Nigeria’s External Reserves Hits $40.2bn — CBN Reveals

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced that the nation’s external reserves have increased to $40.2 billion as of October 18, 2024.

Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Mr. Muhammed Andullahi   disclosed this at   a briefing with foreign investors on the sidelines of the on-going annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington DC.

The Deputy Governor, Economic Policy, Mr. Muhammed Andullahi, who made the presentation said that the current level of reserve could accommodate 14 .5 months of goods and services import or 18 months for only goods import.

He also disclosed that foreign exchange inflow into the country stood at $57 billion as of August this year.

He added that Capital Importation had nearly doubled to $6.9 billion as of August 2024, compared with $3.9 recorded in the 2023 Financial Year.

He also disclosed that   efforts to attract more remittances from Diaspora Nigerians was yielding desired results as it put current monthly remittances at $650 million.

According to him Diaspora remittances had reached a record $3.5 billion compared with a total annual performance of $3.2 billion in 2023.

He said CBN was on its way to achieving its target of $1 billion remittances, monthly.

He further stated that the interventions of the CBN   in the FX market had reduced to as low as 5 percent of the market turnover. 

He said that the apex bank might intervene from time to time in the FX market but it would make sure that the market does not become dependent on such interventions.

He added that from December, the market would witness the matching system and that players would see a more transparent trading where everyone would see who sold what and bought what.

He added that the nation’s FX market had been broken for about 10 years and what was being witnessed was the result of the long period of the broken market.

While fielding questions from investors, the CBN Governor, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso assured investors that the present FX administration has been incentivized in such a way that Nigerians and investors who want to bring in FX would have no difficulties at all.

He said: “The issue of confidence of Nigerians in their currency, clearly a situation where interests have gone up, we expect that and it is happening that there will be more interest in the local instrument.  

“We find that something that is important for these   whole adjustments arose from the fact that now, Nigerians will be more inclined to produce locally because it is a lot cheaper for them to do so rather than depend on imported goods.   That is a good thing.

“Then regarding the harmonisation of the rates, those who used to send money to Nigeria no longer have the choice of having to find other unorthodox methods of sending their money home.

“I particularly refer to the remittances from the Diaspora. That is why we have had a major uptick in the level of inflows coming from that area.