Nigeria’s foreign exchange market recorded an exceptional surge in spot transactions for the week ending August 21, with the value of immediate currency trades crossing $5 billion for the first time in 2026. According to data from the FMDQ Exchange, FX spot turnover soared 155.02 percent to $5.01 billion from $1.96 billion the previous week, driving total combined turnover across spot and derivative markets to a year-to-date record of $5.06 billion. At an average exchange rate of N1,346.50 to the dollar, these transactions reached a total value of approximately N6.81 trillion.
This market expansion was driven almost entirely by spot trading rather than hedging contracts, with spot trades accounting for 99.03 percent of total weekly turnover compared to 95.58 percent previously. Average daily spot turnover more than doubled, jumping from $443.22 million to about $1 billion. Conversely, FX forward contracts fell 46.09 percent to $49 million, dropping average daily forward turnover to $9.8 million and leaving forwards with less than one percent of overall market activity. The entire net growth of approximately $3 billion in weekly market activity came from spot transactions, which easily absorbed the minor decline in forward trading and continued a broader pattern of sharp fluctuations in Nigeria's weekly FX turnover this year.
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