By Ola Oyetayo, Co-Founder and CEO of Verto
Nigerian businesses are increasingly looking beyond the domestic market for growth. In 2025, non-oil exports reached a record $6.1 billion, an 11.5% increase year-on-year, while exports to African countries reached ₦8.74 trillion in 2024, making the continent Nigeria’s largest export destination. But as manufacturers and agricultural exporters reach new regional buyers, local companies expand abroad and e-commerce businesses access international customers, their growth increasingly depends on a common denominator: the ability to make and receive cross-border payments efficiently.
International expansion creates new revenue opportunities for Nigerian businesses, while bringing foreign currency into the economy and enabling companies to expand production and invest back into their operations. In order to capture that market, businesses need to collect revenue, pay suppliers, move working capital and manage multiple currencies across jurisdictions. When those transactions are slow, costly or unpredictable, working capital is tied up, margins are compressed and businesses have less certainty over their ability to grow. For many businesses, particularly SMEs engaged in trade and other cross-border activity, financial infrastructure is not yet keeping pace with the way they operate.
AfCFTA demonstrates both the opportunity and the challenge. Nigeria is gaining access to a regional market of more than 1.3 billion people, while the government is taking important steps to help businesses navigate it. In 2025, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and UNDP launched a Market Access Tool covering 13 African markets, giving MSMEs practical information on tariffs, regulations, buyers and routes. But identifying where to trade is only part of the equation. Once a Nigerian company begins selling to a Kenyan customer or sourcing from a supplier elsewhere in Africa, it needs to be able to collect and move that money efficiently. Too often, this still means routing transactions through the US dollar, converting naira into dollars and then into the final currency. Each conversion adds an FX spread and reduces the value retained by the business. For businesses trying to build regional trade, these costs can quickly turn market access into a less attractive commercial proposition.
The implications are particularly significant for SMEs, which account for around 96% of Nigerian businesses and have far less capacity than large corporations to absorb payment friction. Most do not have international banking relationships or dedicated treasury functions to manage complexity across markets. Research published in 2026 found that 84% of businesses surveyed experienced glitches when making cross-border payments, while 80% regularly experienced delays receiving payments from other African countries. For an SME, a delayed payment can mean tying up working capital, postponing an order or absorbing an unexpected cost.
FX introduces another layer of complexity. A business with overseas suppliers, customers or operations needs certainty over when the rate will be fixed and when the payment will settle. In volatile currency markets, a three-day delay can alter the economics of an order, disrupt inventory planning or eliminate a margin. Reliable FX execution is therefore central to how internationally active businesses price, manage cash flow and plan expansion.
Nigeria has already built significant domestic digital payment capacity, processing 22 billion digital transactions in the first six months of 2024. The challenge is extending that capability across borders. The 2026 report Cross-Border Digital Payments and Identity in Nigeria under the AfCFTA identifies payment interoperability, digital identity and regulatory coordination as critical to making cross-border commerce work at scale. Yet only 561 Nigerian firms currently hold a globally recognised business identity, while corporate identity and compliance systems remain fragmented across jurisdictions. For a business that can find an international customer but cannot easily establish the financial relationships needed to receive and move that revenue, market access alone is not enough.
Businesses need to hold multiple currencies, settle directly in local markets, access transparent FX and establish financial relationships across jurisdictions without unnecessary compliance and intermediary friction. Fintechs like Verto are helping address these gaps through multi-currency wallets, direct local payment connections and faster settlement, giving smaller businesses capabilities once largely reserved for multinational companies. Emerging technologies such as stablecoins may also have a role in markets where liquidity constraints and currency volatility make traditional settlement particularly costly. Tying digital transactions to the dollar allows for the right balance of speed in transactions as well as the legitimacy of it being tied to the dollar.
The focus now must be on making this infrastructure work at the scale and speed of Nigeria’s increasingly international business base. Enabling businesses to collect, hold and move money without unnecessary conversion and intermediary costs will help them retain more of their international revenue, manage FX with greater certainty and pay suppliers efficiently. That, in turn, will determine how much of Nigeria’s growing participation in regional and global commerce translates into sustained investment, expansion and jobs at home.
