Currency converter
Seven markets, seven currencies, and a dollar figure that is frequently nothing like the local one. The euro, pound and renminbi are here too, because most people reading this do not think in dollars either. Convert an amount below — then use the second panel, which is the one that matters: it turns a return earned in naira, kwacha or rand into what an overseas investor actually received.
Convert
reference rates, 28 Aug 2026, 00:02 UTC1 USD = 1,339.96 NGN
These are mid-market reference rates — the midpoint between buying and selling. No bank, broker or bureau trades at the midpoint, and on thinly traded African currencies the spread you are offered can be several percent wide. Treat this as the yardstick, not as a quote. Where a country operates exchange controls, the official rate may also differ from the rate at which currency can actually be obtained or repatriated.
What a return is actually worth
local currency → dollarsA +40.0% return in NGN was worth +52.6% to a dollar investor this year.
The NGN strengthened 8.3% against the dollar since January, which adds 12.6 points to the headline figure.
Computed as (1 + 0.400) ÷ (1 + -0.083) − 1. Subtracting the currency move instead is the common shortcut and it overstates the result — here it would give +48.3%.
Every currency we price in
6 markets · 3 reference| Currency | Market | Per $1 | vs $ this year |
|---|---|---|---|
| BWP | BSEBotswana | 13.585 | +0.3%weaker |
| EGP | EGXEgypt | 50.247 | +5.3%weaker |
| NGN | NGXNigeria | 1,340.0 | -8.3%stronger |
| UGX | USEUganda | 3,703.8 | +5.0%weaker |
| XOF | BRVMUEMOA (8 countries) | 563.0 | +2.1%weaker |
| ZAR | JSESouth Africa | 15.989 | -2.5%stronger |
| CNY | Reference only | 6.737 | -3.9%stronger |
| EUR | Reference only | 0.858 | +1.4%weaker |
| GBP | Reference only | 0.736 | -0.5%stronger |
“Weaker” means it now takes more of that currency to buy a dollar than it did in January — so a return earned in it is worth less to someone holding dollars. This is the single largest reason a headline return on an African market and the return an overseas investor actually received are different numbers.
MWK: Official rate only — a parallel market trades well above it. Malawi operates a managed exchange rate alongside an active parallel market, and the two have diverged by a wide margin. Dollar figures here use the official rate, because it is the only one that can be sourced reliably each day. Reported parallel rates have run far above it — as high as around K5,000 to the dollar, easing to roughly K3,000 after the Reserve Bank of Malawi intervened in early 2025, against an official rate near K1,734. Treat any dollar figure on a Malawian listing as an official-rate conversion rather than an amount anyone could actually realise.
Reserve Bank of Malawi official rate; parallel-market levels per news reporting. Last checked 2026-08-09.
Currency is not a footnote on these markets, it is often the whole story. An index can rise 40% in local terms and leave an overseas holder flat, and the same arithmetic runs in reverse — the naira strengthened against the dollar this year, so Nigerian returns are worth more in dollars than the headline suggests, not less. That is why every return on this site is shown twice.
See Africa vs World for the same adjustment applied to whole indices, or methodology for where the rates come from and how the adjustment is computed.
Each pair also has its own page: naira to dollar (NGN/USD) · rand to dollar (ZAR/USD) · Egyptian pound to dollar (EGP/USD) · CFA franc to dollar (XOF/USD) · pula to dollar (BWP/USD) · shilling to dollar (UGX/USD) · naira to pound (NGN/GBP) · rand to pound (ZAR/GBP) · rand to euro (ZAR/EUR) · Egyptian pound to euro (EGP/EUR) · CFA franc to euro (XOF/EUR)