Economy
How a Small Business Owner Can Invest in Forex
Elevate your small business by increasing your available capital through our guide on how business owners can invest in the forex market.
How to Invest in Forex as a Business Owner
Most people who are building a retirement nest egg or hoping to make a big purchase may want to grow their savings through investment. Forex is very useful for such a purpose, as there are few barriers to entry and the learning curve is not very steep.
What many do not realize, however, is that small businesses can also benefit from trading forex. Using platforms such as OANDA, small business owners can ensure they have access to money in other currencies while investing their capital with the hopes of turning a profit on most trades.
Below is a guide that explains how you can start investing in currency today as a small business owner.
Why Currencies Fluctuate in Value
The key to investing in any asset or security is to predict whether the asset in question will rise or fall in value. Stocks fall and rise based on the perceptions of a company and its performance. Currencies rise and fall in value based on supply, demand, and other factors.
Currencies with high inflation are likely to see a drop in the value of their currency, as the country has less purchasing power due to inflation. Higher interest rates can also impact currency values, raising them, as investors who have money in that currency can now get higher returns on their funds. Lower interest rates usually see a drop in currency value.
Political stability, government debt, and the amount of foreign currency the central bank of the country in question owns can also impact the value of that country’s currency. If there is instability, the currency is likely to fall in value, while central banks can use foreign currencies to weather volatility in their currency’s value.
Why Trade in Currencies?
Many business owners may wonder why they need to trade in currencies. There are two primary reasons: having access to money in other currencies and making a profit on your existing capital.
If you have money sitting in your business account, putting it to use in the forex market is a great way to increase returns. Rather than keeping it in a company checking or savings account, you can get better returns through trading forex a few times a week.
Even if you are not interested in growing your capital through forex, but you plan to do business in other countries, using the market is useful. The forex market can help you access the best exchange rates while accruing small profits on trades.
Types of Forex Trades
There are two significant forms of trading foreign currencies, spot trading and futures trading. A spot trade is extremely simple, as you agree to exchange currencies with another party at a set price. The exchange rate is determined by the present value of both currencies.
A futures trade is a little more complex, as it involves buying or selling a currency for another at a set future date. A trader may engage in a futures trade if they believe the value of a currency will rise or fall within a set period of time.
Currency Pairings
When you first create an account at a site that allows you to trade on the Forex market, you will likely see a lot of currency pairings. You are trading in pairings, such as GBP/USD or EUR/USD. The pairings signify the two currencies you are exchanging, such as exchanging a Great British Pound for a United States Dollar or a Euro for a US Dollar.
The currencies that make up most of the Forex market are the US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Great British Pound, Euro, Japanese Yen, Australian Dollar, and the Swiss Franc. You can trade other currencies, but finding other investors to complete spot trades and futures trades may be a little more difficult.
Liquid, 24-Hour Market
A significant advantage of the Forex market is that you are taking part in a highly liquid market that is active nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Trading in foreign currencies opens on Monday morning in Australia and Asia and is ongoing 24 hours a day until Friday evening in the United States or South America.
The Forex market is extremely liquid, as you can complete spot and futures trades in a matter of seconds. If you are trading major currencies, finding a buyer that takes the opposite view of your investment is extremely easy.
Grow Your Business Through Forex
Business owners need to take advantage of every available resource if they are to grow their capital. Whether you are accessing capital through business loans, investors, or other means, you can increase the money available to your operation through trading.
While you may not have time to become an expert in stocks, the forex market is a lot easier to learn. Trading Forex allows you to access foreign currencies, which may be useful for doing business in other countries. You can also make a profit on most trades, provided you have some understanding of how the forex market works, and why currencies rise and fall in value.
If you are self-employed or running a small business, leveraging the forex market is a great way to put your capital to use.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Despite signs that Nigeria’s headline inflation is easing, rising food prices continue to threaten the country’s inflation outlook, the chief executive of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Mr Muda Yusuf, has warned.
He noted that structural inflationary pressures in the real economy remain pronounced despite improving macroeconomic stability.
In a policy brief released following the inflation report, he noted that headline inflation eased marginally, while month-on-month change moderated from 1.75 per cent to 1.66 per cent, indicating that headline inflation has largely plateaued.
According to him, the dominant concern in the latest inflation report is the renewed acceleration in food inflation.
This growth, he said, suggested that food prices have resumed an upward trajectory after a brief period of moderation.
Warning that a renewed increase in food inflation has significant economic and social implications, he stressed that food inflation remained the biggest driver of Nigeria’s cost-of-living crisis, stressing that rising food prices continue to erode household purchasing power, worsen poverty and food insecurity while weakening the inclusiveness of the current reform programme.
He maintained that sustained moderation in food prices is critical to improving citizens’ welfare and strengthening public confidence in the ongoing economic reforms.
Acknowledging the easing of core inflation as encouraging, he drew attention to the persistence of urban inflation.
