Nigeria’s External Reserves Swell To $40.4 Billion

- AS CBN Injects Fresh $210m Into Forex Market

Nigeria’s External Reserves have hit a new level of $40.4 Billion, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced on Monday.

CBN’s Isaac Okorafor, who revealed this in a statement on today, said the figures reckon with the Bank’s Governor, Godwin Emefiele’s projection at last year’s Annual Bankers’ Dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (CIBN) in Lagos.

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Okorafor attributed the accumulation to CBN’s strategy of effectively managing the demand for Forex by various sectors of the economy.

Okarafor said CBN’s restriction to importers of 41 various items from accessing Forex “had helped to stop the haemorrhaging of the country’s external reserves, which hitherto witnessed heavy depletion due to huge import bills and other debt obligations.”

He said “the CBN policy had ensured a decline in Nigeria’s import bills from over $5 billion monthly in 2015 to about $1.5 billion in 2017.”

Okorafor expressed confidence that the country’s External Reserves will continue to swell throughout 2018.

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He further revealed that a fresh $210 million was on Monday infused into the Interbank Foreign Exchange Market by the CBN.

The Bank’s Acting Director, Corporate Communications, said while CBN offered $100m to the Wholesale sector, the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and invincibles windows each received $55 million.

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