Nigeria’s external position improved after personal transfers, including workers’ remittances, reached $11.12 billion in the first half of 2026, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s balance of payments data show. The inflows helped expand the country’s external receipts and coincided with a stronger current account in the second quarter.
The payments breakdown shows receipts rising from $5.30 billion in Q1 to $5.82 billion in Q2, an increase of $520 million, or 9.8% quarter on quarter. That uptick supported a notable swing in the current account, which recorded a 67.9% rise to $7.54 billion in Q2 from $4.49 billion in the prior quarter, aided by firmer export earnings alongside the larger diaspora transfers.
Officials and analysts point to growing volumes routed through formal channels as a key driver behind the figures, but the CBN cautioned that IMTO inflows and the broader personal-transfer aggregate measure are not identical and should not be conflated. The current monthly reported flow of diaspora remittances stands at more than $600 million, while the central bank has set an ambition of $1 billion a month by the end of 2026.
Contextualising the recent performance, Nigeria attracted close to $20 billion in remittances in 2024, while the continent as a whole drew almost $100 billion, underlining the scale of cross-border personal payments to Africa. The central bank’s wider external buffers have also benefited, with official reserves up by $7.09 billion since the start of 2026.
What happens next will depend on whether formal channels can sustain growth and whether policy measures to incentivise banked flows reach the CBN’s monthly target. Markets and policymakers will monitor monthly remittance and IMTO series alongside reserve movements to judge whether the H1 momentum extends through the rest of the year.
