2025, and have now reached $1.57 billion.
New rules for transfer operators
The CBN has been tightening how money transfer firms operate. In March 2026, it ordered all IMTOs to open and keep naira settlement accounts with authorised dealer banks, a move the bank said was meant to improve monitoring of diaspora funds and make the foreign exchange market more transparent.
That followed changes in January 2024, when the CBN scrapped the cap that had limited the exchange rates IMTOs could quote to within 2.5 per cent above or below the previous day's closing rate on the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market. Revised guidelines for the sector were issued later that month.
The CBN has not said whether the new rules contributed to the higher inflows. The bulletin simply records the amounts received.
What happens next: attention will turn to the third-quarter figures to see whether the May–June momentum holds, and to whether the naira settlement accounts change how quickly recipients get their money.
