Nigeria’s Foreign Reserve Dips By $500m

Nigeria’s foreign reserve suffered a drop of over $500million in the first week of September 2023.

This decline in reserves comes despite the ongoing efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) to help retain naira’s value in the foreign exchange market. The apex bank has consistently expressed its intention to defend the Naira and maintain its value around a certain exchange rate.

The latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) shows that Nigeria’s foreign reserve is at $33.39 billion as of Wednesday, September 6, 2023, which represents a $562.6 million drop when compared to the $33.95 billion the reserves closed in the month of August.

The CBN, in its reserve management data released on its website shows that the $33.39 billion reserve as of Wednesday indicates that, since President Bola Tinubu came into power, the reserve has dropped by $1.85 billion.

According to an information on Legit, an online platform, when Tinubu assumed office, CBN reported that Nigeria’s foreign reserve was at $35.25 billion on May 28, 2023. However, the reserve is expected to deplete further in the coming days as CBN moves to clear outstanding dollar debts to banks.

The data obtained from the CBN showed that Nigeria’s reserves which is at $33 billion was the lowest since 2017.

The acting governor, CBN, Folashodun Shonubi, had earlier promised that the apex bank would repay banks all outstanding forward contract debts in the next one to two weeks.