{
  "id": 3246940,
  "title": "Nigeria’s businesses are Losing Time – and Money – Moving Cash to the UK",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/25/nigerias-businesses-are-losing-time-and-money-moving-cash-to-the-uk",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-25T10:41:38.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Nairametrics",
    "slug": "nairametrics",
    "url": "https://nairametrics.com/2026/08/25/nigerias-businesses-are-losing-time-and-money-moving-cash-to-the-uk/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Nigeria's trade with the UK reached £7.6 billion in the year ending December 2025, an 10.8% increase from the prior year, according to the UK's Department for Business and Trade. Britain ranks as Nigeria's second-largest African trading partner, and the naira-to-pound exchange corridor is one of the busiest in African trade. Nevertheless, the gap between \"payment sent\" and \"payment settled\" for Nigerian importers and Lagos-based firms repatriating capital from London remains in days, not minutes, resulting in a cost that often goes unnoticed on invoices. Remittances from Nigerians abroad play a significant role in this economic relationship. In 2025, the diaspora sent an estimated $23 billion, up from $19.5 billion in 2023, with the UK receiving nearly $3.5 billion from British-based Nigerians, as reported by fintech OhentPay in a 2025 remittance survey. When considering business payments like supplier invoices, capital transfers, and property transactions, the volume of NGN-GBP flows each year is significantly larger than trade statistics alone reflect. The UK-Nigeria remittance corridor historically charges fees of 8-10%, more than double the 3% cap under the UN's Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. For businesses dealing with multi-figure sums for trade settlement or capital repatriation, the challenges include FX uncertainty, multi-day settlements, and limited visibility into the payment's progress. Nigeria has approximately 40 million micro, small, and medium enterprises, representing over 80% of all registered businesses. For a company making a one-time payment, a two-day delay may be inconvenient, but for regular imports or managing capital between a Nigerian parent company and a UK entity, such delays compound. This has led to changes in how businesses evaluate payment providers. Finance teams now prioritize speed, pricing, and compliance. Specialist fintechs are emerging to compete with traditional correspondent banking, prioritizing speed and pricing. Compliance, however, poses a significant risk, as mistakes can lead to transaction freezes. This has pushed compliance further up the list of criteria for businesses when selecting a payment provider. TranzyPay, a UK-based fintech, is one such provider authorized by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority as a Payment Institution. Its services focus on NGN-to-GBP payments with same-day GBP settlement and broader multi-currency capabilities tailored for businesses. TranzyPay's advantage lies in its dual expertise—London headquarters and UK regulatory compliance paired with local knowledge of Nigerian payment systems. This combination is crucial for businesses, as it addresses both Nigerian-side and UK-side compliance and banking relationships, enabling smoother, regular, higher-value cross-border transactions. As Nigeria-UK trade continues to grow, the next challenge will be ensuring efficient cross-border payment processing.",
  "summary": "Trade between Nigeria and the UK hit £7.6 billion in the year to December 2025, up 10.8% from the previous year, according to the UK’s Department for Business and Trade. Britain is Nigeria’s second-largest African trading partner. And the naira-to-pound corridor is one of the busiest in African commerce. None of that means the money […] The post Nigeria’s businesses are Losing Time – and Money –…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}