Bank Account in Nigeria for Foreigners — What the BVN Rule Really Requires in 2026
NIGERIA · BANKING
Biometrics come before paperwork. Opening a bank account in Nigeria turns on one national number, and everything else follows from it.
Key facts
What this is — Nigeria is West Africa’s largest economy, and its banks are regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The key requirement — A Bank Verification Number, a biometric record held nationally, is needed before an account opens.
Why it is hard — Biometric enrolment expects the customer to be in Nigeria, with a residence card and a local address.
The catch — The remote enrolment platform launched in May 2025 is aimed at Nigerians abroad, not at other nationalities.
Two account types — A naira account covers daily life; a domiciliary account holds hard currency inside Nigeria.
What changed — Since the currency reforms of June 2023, official and street exchange rates have moved close together.
A branch in Lagos asks a new customer for one number before it looks at the passport. Opening a bank account in Nigeria turns on the Bank Verification Number, and for a foreigner that is the hard part.
The number the counter asks for first
Nigerian banks do not begin with a document. They begin with a database.
The Central Bank of Nigeria tells them to open every new account by pulling a record from one of two national registers. One holds Bank Verification Numbers, the other National Identification Numbers.
That instruction sits on the central bank’s own BVN page, last updated on 24 August 2026. It makes the retrieved record the primary information used to take on a new customer.
A circular of December 2023 set the tiers. The Sun Nigeria reported it on 2 December 2023.
A basic Tier 1 account needs one of the two numbers. The higher tiers, the ones that move real money, need both, validated before the account opens.
Biometrics ask you to be standing there
A BVN is a biometric record, not a reference code. Fingerprints and a photograph are taken once and tied to every account the holder ever opens.
That is why the number is difficult to acquire from abroad. Resolution Law Firm, a Nigerian practice, reads the central bank rules as requiring the signatory to be resident.
Its note says a foreigner lawfully living in Nigeria must enrol for a BVN before any account opens. The residence card comes first, the banking second.
The central bank did build a remote route, launched on 13 May 2025. TheCable reported on 23 May 2025 that the Non-Resident BVN costs US$50.
The door is marked for Nigerians living abroad. A German engineer moving to Abuja finds no platform with his name on it.
The interbank settlement company NIBSS counted 66.2 million enrolments by July 2025, as Leadership reported. The remote system helped lift that total, for the people it was built for.
The card that unlocks the rest of the file
The Nigeria Immigration Service issues the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card, known everywhere as CERPAC. It sits under the Federal Ministry of Interior.
The service prices it in dollars, not in naira. Its CERPAC portal, updated on 20 June 2026, lists US$2,000 for an employed foreign national.
On top of that sit US$1,000 for a comprehensive insurance requirement and US$20 for card delivery. Applicants under 18 and from 65 upward pay no CERPAC fee at all.
The immigration service’s general page gives US$600 for students and nothing for the spouse of a Nigerian citizen. Some 2025 advisory notes report a revised total near US$3,750.
The immigration service’s own fee page has not been changed to match. A 2026 employer guide puts the fee near US$600 for everyone, which the portal’s schedule also contradicts.
An employer carries a cost before the employee applies. Public Services Guide put the expatriate quota establishment grant at 1,000,000 naira (about US$753) in August 2026.
An address, two referees and some patience
After the number and the card, a bank wants to know where the customer sleeps. A tenancy agreement or a utility bill in the customer’s own name does that work.
Current accounts usually want referees as well, existing customers who sign for the newcomer. Someone who landed last week does not have two of those.
A guide for foreign residents in Nigeria, updated on 9 August 2026, states the position in a single line. Without a verifiable Nigerian address and without a BVN, there is no account.
The employer is often the way through. The company that sponsored the permit already banks somewhere, and that branch is usually where the new file starts.
The Account in Naira and the Account in Dollars
Nigeria lets a resident hold two kinds of account, and the difference decides how a foreign salary behaves. A naira account pays rent, school fees and the electricity bill.
A domiciliary account holds dollars, pounds or euros in Nigeria. For anyone paid from outside, it is the account that matters.
For years it was also the constrained one. Punch reported in May 2021 that cash-funded foreign currency could be transferred out only up to US$5,000 a month.
Cash lodgements up to US$10,000 could be withdrawn again in cash, but not wired anywhere. Money that arrived by wire moved freely, money that arrived across the counter did not.
One circular changed that. Premium Times reported on 19 June 2023 that ordinary domiciliary holders were given unfettered access to their own funds.
Cash deposits stopped being restricted, subject to each bank’s own checks. Holders could use cash deposits of up to US$10,000 a day, or send the same by telegraphic transfer.
What the account costs to keep open
The running costs are small and set centrally. A revised Guide to Charges replaced the 2020 version on 1 May 2026.
It caps the account maintenance fee at half a naira for every thousand debited from a current account. That is the 2026 ceiling, and the fee disappears in 2027.
AllAfrica reported the halving and the 2027 removal on 5 May 2026. Savings accounts sit outside the fee entirely, which applies to debits the customer causes.
Transfers moved with the same guide. Transfers of 5,000 naira (about US$3.76) and below are now free.
Between 5,000 and 50,000 naira the charge is 10 naira, about US$0.01. Above 50,000 naira it is capped at 50 naira, about US$0.04.
