Activity in the Nigerian foreign exchange market slowed down significantly during the week ended 10 July 2026, as total turnover across the Spot and Derivatives markets plummeted by nearly half.

According to the latest weekly data released by FMDQ Exchange, the market recorded a total turnover of $1,631.12m. This represents a sharp 46.57% contraction, amounting to a loss of $1,421.89m in liquidity, compared to the $3,053.01m reported in the preceding week ended 3 July 2026.

The bearish sentiment trickled heavily into the hedging segment, where derivative instruments faced steep declines.

“The week-on-week decrease in total turnover was jointly driven by the 46.62% ($1,379.66m) decrease in FX Spot transactions… and the 45.19% ($42.23m) decrease in FX Derivatives transactions for the week-ended 10 July 2026,” FMDQ noted in its weekly commentary.

A closer look at the derivatives segment reveals that the slump was entirely a reflection of cooling corporate appetite for future value contracts, with other derivative classes failing to post any activity.

“The WoW decrease in FX Derivatives turnover was driven by the 45.19% ($42.23m) decrease in FX Forwards turnover,” the report further detailed, highlighting that Exchange-Traded FX Futures remained entirely flat at $0.00m for both weeks.

As a result of the broad market slowdown, daily average liquidity also took a major hit, as the daily average for total turnover slipped from $610.60m to just $326.22m during the week under review.

Despite the severe drop in volume, FX Spot transactions continued to hold the lion’s share of the market, accounting for 96.86% of total turnover, while FX Forwards made up the remaining 3.14%.