Nigeria Lets Importers Buy Dollars for 43 Banned Goods in One FX Market from 14 June 2023

Nigeria unified its foreign exchange market and lifted restrictions on 43 previously restricted items, effective June 14, 2023.

Nigeria’s central bank has lifted foreign-exchange restrictions on 43 previously banned imports and merged all official currency windows into a single market, effective 14 June 2023.

The move ends an eight-year regime that forced importers of goods from rice to steel to source dollars on the parallel market at a premium of up to 60 %. It also unifies the naira’s exchange rate, cutting the delivered cost of every dollar-priced shipment by the spread between the old official and parallel rates. The importer pays the difference.

The 43 items that can now be bought with official dollars

The Central Bank of Nigeria removed the ban on 43 tariff lines, including rice (1006.30), cement (2523.29), steel rods (7214.20), and poultry meat (0207.14)¹. The list had been in place since 2015, when the bank argued that local production could replace imports and conserve scarce foreign reserves. Under the new rules, importers of those goods can now apply for dollars at the same rate as exporters and investors, ending the need to pay the parallel-market premium².

The bank said in a statement that the change was designed to “eliminate fragmentations in exchange rate, improve price discovery, and enhance investor confidence”². It did not set a new quota or duty on the 43 items, so the only limit is the availability of dollars in the unified market.

A single rate for all trade

All foreign-exchange transactions—from school fees to crude-oil sales—are now conducted in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM), a renamed version of the old Investors’ and Exporters’ window¹. The bank abolished the multiple segments that had existed since 2016, including the Retail Special Secondary Market Intervention Sales and the Small and Medium Enterprises window¹. Every eligible transaction is now processed by deposit money banks at the same rate, determined by willing buyers and willing sellers³.

The bank also re-introduced order-based two-way quotes, with transactions cleared by a central counterparty¹. This means that an importer of fertiliser and an exporter of cocoa will see the same naira-dollar rate at the same moment, removing the arbitrage that had kept the parallel market alive.

Who pays the new rate

The delivered cost of every dollar-priced import falls by the spread between the old official and parallel rates. Before June 2023, an importer of rice who needed $100,000 had to pay 750 naira per dollar on the parallel market, or 75 million naira. Under the unified rate, the same $100,000 costs 450 naira per dollar, or 45 million naira—a saving of 30 million naira on the shipment². The saving is largest for the 43 items that were previously banned; for other goods, the change removes the administrative burden of proving eligibility for a special window.

The bank also granted unfettered access to cash deposited in domiciliary accounts, subject to a $10,000 per day transfer limit¹. This allows companies to repatriate profits and pay suppliers without waiting for approval, cutting the time to clear a letter of credit from weeks to days.

The parallel market and the naira’s new floor

The parallel market does not disappear; it now competes with the official rate. Before the reform, the spread between the two rates was as wide as 60 %, giving importers an incentive to source dollars outside the banking system. Under the unified market, the spread has narrowed to less than 5 %, reducing the incentive to bypass the banks⁴. The bank said it would intervene only to smooth “disorderly” movements, not to defend a fixed rate⁵.

The bank also sells $10,000 weekly to each licensed bureau de change, improving liquidity at the retail end⁶. This keeps the parallel rate close to the official rate, so that a traveller buying $1,000 for a trip sees the same naira cost as a cement importer buying $1 million.

What the reform leaves unchanged

The bank still requires importers to file Form Q for small-scale imports of $20,000 or less per quarter, supported by a proforma invoice and the importer’s bank verification number¹. It also maintains the list of ineligible transactions, including gambling and arms, which remain banned from the official market¹. The $10,000 daily limit on domiciliary-account transfers is unchanged, so a company that needs to move $100,000 must spread the transfer over ten days.

The bank also keeps the naira-settled over-the-counter foreign-exchange futures, introduced in 2016 to allow companies to hedge currency risk¹. This lets an exporter lock in a rate for dollars to be delivered in six months, removing the uncertainty that had made long-term contracts difficult.

The next date on the calendar

The bank has not announced a review date, but the reform is part of a broader package that includes the removal of fuel subsidies and the liberalisation of the downstream oil sector. President Bola Tinubu’s administration has said it will use the savings from those measures to fund infrastructure and social programmes, reducing the fiscal pressure on the naira⁴. The first test of the new market will come in the third quarter of 2023, when the seasonal demand for dollars to pay school fees abroad peaks. If the unified rate holds, the spread between the official and parallel markets should stay narrow, keeping the delivered cost of imports stable. If it widens, the bank may have to intervene more heavily, raising the risk of a return to the old segmentation.

Sources

1. ↩ History of Foreign Exchange Management https://www.cbn.gov.ng/intops/FXManagement.html
2. ↩ FX Structure and Management Reform in Nigeria https://www.cbn.gov.ng/intops/FXStructureAndManagement.html
3. ↩ Nigeria’s Foreign Exchange Market Reforms and Evolution https://www.cbn.gov.ng/intops/FXMarket.html
4. ↩ President Tinubu’s Policy Reforms Boost Corporate Performance https://statehouse.gov.ng/65223-2/
5. ↩ Nigeria’s Foreign Reserves Are Not Piggy Bank https://www.thisdaylive.com/2026/09/05/nigerias-foreign-reserves-are-not-piggy-bank/
6. ↩ Structure of Nigeria’s Foreign Exchange Market https://www.cbn.gov.ng/intops/FXStructure.html