Nigeria’s
external reserves have risen to $40.4 billion, indicating an increase of about
$1billion between December 2017 and January 2018. Information obtained from the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday revealed that the reserves reached the
new mark on January 5, 2018.
The feat
came on the heels of a promise by the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, at the
annual bankers’ dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN) in Lagos
last November.The acting director in charge of corporate communications at the
CBN, Isaac Okorafor, who confirmed the figures attributed the increase in
reserves to the bank’s strategy to effectively manage forex demand by various
sectors of the economy.He cited the CBN policy restricting access to forex from
the Nigerian market by importers of some 41 items as the major turning point.
Okorafor said the policy had helped to stop the hemorrhaging of the country’s
external reserves, which hitherto witnessed heavy depletion due to huge import
bills and other debt obligations.
According to
him, the CBN policy has ensured a decline in Nigeria’s import bills from over
$5 billion monthly in 2015 to about $1.5 billion in 2017, Guardian Nigeria reported.
He expressed
optimism that with the determination of the bank and the cooperation of the
fiscal authorities, the external reserves will continue to enjoy more accretion
in the course of 2018.
Meanwhile,
the apex bank has injected a total of $210 million into the interbank foreign
exchange market in the first round of trading for the year.
The injected
$210 million is to address requests in the wholesale, Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles segments of the market.
A breakdown
of the figure indicates that the CBN offered $100m to the wholesale sector
while the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invisibles windows each
received $55 million.
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