Nigeria’s dollar spend on tourism, health and education services declined sharply in the past year, reflecting changes in sectoral foreign exchange (FX) utilisation following improved market transparency and reforms introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Data from the CBN show that FX utilisation for tourism and travel-related services fell by 74.41 percent to $220,000 in June 2025, compared with $860,000 in the corresponding period of June 2024. On a half-year basis, spending also dropped significantly by 51 percent from $0.45 million recorded in January 2025, underscoring weaker demand for FX for outbound travel and related services.
FX spending on health-related and social services remained unchanged at $0.02 million year-on-year. However, on a half-year comparison, utilisation declined by 66.7 percent from $0.06 million in January 2025 to $0.02 million in June 2025, indicating reduced FX demand for medical and social services abroad over the period.
In the education segment, FX utilisation declined by 43.4 percent in the first half of 2025, falling to $2.76 million in June 2025 from $4.88 million in January of the same year. Despite the half-year decline, year-on-year data tell a different story, as FX spend on education rose by 170.58 percent compared with $1.02 million in June 2024, reflecting a rebound from a low base in the prior year.
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The decline in FX utilisation across these sectors comes amid a broader push by the CBN to restore order, transparency and confidence in the foreign exchange market. In February 2025, the apex bank issued a new Foreign Exchange Code designed to enhance liquidity, improve transparency and provide clearer guidance for market participants operating in Nigeria’s FX market.
“I think the whole idea is just to ensure that there is a lot more sanity in the foreign exchange market because those characters have really created a whole lot of problems over the years in the foreign exchange market,” Muda Yusuf, director and chief executive officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), said.
Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the CBN, had earlier highlighted that ongoing financial market reforms were aimed at addressing long-standing distortions that previously led to wide gaps between official and parallel market exchange rates, sometimes as high as 60 percent. According to him, consistent policy actions, improved market confidence and enhanced transparency in FX trading have helped narrow this gap to about 4 to 5 percent.
Cardoso made these remarks while advocating stronger economic ties between Nigeria, the Middle East and the Nigerian diaspora in the region, noting that deeper partnerships could boost remittance inflows and further stabilise the FX market.
He also outlined key measures introduced by the CBN to strengthen transparency and efficiency, including the adoption of an electronic matching system to improve trade visibility and the implementation of a foreign exchange code of ethics, which all Nigerian banks have signed to ensure strict compliance with market rules.
As a result of these interventions, Cardoso disclosed that Nigeria’s external reserves exceeded $40 billion as of February 2025, the highest level in nearly three years. More recent data show that external reserves have continued to build, rising to $45.50 billion as of December 31, 2025, providing additional buffers for the economy and supporting FX market stability.