At 16.08 per cent, urban inflation exceeded the national headline inflation rate of 15.91 per cent, while month-on-month urban inflation increased from 1.99 per cent to 2.13 per cent.
According to Mr Yusuf, the figures indicated that inflationary pressures remained particularly intense across urban centres.
He attributed the rising urban inflation partly to increasing population displacement from rural communities affected by insecurity, expressing worry that as more households migrate to urban areas, demand for housing, transportation, utilities and other essential services would increase, adding to inflationary pressures and creating additional urbanisation challenges.
Addressing insecurity in farming communities, he said, was important not only for protecting lives and property and boosting agricultural output but also for easing cost pressures in urban centres, adding that the June CPI data reinforced the view that Nigeria’s inflation challenge is predominantly structural rather than monetary.
On the monetary policy outlook, he said the data do not justify further monetary tightening, arguing that headline inflation has largely stabilised.
The CPPE chief expected the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to retain the current monetary policy rate at its next meeting, adding that the priority is for monetary and fiscal authorities to work together to accelerate structural reforms to expand food supply, improve logistics, reduce energy and production costs, lower debt service costs, as well as strengthen domestic value chains.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Additional shares of Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc have been listed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited.
The new equities were added to the company’s existing stocks on Customs Street on Thursday, July 16, 2026, a notice from the bourse confirmed.
Business Post reports the total new ordinary shares of Sterling Holdings listed yesterday were 13,812,239,000 units.
They were from the offer for subscription of 12,581,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each sold for N7.00 per share, which was oversubscribed by investors.
The financial institution brought the new shares to the stock exchange to increase its total issued and fully paid-up shares to 65,929,251,414 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each from 52,117,012,414 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each.
“Trading licence holders are hereby notified that an additional 13,812,239,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each of Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc were on Thursday, July 16, 2026, listed on the daily official list of Nigerian Exchange Limited.
“The additional shares listed on NGX arose from the company’s offer for subscription of 12,581,000,000 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each at N7.00 per share.
“With the listing of the additional shares, the total issued and fully paid-up shares of Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc have now increased from 52,117,012,414 to 65,929,251,414 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each,” the notice read.
By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Tinubu has signed a Presidential Executive Order on Virtual Assets Coordination, establishing a new framework to coordinate the regulation of virtual assets across government agencies as Nigeria seeks to curb fraud while supporting innovation in the digital economy.
The Executive Order, which takes immediate effect, creates a Virtual Asset Council chaired by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to harmonise oversight of cryptocurrencies, tokenised assets, stablecoins, and other digital assets without creating a new regulator.
As part of the new framework, the CBN will establish a regulatory sandbox that will allow eligible firms to test virtual asset products, blockchain solutions, and related services under regulatory supervision before they are introduced to the wider market.
The development was disclosed in a statement issued on Friday by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga.
According to the presidency, the Executive Order responds to the growing complexity of virtual assets, which increasingly cut across the traditional boundaries of currencies, securities, commodities, and payment systems.
The fragmented regulatory environment has left gaps that have exposed Nigeria to money laundering, terrorism financing, cybersecurity and data privacy risks, fraud, and revenue losses.
The government said some unregistered operators have exploited these regulatory gaps to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians, resulting in significant financial losses.
“The Order is designed to close these gaps through supervisory coordination, without introducing new layers of regulation or displacing the mandates of existing agencies,” the statement read.
Under the new framework, the Virtual Asset Council will be chaired by the CBN, with the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) serving as vice chairs. Other members include the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
The Council will provide policy direction, improve cooperation among participating agencies, and work with the Attorney General of the Federation to develop a harmonised legal and institutional framework for the sector.
The Executive Order also establishes a Virtual Asset Office, which will serve as the Council’s operational arm. The office will be domiciled at the CBN and will coordinate information sharing, applications, and reporting among the participating agencies through a shared supervisory technology platform.
The presidency stressed that the Executive Order does not create a new regulator or transfer statutory powers from existing agencies, clarifying that instead, each institution will continue to exercise its existing mandate while working within a coordinated framework.
Under the arrangement, registration of virtual asset businesses will depend on the nature of the service being offered.
Activities classified as securities will continue to be regulated by the SEC, while payment, settlement, custody, and other services involving non-security virtual assets will fall under the CBN.
Where there is uncertainty over regulatory jurisdiction, the Virtual Asset Council will determine the appropriate supervising agency.
“The sandbox will provide a controlled environment in which eligible operators can test and operate virtual asset products, services, and blockchain-based solutions under close supervision, enabling the participating agencies to assess the implications for monetary sovereignty, financial stability, market integrity, consumer protection, financial inclusion, and revenue administration before products reach the wider market,” the statement added.
According to the presidency, the sandbox will enable regulators to evaluate the implications of emerging products for financial stability, monetary sovereignty, consumer protection, financial inclusion, market integrity, and revenue administration.
The central bank is expected to announce further details of the sandbox.
