How to Send Money from/to Nigeria. Every Nigerian who has relatives abroad or does remote work from abroad is mostly concerned with how to send money from/to Nigeria from/to the UK, USA, and Canada without losing half of it to exchange rates.
Some Nigerians now specialize in being the intermediary for receiving funds from outside countries through apps with minimal exchange rates.
If a Nigerian is expecting to receive money from abroad, the first thing they do is search for the exchange rates and how to make the transfer successful.
For instance, if someone wants to send £ 500 to a Nigerian, it is 909,988.50 in the Nigerian currency as of June 10, 2026. However, the money might look huge until charges and exchange rates are deducted.
This is why some Nigerians prefer to have a domiciliary account. A domiciliary account is a bank account that allows you to hold, send, and receive money in foreign currencies like US Dollars, British Pounds, and Euros.
Why So Much Gets Lost Before It Arrives
There are a few reasons why much more gets deducted even before arriving. These are:
i. High Fees & Transfer Charges
ii. Poor Exchange Rates
iii. CBN Regulations & Forex Controls
iv. Intermediary & Correspondent Bank Deductions
v. Taxes, Levies & New 2026 Charges
vi. Scams & Fraud Risks
vii. Delays & Volatility
The Best Apps and Services for Sending Money to Nigeria in 2026
1. Wise
This is the Most Transparent option of how to send money from/to Nigeria with Zero Exchange Rate Markup. Wise is consistently rated the most transparent money transfer service available. Its defining advantage is that it uses the mid-market exchange rate which is the real exchange rate you see on Google with no markup added.
All fees are shown upfront before you confirm the transfer. Wise is among the cheapest, with competitive exchange rates and fees starting from 0.41 percent.
Wise’s own data states that the cheapest way to send $1,000 to Nigeria costs $5.80 using Wise, which is 0.58 percent total cost. For speed, 74 percent of transfers arrive in under 20 seconds, and 95% within a day.
2. Sendwave
This is best for Fee-Free Transfers from the USA and UK. It allows quick, affordable money transfers from countries in North America and Europe, including the USA, UK, and Canada, to Nigeria.
Transfers through Sendwave arrive between a few minutes and three to five days. It is trusted by over one million users and is operated by Zepz, which is authorised to transmit money in the US, Canada, the UK, and the EU.
3. Remitly
This is best for Choosing Between Speed and Savings of how to send money from/to Nigeria. The speed of delivery of transfers through Remitly is in two ways. The first is for those who urgently need the money, while the second is for those who would like to delay the transfer for two or three days to enhance the exchange rate.
Both options have low fees, and the service supports bank deposit, mobile wallet, and cash pickup delivery options, which makes it flexible for recipients across Nigeria, regardless of whether they have a bank account.
Other means of transferring money to/from Nigerians include LemFi, Western Union, MoneyGram, and many more.
Final: How to Send Money from/to Nigeria
The rate you see on Google when you search NGN to GBP or NGN to USD is the fairest rate available, which is called the mid-market exchange rate.
There is unlimited access to sending money from/to Nigeria without having excessive charges on it.
Nigerian diaspora sends billions of dollars home every year, and a significant portion of that money disappears in exchange rate markups and hidden fees that most senders do not even know they are paying.
Send money with the Revolut app
In 2026, the tools to avoid that loss exist and are free to use. The only thing standing between your family receiving what you actually sent and receiving significantly less is knowing which service to use.
Which service do you use to send money to Nigeria and how has your experience been? Tell us in the comment box, your answer might save someone else thousands of naira.
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