The Central Bank of Nigeria sets one official exchange rate, publishes it every business day, and that is the rate reproduced below — buying, central and selling, straight from the CBN’s own feed. This page updates itself each time the CBN publishes, so the figure you are reading is the current one, not a snapshot from the day some article was written.
On this page15 sections
NFEM official window — where the dollar actually traded
Closing ₦1,366.50 Day’s high ₦1,368.00 Day’s low ₦1,362.00 Deals 259
The dollar closed ₦0.29 above the CBN official central rate.
| Date | Closing rate (₦/$) |
|---|---|
| Jul 29 | ₦1,366.50 |
| Jul 28 | ₦1,365.00 |
| Jul 27 | ₦1,364.00 |
| Jul 24 | ₦1,361.00 |
| Jul 23 | ₦1,365.00 |
| Jul 22 | ₦1,369.00 |
| Jul 21 | ₦1,374.50 |
| Jul 20 | ₦1,378.50 |
| Jul 17 | ₦1,381.50 |
| Jul 16 | ₦1,381.00 |
CBN official rates — all currencies (Wednesday, 29 July 2026)
| Currency | Buying (₦) | Central (₦) | Selling (₦) |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Dollar USD | 1,365.71 | 1,366.21 | 1,366.71 |
| Pound Sterling GBP | 1,814.49 | 1,815.15 | 1,815.82 |
| Euro EUR | 1,554.18 | 1,554.75 | 1,555.32 |
| Swiss Franc CHF | 1,665.50 | 1,666.11 | 1,666.72 |
| Chinese Yuan CNY | 201.84 | 201.91 | 201.99 |
| Saudi Riyal SAR | 363.75 | 363.89 | 364.02 |
| UAE Dirham AED | 371.77 | 371.91 | 372.05 |
| South African Rand ZAR | 81.40 | 81.43 | 81.46 |
| Japanese Yen JPY | 8.34 | 8.34 | 8.34 |
| Danish Krone DKK | 207.88 | 207.95 | 208.03 |
| CFA Franc XOF | 2.35 | 2.36 | 2.37 |
Source: Central Bank of Nigeria. CBN publishes on business days, so the rate above holds over weekends and public holidays.
Currencies the CBN does not publish
The CBN official table has no Canadian or Australian dollar. The figures below are mid-market reference rates — the midpoint of global interbank pricing, not a CBN rate and not what a bureau de change will give you.
| Currency | Mid-market (₦) |
|---|---|
| Canadian Dollar CAD | 971.24 |
| Australian Dollar AUD | 949.50 |
What this page does not give you
We do not publish a parallel-market (“black market”) rate. There is no single such rate: it is unregulated, unaudited, differs between agents and cities, and moves through the day. Any site quoting one exact parallel figure is quoting one dealer’s price and presenting it as a national rate. We would rather tell you that than invent a number you might move money on.
What you get here instead is the rate that is actually verifiable: the CBN’s own published official rate, plus the NFEM window close, which is what banks and licensed dealers actually transacted at.
How to read the three numbers
The CBN quotes every currency three times, and the difference between them trips people up constantly.
The buying rate is what the CBN pays when it buys a dollar from a bank. The selling rate is what it charges when it sells one. The central rate sits between the two, and it is the number people usually mean when they say “the official rate” — it is what the CBN uses for its own accounting and what most government and customs calculations reference.
The gap between buying and selling is deliberately narrow, usually about a naira. That spread is the CBN’s, not yours. No bank will hand you the central rate over the counter, because the bank has its own margin to add on top.
Official rate, NFEM close, parallel market: three different things
Nigerians routinely get quoted three different naira-to-dollar numbers on the same afternoon, and all three can be honest. They are measuring different things.
The official CBN rate is an administrative figure: published once per business day, applicable to official transactions, and the benchmark against which everything else is compared.
The NFEM window close — the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Market — is the rate at which banks and licensed dealers actually traded that day. It is a real, transacted price with a genuine high and low, and it is the closest thing Nigeria has to a market rate that anyone can verify. It typically sits close to the official rate but not exactly on it.
The parallel market rate is the street price, and it is the one we deliberately do not publish. Not because we cannot find a number — anyone can — but because there is no such thing as the parallel rate. It is unregulated and unaudited, it differs between Lagos and Kano, between one bureau de change and the next, and it moves through the day. A site that prints a single exact parallel figure is showing you one dealer’s quote and dressing it up as a national benchmark. If you are about to move real money on the strength of a number, you deserve to know which numbers are verifiable and which are not.
Why the rate your bank gives you is worse
Because the official rate is not a retail rate. By the time a dollar reaches you through a commercial bank, an IMTO or a bureau de change, it has picked up that institution’s margin. That is not a scam; it is how the spread works everywhere in the world. The official rate is the floor of the conversation, not the offer.
So use the figure above as your reference point, and judge whatever you are being quoted against it. A few naira of margin is ordinary. A wide gap is worth a question.
Frequently asked
What is the CBN official exchange rate for the dollar today?
It is the central rate shown at the top of this page, published by the CBN for its most recent business day. The CBN does not publish on weekends or public holidays, so on a Sunday the rate you see is Friday’s — that is normal, not an error.
Why has the rate not changed since yesterday?
Either the CBN has not published a new rate yet, or it published the same one. Rates hold over weekends and holidays, and the CBN’s figure moves less dramatically day to day than the parallel market does.
What is the black market rate for the dollar?
We do not quote one, and the section above explains why. If you need a parallel figure for a real transaction, get a live quote from the licensed operator you are actually dealing with rather than trusting a number published by a website that is not party to your trade.
Is the pound and euro rate here official too?
Yes. Every currency in the main table comes from the same CBN publication as the dollar. The small secondary table — Canadian and Australian dollars — is different, and labelled as such: the CBN does not publish those, so those figures are mid-market reference rates rather than official ones.
What is the naira to Canadian dollar rate today?
The CBN does not publish a Canadian dollar rate, so there is no official CAD figure to quote. The number in the secondary table above is a mid-market reference rate — the midpoint of global interbank pricing — and it is not what a bank or a bureau de change will give you. Treat it as a guide to where the market is, not as a rate you can transact at.
How often does this page update?
It re-checks the CBN feed several times a day and refreshes whenever the CBN publishes a new rate. There is nothing to click and no date to check — the page is always showing the latest published figure.
Keep reading
For the day’s wider picture on the naira, the CBN and the Nigerian economy, see our trending Nigeria news hub.