The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has dismantled the restrictive, pandemic-era controls on ordinary domiciliary accounts, signalling a pivot toward market liberalisation as foreign exchange liquidity shows signs of steady improvement.
Contained in the apex bank’s newly revised Foreign Exchange Manual 2026, the policy shift rolls back the rigid 2020 guidelines. By granting individual savers and diaspora investors unrestricted control over their foreign currency, the CBN hopes to restore eroded confidence and lure idle dollars back into the formal banking ecosystem.
Similarly, the regulator is tightening the screws on corporate export earnings to ensure greater transaction tracking.
Under the fresh guidelines, ordinary domiciliary account holders are guaranteed “unfettered and unrestricted access” to their funds. Individuals can now utilise their foreign currency balances without prior regulatory approval.
The CBN clarified that the bureaucracy of Form A is no longer mandatory for remittances funded directly from these personal accounts. For those needing to move cash, the framework permits telegraphic transfers of up to $10,000 per day, though banks must still log the underlying purpose into the Foreign Exchange Management System (FEMS) database.
The liberalisation of personal foreign currency accounts comes as the CBN continues efforts to improve confidence in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market following a series of reforms aimed at attracting capital inflows, improving liquidity and enhancing transparency in FX transactions.
While individual account holders gained broader access to their dollar balances, exporters face a more stringent compliance framework under the new guidelines.
The apex bank stated that holders of export proceeds domiciliary accounts will continue to enjoy access to their funds for eligible transactions, but such access will now be subject to documentation requirements relating to specific transactions.
In a major departure from the 2020 framework, cash withdrawals from export proceeds domiciliary accounts are no longer permitted.
The CBN also stipulated that unfettered access to export proceeds must comply with existing anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations, effectively placing export-related foreign exchange transactions under closer regulatory scrutiny.
Where export proceeds are transferred to third parties, account holders must provide the purpose of the transfer, while banks are required to capture and report such transactions using the prescribed FEMS sectoral utilisation codes.
The revised framework introduces additional flexibility for exporters by allowing transfers from export proceeds domiciliary accounts in one bank to ordinary domiciliary accounts in another bank for the purpose of funding eligible transactions.
Exporters are also permitted to sell export proceeds to any Authorised Dealer Bank operating in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market (NFEM), a move expected to improve liquidity and enhance price discovery within the formal foreign exchange market.
The new guidelines further provide that international companies operating in Nigeria’s extractive industries, excluding indigenous firms, may repatriate 100 percent of their export proceeds through Authorised Dealer Banks, subject to adequate documentation and monthly reporting requirements to the CBN.
The revised framework reflects the CBN’s attempt to balance market liberalisation with stronger regulatory oversight. While the new rules remove some of the documentation hurdles that previously constrained personal foreign currency transactions, they simultaneously tighten monitoring of export earnings, a key source of foreign exchange inflows into the Nigerian economy.
Compared with the 2020 Foreign Exchange Manual, which primarily allowed access to domiciliary account funds for eligible transactions with minimum documentation, the 2026 framework places greater emphasis on transparency, transaction reporting, anti-money laundering compliance and the formal tracking of export-related foreign exchange flows.
The changes underscore the CBN’s broader strategy of encouraging greater participation in the formal foreign exchange market while ensuring that export proceeds and cross-border transactions remain visible within the financial system.
