The value of dollars traded in Nigeria’s foreign-exchange market dropped 22.23 per cent to $2.62 billion in the week ended 16 October 2026, from $3.37 billion the previous week, as both spot activity and forward contracts declined.
FMDQ data, which track transactions between authorised banks and their customers, show total turnover fell by $749.15 million. The retreat partially reversed the 98.58 per cent surge recorded in the week ended 9 October.
Forward Market Contracts Collapse
Forward transactions agreements that lock in an exchange rate today for a future purchase or sale of currency fell 81.14 per cent to $24.89 million from $131.95 million. Their share of overall turnover shrank to 0.95 per cent from 3.92 per cent.
The absolute decline amounted to $107.06 million, while average daily forward trading dropped to $4.98 million from $26.39 million. Recent weeks have been volatile: forwards stood at $64.73 million in the week ended 2 October, rose to $131.95 million the following week, then collapsed to $24.89 million. The figure measures contracts executed during the week rather than the stock of outstanding positions.
Spot Trading Also Slows
Spot transactions, which involve near-immediate delivery of dollars, declined 19.83 per cent to $2.60 billion from $3.24 billion a reduction of $642.09 million. Spot deals accounted for 99.05 per cent of total turnover, up from 96.08 per cent.
Average daily spot turnover fell to $519.16 million from $647.58 million. For the market as a whole, average daily turnover dropped 22.23 per cent to $524.14 million from $673.97 million.
Spot activity explained about 85.7 per cent of the overall decline in dollar volume, while forwards contributed roughly 14.3 per cent. Although forwards fell far more sharply in percentage terms, the much larger spot market accounted for most of the absolute reduction.
Still Above Early-October Levels
Weekly turnover remains higher than the $1.70 billion recorded in the week ended 2 October, which itself had fallen 35.41 per cent. The latest total is $923.73 million, or 54.43 per cent, above that earlier week. The comparison is affected by the number of trading days: the week ended 2 October had four sessions, while the weeks ended 9 and 16 October each had five.
On an average-daily basis, turnover is about 23.5 per cent above the $424.24 million recorded in the week ended 2 October. Longer-term volatility is also evident: in the week ended 11 September turnover reached $3.39 billion after forwards surged 505.79 per cent.
Spot trading now dominates reported activity, running at roughly 104 times the volume of forward turnover, compared with about 24.5 times a week earlier.
Naira Strengthens Across Forward Tenors
Despite the sharp swing in forward volumes, the naira appreciated across contract tenors in that segment of the market, according to Cordros Securities. The one-month forward rate improved by 1 basis point to N1,352.89 per dollar, the three-month by 8 basis points to N1,370.80, the six-month by 22 basis points to N1,436.75, and the one-year by 65 basis points to N1,531.01.
In the spot market the naira weakened 0.1 per cent week-on-week to N1,333.09 per dollar, as renewed domestic demand outweighed a Central Bank intervention of $430.60 million during the week.
