The Naira is officially stable. The parallel market disagrees by ₦73 per dollar.

The official rate this week is ₦1,357 per dollar.

The parallel market rate is ₦1,410 to ₦1,430. That gap is ₦73. That's roughly 8% above the official figure.

If you're sending money home, which rate applies to you depends entirely on which platform or channel you're using. Licensed remittance operators theoretically give you access to something close to the official rate. In practice, the parallel premium follows the transaction wherever informal demand concentrates. The CBN's BDC reintegration was specifically designed to narrow this gap. It brought Bureau De Change operators back into the official framework to feed retail demand through regulated channels. It's improved things compared to 2024. It hasn't closed the gap.

So here's what the official stability narrative is and isn't.

It's true that reserves are strong, hovering around $50 billion. It's true that inflation has been declining for ten consecutive months, sitting at 15.10%. It's true that Nigerian banks met the CBN recapitalisation deadline, which matters for confidence. The Tinubu administration's macroeconomic reform story has real numbers behind it. None of that is PR.

But for a diaspora reader sending £500 a month to family, the ₦73 difference per dollar isn't a technicality. It's the difference between ₦678,500 arriving and ₦715,000 arriving. That's a month of transport money in many Nigerian cities. It's a term's worth of school fees in parts of the country. It doesn't show up in any government press release because the official rate is what the official rate is.

The government's press release shows one number. Your transfer receipt shows another.