Taking the money out again
Getting money into Nigeria is straightforward. Getting it out is a documentary exercise, and the document has a name.
The Certificate of Capital Importation records that foreign currency entered the country for investment. A commercial bank licensed as an authorised dealer issues it on the central bank’s behalf.
The Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act of 1995 attaches the right of transfer to that certificate. With it, dividends, interest and capital can leave without separate approval.
The electronic version is time-sensitive. The central bank’s Foreign Exchange Manual of 2026 requires the certificate within 24 hours of the conversion into naira.
The authorised dealer bank does the converting and the issuing. A salary is a different matter from capital.
The certificate covers money brought in to invest, not the monthly pay of a resident employee.
What the reforms of 2023 moved, and what they did not
On 14 June 2023 the central bank collapsed its separate currency windows into one. Reuters reported that day that all trading would move to the investors and exporters window.
The willing-buyer, willing-seller model returned and the cap on the rate came off. The naira had closed the previous day at 471.67 naira to the dollar.
By the close of 14 June it stood at 664.04 naira to the dollar, on Vanguard’s report the next morning. An IMF paper dates the unification to 16 June 2023.
More machinery followed. An electronic matching system for interbank trades arrived in December 2024, and a foreign exchange code in January 2025.
Three years on, the two rates sit close together. Nairametrics reported 1,359 naira to the dollar officially on 4 February 2026, and 1,453 naira to the dollar on the street.
That gap was 6.4 percent, wide enough for the outlet to raise arbitrage concerns. A week later the naira traded below 1,350 to the dollar, the first time since May 2024.
Prices did not follow the currency down as fast. Headline inflation was 15.43 percent in July 2026, on the statistics bureau’s count reported by Vanguard.
That is a long way from 24.94 percent a year earlier, and still a long way from calm. The bureau put August 2026 at 15.39 percent, in a report released on 15 September 2026.
Reserves moved the other way, passing US$54 billion in early September 2026 on Nairametrics’ reading. None of that reaches the counter where a foreigner is asked for a BVN.
The enrolment rule has not moved since the currency did. The central bank has published no remote route for a non-Nigerian without residency.
The diaspora platform carries a nationality on its door, and the branch carries a card requirement.
Two doors, and which one opens
From 1 January 2025 the central bank opened two accounts aimed at Nigerians abroad. The Non-Resident Nigerian Ordinary Account takes foreign earnings in hard currency or in naira.
Its companion, the Non-Resident Nigerian Investment Account, is built for buying Nigerian assets. The Nation and BusinessPost Nigeria both reported the launch in January 2025.
Money in the ordinary account must originate outside Nigeria and is meant for personal spending inside it. An overview by the law firm Udo Udoma and Belo-Osagie, dated 10 January 2025, sets out that limit.
A foreign national already living in Lagos falls outside both. His route is the branch, the card, the biometrics and the two referees.
Where this is heading
Nigerian banking is moving toward one identity register and one exchange rate. Both have travelled a long way since June 2023, and both still have distance left.
Every dollar figure here uses 1,328.88 naira to the dollar, read on 16 September 2026. A figure quoted at the 2023 rate describes a different country.
For a newcomer the sequence rarely changes. Permit, then biometrics, then a naira account for daily life and a domiciliary account for everything earned elsewhere.
The number worth watching is not the official rate. It is whether the enrolment rule ever gains a version a newly arrived foreigner can finish alone.
Correction, 16 September 2026: an earlier version of this article compared July 2026 inflation with 26.06 percent a year earlier. It also described the 2020 Guide to Charges as the binding fee schedule.
The comparison figure is 24.94 percent, and a revised Guide to Charges took effect on 1 May 2026. The article has been corrected.
More: Africa news in English
Sources: Nairametrics and Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Immigration Service (CERPAC portal), National Bureau of Statistics, The Sun Nigeria, TheCable, NIBSS, Leadership, Premium Times, Punch, Reuters, Vanguard, AllAfrica, The Nation, BusinessPost Nigeria, Resolution Law Firm, Guardian Nigeria, Udo Udoma and Belo-Osagie, Public Services Guide, IMF. https://www.cbn.gov.ng/PaymentsSystem/BVN.html and https://immigration.gov.ng/combined-expatriate-residence-permit-and-aliens-card-cerpac/ and https://www.thecable.ng/work-permit-valid-passport-n80k-fee-how-nigerians-in-diaspora-can-apply-for-bvn/ and https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/605343-cbn-lifts-cash-deposit-restriction-on-domiciliary-accounts-allows-10000-daily-withdrawals.html and https://nairametrics.com/2026/02/05/exchange-rate-gap-at-6-4-revives-arbitrage-concerns/ and https://nairametrics.com/2026/09/04/nigerias-external-reserves-cross-54-billion-highest-level-in-18-years/ and https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/08/breaking-nigerias-headline-inflation-rate-falls-to-15-43by-elizabeth-adegbesan/ and https://thenationonlineng.net/cbn-launches-non-resident-nigerian-accounts/ and https://www.resolutionlawng.com/procedure-for-non-resident-bank-account-in-nigeria/ and https://guardian.ng/news/cbn-unveils-revised-bank-charges-guide-tightens-disclosure-rules/
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